Allatoona Lake

Many of you may know this. Allatoona Lake was created to stop flooding, not as a reservoir for Atlanta. In fact, the water and electricity generated by the dam are for the Acworth-Cartersville area. The dam is actually in Cartersville city limits.

The lake gets it's name from the town Altoona (spelling changed) that was destroyed by damming the Etowah River. The Etowah flows into the Coosa River (North Flowing) which runs through Rome. Years of major flooding in the early 1900's caused the Army Corps of Engineers to get involved. The dam was their solution.

Altoona and Altoona Station were battle locales during Sherman's march on Atlanta. Altoona Station was located between Big Shanty Station (Kennesaw) and Kingston (West of Cartersville). Altoona was not a large town, but the area was home to many small farmers. Instead of coming up with another solution, the Army chose to drown these lands in a meandering, river-like lake.

Allatoona Lake is the watershed for 1,100 square miles of Georgia. That is a lot of rain run-off. Seems it would have been easier to relocate Cartersville, something the City of New Orleans should have been considering for 300 years now.