Guntersville Dam

Guntersville Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River in Marshall County, in the U.S. state of Alabama. It is one of nine dams on the river owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the late 1930s as part of a New Deal era initiative to create a continuous navigation channel on the entire length of the river and bring flood control and economic development to the region. The dam impounds the Guntersville Lake of 67900acre, and its tailwaters feed into Wheeler Lake.Guntersville Dam is named for the city of Guntersville, Alabama, which is located about 10mi upstream. The city is named for its first settler, John Gunter (d. 1836), who arrived in the late 18th century.LocationGuntersville Dam is located 349mi above the mouth of the Tennessee River, at a point where the southwestward-flowing river begins to change its course to a more northwestwardly direction. The dam's reservoir stretches for nearly 73mi to the base of Nickajack Dam, and includes parts of Marshall and Jackson counties in Alabama and Marion County in Tennessee. The reservoir's backwaters have formed embayments on the lower parts of Browns Creek and Spring Creek to the west and east of the city of Guntersville, respectively, effectively placing the city at the tip of a long peninsula.