The long blue reservoir NC-28 hugs on its western run — Fontana Lake, held back by the tallest dam in the eastern US, with drowned towns and lost roads beneath its surface.
That big, deep, blue water opening up beside you is Fontana Lake — and it's one of the most beautiful and most haunted reservoirs in the mountains. It's held back by Fontana Dam, off to your west, the tallest dam in the entire eastern United States at four hundred and eighty feet, thrown up in a screaming hurry during World War Two.
Look at how the lake fills the bottom of these valleys, its arms reaching up every cove. Now here's the thing to hold in your mind as you drive along it: that water is sitting on top of somebody's home. When they closed the dam in the nineteen-forties, this whole valley flooded — and it took towns, farms, roads, and a way of life down with it. Boone's got that story, and it's a heartbreaker.
The lake's ringed by national forest and the south edge of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, so its shoreline stayed wild — no houses, no docks on most of it, just forest coming down to the water. It's gorgeous. It's also a graveyard of a sort. Enjoy the view, and listen for the story underneath it.
Photo: Boston Public Library · CC BY 2.0
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