Blount County has changed tremendously in the last 80 years. Those of us who travel its roadways and streets see the changes in building, roads, traffic, schools, and every piece of its infrastructure. There is one place, however, that had its topography changed like no other. Louisville was once a thriving community on the banks of the Tennessee River. It was within rock-throwing distance of Knox County on the opposite bank.
Early White settlers called what we know as Louisville, Gillespie’s Landing after Robert and John Gillespie, who built a boat landing to haul their iron to the river for shipping. Some say it got its present name from the visit Louis Phillipe, the future king of France, made to Blount County in 1796.
In its early years it was a trade mecca. River transportation was the easiest and best way to get large amounts of goods from one place to another. In those days flatboats were the most common way to transport goods and materials, steamboats eventually followed. As a result of its location, homes, general stores, warehouses, blacksmith shops, taverns, and other businesses were on Louisville’s streets. It was a landing spot for boats going up and down the Tennessee River. Louisville was prosperous and busy.
The town experienced major flooding several times. Historical records say the Tennessee River rose 42 and a-half feet in 1867, flooding river towns like Louisville. In 1875 another flood swept through only a few feet less than the one eight years earlier. By then the railroads were transporting goods and people and the boom era of Louisville, Tennessee was beginning to wane. By 1900 the town lost it importance as a transportation mecca but still existed as a community town. Forty years later it would face even more change.
Fort Loudoun Dam, located in Loudon County, was part of a project started in the mid-1930s by the Roosevelt era administration to control flooding, provide a larger navigable waterway, and produce hydroelectric power for the Tennessee valley.
To dam the Tennessee River, 16,000 acres of land had to be purchased, six cemeteries moved and over 600 miles of roadway had to be reconstructed to accommodate the massive lake that would be created and flood the valley, including Louisville. Its massive water would cover farmlands, homes, and businesses. Louisville, Tennessee was one of those riverbank towns that would almost disappear from the landscape.
Construction started on Fort Loudoun, the first of the dams, in 1940. Originally planned to be completed in 1944, the outbreak of WWII and the need for electricity increased the urgency of its completion. The dam flood gates closed in 1943 with its waters covering what was left of much of Louisville’s earlier history and creating Fort Loudoun Lake.
I recently had the privilege of talking with a lady who was a child when this process was going on. She remembered the buildings that were taken down piece by piece in Louisville and moved away from potential flood water. A few old buildings remain on the lake shores, but the culture and the atmosphere of a river town is gone. She remembered the general stores there and attending Louisville School. She also remembered going to Knoxville frequently, leaving on a ferry that carried cars across the river to Concord. Some of the names for the ferry and landing spots on the river remain.
Fort Loudoun Lake, created by the damming of the Tennessee River, has 379 miles of shoreline and 14,600 acres of water surface. Locks are raised and lowered for boats to come through the dam. There are four hydroelectric generators that create over 150 megawatts of electricity when it is at maximum.
Today change has again come to Louisville, its beauty created by Fort Loudoun Lake rather than the river is different, but still there. Industry, apartments, parks, and a newer town hall all contribute to a history still being made.
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