Interview with Delia Woodard Watkins

Interview with Delia Woodard Watkins

Autobiography

Dams -- Economic aspects

Dams -- Social aspects

Events

Fontana Dam (N.C.)

Graham County (N.C.)

Swain County (N.C.) -- History

Watkins, Delia Ann Woodard -- Interviews

Delia Woodard Watkins, born in Swain County, was 16 when construction started on Fontana Dam. The dam, completed in 1945 by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), is built on the Little Tennessee River and is located near Fontana Village in Graham County, North Carolina. Watkins discusses how Swain County residents were told the dam would help the World War II effort and people were initially supportive of the dam construction believing the power generated from the dam would help win the war. According to Watkins, the TVA failed in its promise regarding the amount of power generated. Furthermore, the TVA took more land than needed to build the dam while amount of compensation paid to people who lost their land to dam construction was minimal.

Watkins, Delia Ann Woodard

WCU Oral History Collection - HIST 474/574

Hunter Library Digital Collections, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC 28723

1930s; 1940s;

2009-11-16

Atzenhoffer, T. Rhydon

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

audio/mp3; application/pdf;

sound recordings

interviews

eng

Sound

35516

https://southernappalachiandigitalcollections.org/object/35516

2014-12-04

All rights reserved. For permissions, contact Hunter Library Digital Collections, Western Carolina U, Cullowhee, NC 28723;

Graham County (N.C.)

Swain County (N.C.)

North Carolina, Western

00:35:05 (sound recording)(duration)

10 pages (transcript)(duration)

Oral Histories of Western North Carolina