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What is Land Between The Lakes
Once known as "between the rivers" because the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers almost encircled it, this area consisted of small communities, farms and businesses. Early settlers came from Virginia and the Carolinas in the early 1800s to farm, but they found poor soil, except in the bottom lands, where flooding was a problem. Farming proved to be difficult.
Enterprising settlers soon discovered plentiful quantities of iron ore, limestone and timber the necessary ingredients for making iron. The ‘land between the rivers' soon became the center of iron manufacturing for the South and Mid-west. Even today, visitors to LBL can study ruins from two Furnaces used during the 1800s, Center Furnace and the Great Western Furnace. Although the iron industry grew to become very important, most area residents farmed or raised livestock. Others worked in leather-making, commercial fishing, milling, black smithing, and logging.
The region also had the necessary ingredients for still another product-moonshine. Stone blocks from the abandoned iron ore furnaces made perfect foundations for large stills. Supposedly, cold lime-stone water from dozens of natural springs gave the whiskey a distinct flavor. Scotch-Irish settlers boasted time-honored family recipes and had ample experience testing them. They needed only a little corn and a lot of privacy. Although the area offers you solitude today, in the days before the bridges, it afforded the moonshiners what was more appropriately called "secrecy. Strangers entered by ferry boat, and their movements were easily monitored.
It is no wonder that during the Prohibition period in the 1920s, Golden Pond, Kentucky, became known as the "moonshine capital of the world".
TVA dammed the Tennessee river in 1944 to create Kentucky Lake. In 1959, when t he U.S. Army Corps of Engineers started building Barkly Dam in the Cumberland River Valley, TVA considered the recreational potential of developing the peninsula between what was soon to become two lakes.
In 1961, after thoroughly investigating the possibilities, TVA proposed to President John F. Kennedy that "the lower Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers be established as a national recreation area in support of the countries present and future need for outdoor recreation properties" the purpose of the project, as envisioned by TVA, was to demonstrate how an area with limited timber, agricultural, and industrial resources could be converted into a recreation asset that would stimulate economic growth of the region. In June 1963, President Kennedy announced the approval of the 170,000 acre project and make recommendations to Congress for budget appropriations. Upon approval by Congress, the Public Works Appropriations Act of 1964, which included funding for LBL, was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson. LBL became a reality, even though it was still land "between a river and a lake.
The next year the U.S.A.C.E filled Lake Barkley, the LBL was, "between the lakes".
The federal government already owned 67,000 acres of the property, but 103,000 had to be purchased from residents and companies. TVA moved about 2700 people representing almost 900 families from their homes in Model, Blue Spring, Hays and Mint spring, Tennessee: Fenton, Golden Pond, Hematite,, and Energy, Kentucky. The idea was not popular among most "between the rivers" families. After great sacrifices by the residents and much hard work by many, LBL was developed.
Around here we call it the lake.
Peace and Laughter
Verna