Smith Mountain Lake
| Smith Mountain Lake | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Location | Bedford, Franklin, and Pittsylvania counties, Virginia |
| Coordinates | 37°03′26″N 79°35′47″W / 37.05722°N 79.59639°WCoordinates: 37°03′26″N 79°35′47″W / 37.05722°N 79.59639°W |
| Type | Reservoir |
| Primary inflows |
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| Primary outflows | Roanoke River |
| Basin countries | United States |
| Surface area | 32 sq mi (83 km2) |
| Average depth | 55 ft (17 m) |
| Max. depth | 250 ft (76 m) |
| Water volume | 2.8 km3 (2,300,000 acre·ft) |
| Shore length1 | 500 mi (800 km) |
| Surface elevation | 795 ft (242 m) |
| References | |
| 1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure. | |
Smith Mountain Lake is a large reservoir in the Roanoke Region of Virginia, located southeast of the City of Roanoke and southwest of Lynchburg. The lake was created in 1963 by the Smith Mountain Dam impounding the Roanoke River. The majority of the south shore of the lake lies in Franklin County while a small portion, including access to the dam, lies in Pittsylvania County. Bedford County makes up the northern half of the lake with the Roanoke River as the dividing line. The lake has become a popular recreation spot and has also experienced significant development in the last decade. It is the largest lake contained entirely within the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Initial proposals were made in the late 1920s to dam the Roanoke River and the Blackwater River at the Smith Mountain gorge to generate electricity. Construction on the Smith Mountain Dam began in 1960 and was completed in 1963. The lake reached its normal water level in March 1966. The lake covers 20,600 acres (83 km2) and has over 500 miles (800 km) of shoreline. The north shore of the lake lies entirely in Bedford County.
Located along the lake shore at Wirtz, Virginia is the Gwin Dudley Home Site, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the area around Smith Mountain Lake remained rural and remote with tobacco farms and other agriculture. Marinas provided the bulk of public access in the early years of the lake. The limited early residential developments around the lake consisted largely of small trailer parks and modest houses. However, residential growth has been steady since the mid-1980s and increasingly upscale with large lakefront houses, condominiums, and communities centered on golf courses. The lake has attracted many who commute to Roanoke and Lynchburg and many retirees, many of whom have relocated from the Northeast. By the late 1990s, the number and affluence of the new residents resulted in the construction of new retail and commercial developments near the lake. Recent shoreline development has been limited to residential construction. With the enactment of Federal oversight of shoreline development in 1998 coupled with soaring real estate values, there is an escalating loss of public access to the lake as the lake's marinas are sold for residential development.
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