Wheeler Dam

Wheeler Dam
Wheeler Dam
	Wheeler Dam
Official name	Wheeler Dam
Location	Lauderdale / Lawrence counties, Alabama, United States
Coordinates	34°48′25″N 87°22′55″W / 34.80694°N 87.38194°W
Construction began	November 21, 1933
Opening date	November 9, 1936
Operator(s)	Tennessee Valley Authority
Dam and spillways
Impounds	Tennessee River
Height	72 ft (22 m)
Length	6,342 ft (1,933 m)
Reservoir
Creates	Wheeler Lake
	Wheeler Hydroelectric Project
	U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Nearest city	Rogersville, Alabama
NRHP reference No.	16000431
Added to NRHP	June 26, 2016

Wheeler Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River between Lauderdale County and Lawrence County in Alabama. It is one of nine dams on the river owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the mid-1930s as part of a New Deal-era initiative to improve navigation on the river and bring flood control and economic development to the region. The dam impounds the Wheeler Lake of 67,070 acres (27,140 ha) and its tailwaters feed into Wilson Lake.

Wheeler Dam is named for Civil War general and U.S. Congressman Joseph Wheeler.^[2] Congressman Wheeler was an early advocate of federal development of the Muscle Shoals area.^[3] The dam was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.^[4]

^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
^ "What's the origin of your town's name?". Times Daily. June 3, 2006. pp. 4A. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
^ Tennessee Valley Authority, The Wheeler Project: A Comprehensive Report on the Planning, Design, Construction, and Initial Operations of the Wheeler Project, Technical Report No. 2 (Knoxville, Tenn.: Tennessee Valley Authority, 1940), pp. 1-9, 39, 48, 111, 219, 231, 239.
^ "Wheeler Hydroelectric Project". National Park Service. Retrieved 21 February 2017.