My home town, is a
HALF mile down
The Town that wouldn't Drown
Butler, Tennessee
[1]
Though the area had been occupied for sixty years before the town gained its namesake, eventually the town of Butler, Tennessee came to be named after a Union colonel general Roderick Random Butler. Due to Eastern Tennessee's stance against succession, the citizens opposed the Confederacy, which led to soldiers occupying their town to quench civil arguments. It wasn't until the beginning of the 20th century when a Virginia and South Western Railroad line was established that the town began to saw both economic and population growth. Despite the railroad line bringing prosperity for the town, the town had a lot of problems of flooding due to the town being so close to the Watauga River. In fact, in between the years of 1900 and 1947, there were 18 floods [1]. Dan Crowe described the constant flooding in his book Old Butler and Watauga Academy as this:
"One day the river would lure people into tranquility with offerings of fish and rich river bottom soil. The next day, in response to rainfall high in the surrounding mountains, it would churn into a milk-coffee brown and charge in uncontrolled rage on its former friends." [2]
After a flood in 1940 washed out the railroad line in the area and the company refused to rebuild, the town was economically devastated [1,3]. Two years later, the TVA began to build what is known today as Watauga Dam, and the floodgates opened in 1948, washing away old Butler, Tennessee.
[4]
762
Families Removed
[4]
27
Businesses moved
[4]
12,132.87
Acres Acquired
[4]
$354.32
Paid on average per acre
The attitudes from the people of Butler were mixed. Some recognized the necessary evil of the inundation of the town, tired from the constant flooding. Others were hostile towards the TVA and unhappy to be forced to leave the only place they had ever known. These quotes are from TVA workers who appraised the land value and also took dubious notes about the citizens of the area [1].
"...[She] cried as if her heart would break when the worker talked to her about her plans for moving."
"... due to the existing political and social conditions in Butler, it is probably a good thing that the dam will be built."
"... I praised the Lord when I heard about the dam, and that my home will be flooded. I have been trying to get [my husband] to move closer to his work for the past ten years.
"At the time of the interview, this very thin man with a wild expression in his eyes, stood in the doorway... He continued to repeat that he would 'kill somebody.' The worker was unable to determine whether or not he was the one being referred to."
"[She] is greatly perturbed because of the fact that she will be obliged to give up her home. She did not understand the nature of the TVA project, but was resigned to the idea of moving only because she feels that it is 'the patriotic thing to do.'"
"[He] died... as the result of a self-inflicted bullet wound. For some months he had been brooding over the fact that he would have to move from his old home (within the reservoir area"
As seen in this newspaper article from April 1947, some hostility extended to the dam workers as well. The writer of the article pleas for people to extend kindness to the dam workers use polite behavior, and he sternly says, "... don't think for a moment that a newcomer can't read your feelings towards him [5]."
[1]