The waters that gather above the Chickamauga Dam have quite naturally
obliterated some old village sites and some prehistoric mounds. It
was fortunate, however, that the Department of Archaeology, under
the direction of T. M. N. Lewis, of the University of Tennessee,
made scientific explorations of the ancient dwelling places and the
mounds. The facts and the artifacts thus obtained have been preserved
for posterity.
On February 26, 1940, when the navigation lock at the Chickamauga
Dam was opened, since there was no Cherokee Indian to represent the
aborigines who used the Tennessee to make the initial trip through
it, it was a fortunate circumstance that Nature stepped in and saved
the day on that memorable occasion and let a large turtle swim
through. It was a splendid model for a river boat, somewhat made on
the order of a submarine, a natural boat propelled by living paddles
and guided by a live rudder. It passed through the lock as freely as
if it had been commissioned to serve as the official representative
of the river’s inhabitants.
[Illustration: Military Bridge over the Tennessee River at
Chattanooga in 1863]
Among the historical places blotted out by waters of Chickamauga Dam
was Oo-le-quah, or Dallas Island, situated a few miles upstream. On
the higher ground overlooking the isle was the village of Dallas,
which, in 1819, became the seat of government at the time Hamilton
County, in which the Chickamauga Dam is situated, was carved out of
the Hiwassee Purchase. The new county’s south boundary at that date
was the Tennessee River, which up to about the year 1800, had been
known to the Indians as the Hogohegee River. The Cherokees still
remained in possession of the land south of the river.