History
The Falling Water River was harnessed to power gristmills during the 19th century. In 1921, the City of Cookeville began building Burgess Falls Dam to supply the city with electrical power. In late June 1928, a massive flood along the river caused part of the dam to collapse, and destroyed the powerhouse downstream. The dam was rebuilt, and continued supplying the city with electricity until 1944, when the city started purchasing electricity from the Tennessee Valley Authority. Cookeville built the City Lake Dam in 1946 to provide the city with a steady source of water. Center Hill Dam was completed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1948.
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Famous quotes containing the word history:
“It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“When the landscape buckles and jerks around, when a dust column of debris rises from the collapse of a block of buildings on bodies that could have been your own, when the staves of history fall awry and the barrel of time bursts apart, some turn to prayer, some to poetry: words in the memory, a stained book carried close to the body, the notebook scribbled by hand—a center of gravity.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“It is the true office of history to represent the events themselves, together with the counsels, and to leave the observations and conclusions thereupon to the liberty and faculty of every man’s judgement.”
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626)