Pickwick Lake is an attraction for people throughout much of the year. There are many activities such as sunning, picnicking, golfing, camping, boating, fishing or hunting. Whether for the afternoon or for the weekend, Pickwick is an enjoyable place to be. There's boating fun for all size crafts. Attractions are numerous, such as the lock side of the Pickwick Dam to observe boats lock through or find artifacts in the museum there.
Three impressive local golf courses draw golfers. Fishing guides and fishing tournaments are scheduled throughout the year. Dining is a treat in numerous restaurants which feature fried catfish, steaks, sandwiches and a variety of menu items.
Located south of Savannah--and encompassing portions of Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama--Pickwick Lake was created in December 1937 when the Tennessee Valley Authority closed its new dam across the Tennessee River and flooded the farm land valley. Pickwick Lake was dedicated June 2, 1940 and a crowd of 30,000 people gathered on the Pickwick south earth dam for the services.
On Aug. 20, 1935, the dam was named after the Pickwick Post Office, which had been named by postmaster Richardson K. Baird in 1883. He changed the name of the newly established post officer from "Broadway" to "Pickwick" after the short story "Pickwick Papers,"
due to his fondness for the works of its author, Charles Dickens.
The Tennessee Valley Authority began building Pickwick Dam across the Tennessee River in December 1934, and on Feb. 8, 1938, the dam was closed and the 53-mile long lake began to fill, affecting some 23,000 acres of land. A recorded 506 families were relocated and 407 graves were removed.
Before the dam was built, the Tennessee River area to Wilson Dam was 9,580 acres. The water acreage of Pickwick Lake, created by the dam, measures 43,100 acres at the normal maximum pool level of 414 feet above sea level. The top of the gates stands at 418 feet above
sea level.
The dam is 113 feet high and 7,715 feet long, and more than three million cubic yards of earth and rock and about 680,000 cubic yards of concrete were required for building the project. Including the switch yard, the dam cost some $46 million. It was built to improve navigation and to control flooding along the Tennessee River, and to provide hydroelectric power to the Tennessee River Valley.
Employment reached 2,400 workers on the dam itself, and 1,600 more were engaged in clearing the lake area. Building of the dam was accomplished in three stages: The first involved the construction of the navigation lock inside cofferdam No. 1 and the hydraulic fill portions of the earth dams on the south and north sides of the river. The second stage was the building of the powerhouse and seven bays of the spillway section joining the powerhouse.
The third stage included the construction of the balance of the spillway section inside cofferdam No. 3. Steel sheet piling cell cylinders with a top elevation of 390 feet were used to form each cofferdam. An electric suction dredge was used to excavate the materials from the lock and powerhouse sections to form the north and south earth dams.
In 1938, as Pickwick Dam was nearing completion, many groups, including
two houses of Congress, were attempting to change the name of the dam to
honor Shiloh or various politicians. But TVA board of directors decided to name
it the Pickwick Landing Dam.
TVA's Pickwick Village housed some 1,000 workers during construction and after completion, TVA donated the 661 acres of land to the State of Tennessee for the present Pickwick Landing State Park. The park was opened in August 1972 and eight of the village houses remained for park employees. In addition to its intended purposes--and the creation of the lake and ultimately the park--Pickwick Dam brought thousands of jobs to a depressed area. At that time, the average household income in the rural area was $300 per year.
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