Cheoah Lake Day Trip

Bald Eagle on Cheoah Lake

Looking downstream on Cheoah

Peering over the flood gate of Cheoah Dam ...isn't that cool!

Jumping off a rock at Twentymile

The above photo was in the Maryville Daily Times. It shows a barge with a steam powered log crane. The Kitchen Logging Company set up an operation at the mouth of Twentymile Creek. I know from research that they used these flat barges with steam powered cranes to lift logs. While canoeing with Jeff Meyer a couple of years ago I found a submerged structure near Clat Branch. It looks similar in dimensions to this barge. There are also some logging debris such as cables and a hook in two separate locations. There with the submerged structure and upstream between Laural and Fishtrap Branch .

Now this is a great lake. The water is always cold since it comes out of the bottom of Fontana Lake. In fact most mornings if you drive alongside the lake you will enjoy a several foot thick coat of fog. I have paddled this lake when it was hard to see ahead of the canoe because of the fog. This lake only has three put-ins...one at the Fontana Campground, one at the powerhouse and the other at Twentymile Ranger Station. The lake is 10 miles long, is at 1276' high (463' higher than Tellico) and was created in 1919 (89 years old...think it will still hold water at its centennial?). This is the oldest dam on the Little T. Another cool thing about this dam is its the one in "The Fugitive" with Harrison Ford.