Power to the People; "Two Power Companies, Two Towns Gone, but Not Forgotten"

Just this past week Headline News ran a story on a small town in South Carolina that met with a cruel end. In the name of "power" or in the need for more "power" a big power company, Duke Power, created plans in the early 70's for a dam that would give them the power they would need to adequately supply their area. The trouble was, a little town by the name of Jocassee was right smack dab in the middle of progress. Long story short, if it were a baseball game, the final score would be, The Duke Boy's 1, Jocassee 0. The only building left standing is the old Attakula Lodge, but if you want to see it, put on the scuba gear, it lies around 300 feet at the bottom of the lake.

Don't you know that when the folks in Morganton, Tennessee heard about what had happened to the fine folks in Jocassee, South Carolina, which as the crow flies is around 200 miles away, they were more than just a little concerned? You see, we are now somewhere in the Smoky Mountains and word had gotten out that The Tennessee Valley Authority was buying up land in that area and had been since the early 60's. To add salt to the wound it was also rumored that the TVA was looking to build a dam around the Tellico area just a few miles down the road from Morganton. In the late 70's, just six short years after the Duke's flooded Jocassee, around one hundred or so folks still called Morganton home and lived in the area. There was also a General Store and a Church building. So, while the proud folks of Morganton were adamantly opposed to their once thriving river town, meeting the same fate as Jocassee, the writing was on the wall. Yet, that small band of townspeople that had not sold out to "the company" was not going down easy and was still capable of causing a stir. At one point, there was a delay in the Dam's progress caused by the outcrying of the town's folk. They had now gotten the attention of some historians and a handful of preservationists. But it was too little too late and Morganton soon went the way of its Carolina neighbor, Jocassee and now lies at the bottom of a lake.

Many of the townsfolk still gather for reunions and share stories of the old days with the younger generations in order to keep their hometowns alive. Power to the People has a completely different meaning for the citizens of these two towns whose childhood memories were literally washed away but not forgotten.