Lake James: Three Dams, One Duke, and a Forest That Grew Back

Lake James was not here until Duke Power Company built it. Between nineteen sixteen and nineteen twenty-three, the company constructed three earthen dams across the Catawba River, Paddy Creek, and the Linville River to create a hydroelectric reservoir in the foothills of the Blue Ridge. The lake was named for James B.

Duke, the tobacco baron who founded the power company. The lake first began to fill in May nineteen nineteen. The lake attracted private development throughout the twentieth century, and in nineteen eighty-seven the state of North Carolina created Lake James State Park to protect the northern shore from further encroachment.

The park now offers trails and public lake access in the shadow of Linville Gorge.