Day trip to Norris Dam State Park

May 3, 2017

We took a 60 mile drive today to watch TVA release water from the flood gates at Norris dam. Norris dam was the first dam built by TVA in the mid '30s.

I've posted some photos for your enjoyment but they don't do justice to the amount of water and the sound coming out of the top of the dam. Last week we had a lot of rain that overfilled the TVA lakes in this area causing Norris dam to be about 7-1/2 feet above it's normal level. Water was spilling from the dam at the rate of 3.5 million gallons per minute. It's rare for TVA to release the water instead of using it to generate electricity but the volume of rain was so large they had to open the flood gates and release some of the water before the next round of rain coming this weekend.

Close to the dam there is an old grist mill and wheat thrashing barn that I took photos of. The thrashing machine in the barn was cool. It was powered by two horses that turned the large wooden gear you can see in one of the photos, which in turned a shaft going into the building to power a thrashing machine. I like mechanical stuff so I thought you might enjoy seeing the wooden gear. It was so dark in the barn that I couldn't get a good photo of the thrashing machine.

Get out and make some memories! Drive those Reattas and post some photos of your adventures here.