Last Stand At Fork Creek
| A new book has been released that chronicles one
family's attempt to save their farm from TVA Dam project. The book tells
how the lands now under Tellico Lake and adjacent to it were essentially
stolen from the landowners for the sake of money. Written by Carolyn Ritchey, the book is a great read. For those of us that lived here and lived through it, we remember it well. Those not from here, and especially those who live in Tellico Village, should make every effort to read the book. It'll be a real eye opener to what people who lived on and owned land in the Little Tennessee River valley were put through. No one blames the villagers that live there now, but it would be important to understand what it took to acquire the lands now known as Tellico Village. When you read it, you will find it hard to believe our own government could/would do something like this to their own people. It still infuriates me to this day. The book is available on Amazon.
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Last Stand At Fork Creek is not the first book written by a local detailing how their land was stolen. Below is a story on the book, Dam Greed that I reported on several years ago. Both books are a great resource on the history of the Little Tennessee River valley and the Tellico Project. Dam Greed "Dam Greed" by Frances Brown Dorward, is a collection of memories from those who were removed from their land to make way for "progress." Not only did the TVA take the portion of the family farms covered by the back waters from the Tellico Dam, they also took more than 16,000 acres of land that was not flooded. The land owners were forced to take TVA's price which averaged $380.00 per acre often times much less. |
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10/24/22
