In 1944, TVA impounded Kentucky Lake to control floods and make power; decades later Land Between the Lakes drew roughly 2 million visitors a year

In 1938, the Tennessee Valley Authority began construction on what would become the longest dam in its river system, according to TVA’s own description of Kentucky Dam as “the longest in the TVA system. Six years later, in 1944, the agency closed the gates on Kentucky Dam near Gilbertsville, Kentucky, impounding the Tennessee River and creating Kentucky Lake. The project was built to address two urgent problems in the region: catastrophic flooding along the lower Ohio and Mississippi rivers and a persistent lack of reliable electricity in rural western Kentucky and Tennessee. Decades later, the same stretch of impounded water would help give rise to one of the most visited outdoor destinations in the eastern United States.

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