Kuttawa, Kentucky

Kuttawa is a small Kentucky city on the Cumberland River whose name is linked to a Cherokee village once nearby, and the exact meaning of the word is disputed. The original town of Kuttawa was founded in eighteen sixty-six by former Ohio governor Charles Anderson and developed as a small river community. When Barkley Dam was built in the nineteen sixties and created Lake Barkley, rising waters flooded the old town site.

Residents relocated to higher ground, rebuilding Kuttawa entirely on the hilltops above. Today's Kuttawa, population around six hundred, is essentially a mid-twentieth-century town wearing an ancient Cherokee name, sitting above the waters that swallowed its predecessor.