Boone Dam
| Boone Dam | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Official name | Boone Dam |
| Location | Sullivan County and Washington County, Tennessee, United States |
| Coordinates | 36°26′24″N 82°26′16″W / 36.44000°N 82.43778°WCoordinates: 36°26′24″N 82°26′16″W / 36.44000°N 82.43778°W |
| Construction began | August 29, 1950 |
| Opening date | December 16, 1952 |
| Operator(s) | Tennessee Valley Authority |
| Dam and spillways | |
| Impounds | South Fork Holston River |
| Height | 160 feet (49 m) |
| Length | 1,532 feet (467 m) |
| Reservoir | |
| Creates | Boone Lake |
Boone Dam is a hydroelectric and flood control dam on the South Fork Holston River on the border between Sullivan County and Washington County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is one of three dams on the South Fork Holston owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the early 1950s as part of greater efforts to control flooding in the Tennessee River watershed. The dam impounds the 4,500-acre (1,800 ha) Boone Lake, and its tailwaters are part of Fort Patrick Henry Lake.
Boone Dam is named for frontiersman Daniel Boone (1734-1820), who was active in the general area in the 1760s.
Boone Dam is located 19 miles (31 km) above the South Fork Holston River's confluence with the North Fork Holston River (which forms the Holston River proper). The Watauga River joins the South Fork Holston almost immediately upstream from the dam, creating a V-shaped reservoir that extends for 17 miles (27 km) up the South Fork Holston (all the way to Bluff City) and for 15 miles (24 km) up the Watauga. The Sullivan-Washington county line follows the reservoir for most of its Watauga span. Boone Dam is 31 miles (50 km) downstream from South Holston Dam and 10 miles (16 km) upstream from Fort Patrick Henry Dam.
Boone Dam is a concrete gravity-type dam 160 feet (49 m) high and 1,532 feet (467 m) long, and has a generating capacity of 81,000 kilowatts. While the main section of the dam is a concrete structure, the northern half of the dam consists of a 750-foot (230 m) earth-and-fill structure that seals off the floodplain adjacent to the main river channel. The dam's overfall spillway has five radial gates with a combined maximum discharge of 137,000 cubic feet per second (3,900 m3/s). Boone Lake has 168 miles (270 km) of shoreline and a flood storage capacity of 75,829 acre feet (93,534,000 m3). The reservoir's operating levels vary by about 20 feet (6.1 m) in a typical year.
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