Abstract:
In the 1940s, the people living on what is now the North Shore of Fontana Lake and the southern boundary of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park were forced out by the federal government for the construction of a Tennessee Valley Authority hydroelectric project. The federal government promised the displaced people roads to their old area. Roads would have allowed the original settlers' descendants easy access to family cemeteries. The roads were never built. People still visit the gravesites, despite having to travel to them by four-wheel drive vehicles and boats.