Lake Burton Dam

This monolithic inscription adorns the Lake Burton Dam, Rabun County. The Georgia Railway and Power Company, a precursor of Georgia Power, built the dam as the last piece of the North Georgia Hydro Group, the first integrated hydroelectric project in the U.S. The 100 year old community of Burton was demolished to make way for the lake. Lake Burton was declared full on August 22, 1920. Interestingly, the dam site and the surrounding 1000 acres were first discussed over a golf game between Andrew Gennett, owner of Gennett Lumber Company, and Henry Atkinson, CEO of the Georgia Railway and Power Company. The Power Company paid Gennett $40,000 for the site which had been logged and was worth little to Gennett. He later remarked in his autobiography, Sound Wormy (U. of GA Press), "I was very naive about its value. I could have gotten $150,000." The six dam group took advantage of the Tallulah River's extreme verticality, the greatest in the East. The completion of the project was a key part of the growing electric grid in Georgia.
Mike Maffett