October 24–26, 2023 Just Enjoying Life in Tennessee

My last blog left off with this picture from our backyard.

We are staying at Ragland Bottom Campground at Center Hill Lake near Sparta, TN 

“In the aftermath of the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Congress authorized the use of War Department funds to build dams at Center Hill and Dale Hollow that would generate the power required to support defense industry in the Southeastern United States.

Construction of the dam's basic flood control mechanisms was completed in November 1948 and Center Hill Lake was created as the reservoir was filled.

In 1951, the construction of power producing facilities was finished.

The lake is 64 mi (103 km) long, covers an area of 18,220 acres (73.7 km²). Center Hill Lake has a storage capacity of 762,000 acre⋅ft. (940,000,000 m³) of water. The lake has approximately 415 mi (668 km) of shoreline, with the deepest point at 190 ft. (58 m). The watershed area for the lake is 2,174 sq. mi (5,630 km²). The lake is well known for water recreation and fishing.

In January 2007, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers placed Center Hill Dam under a high risk for failure, along with Wolf Creek Dam in Russell County, Kentucky. In 2008, the lake's water level was lowered between five and ten feet to relieve pressure on the dam and allow repairs which were completed in 2020.

Sadly, we did not make a trip to the dam area.  With the exception of a trip to the store and getting a great haircut in Sparta, we didn’t leave.  It was wonderful! We enjoyed the weather - 70s during the day, 50’s during the night plus lots of sunshine.

We enjoyed a few campfires:

And sunsets:

It was nice to take it easy for these couple days.  I was able to so some sewing, reading, get the blog caught up and other computer work.    We would love to stay longer but the campground is booked for the weekend .  

Tomorrow we will head west and south so stay tuned and enjoy today.