Little T {Little Tennessee} already had dams on it built mainly by ALCOA before TVA was formed. But those lakes were back up in the mountains and did not destroy the Cherokee Indian tribe sites and farms that Tellico Lake did. Chilhowie was the last dam on it before Tellico Dam. For those who don't know the area from Chilhowie Lake to upstream Fontana Lake is US 129 The Dragon. The Dragon is a relocated road built when ALCOA built the dams through the area.
Tellico Dam has Zero generation capacity. A channel of sorts was built to connect Tellico Lake with Ft Loudon Lake and Ft Loudon Dam is the generation plant. Before Tellico Lake the Little T emptied into the river below Ft Loudon into Watts Bar Lake. I'm 56 but I remember seeing the burial mounds and farms that were flooded.
One of the biggest ironies of FDR's propaganda about the lakes was to stop soil erosion. My dad grew up in Knoxville in the Lonsdale area and would spend his summers and school weekends in a community called Tampico on the Holston river just below Cherokee Dam before it was built. Him and his brother through the week camped on the river in the summer as kids. On weekends dad would ride a bike from Knoxville to Tampico to camp. About 30-35 miles one way.
Dad showed me where huge river bottom fields once stood that a family he knew farmed and they camped on. The rivers natural water flow was about a third or less of that of what the turbines put out. The rivers below the dams are far wider than the river were themselves. Over time it took out {washed away} the river bottom fields below every dam built. These were very fertile fields the farmers depended on. Again the progress wasn't what angered people it was the lies they used.
I have hiked several times from the Twenty Mile Ranger station up the mountain to Gregory Bald. It is on the Dragon
The thing to do is to go from the camp site up the ridge before sunset and look out across the valley below and see Maryville and Knoxville light up. You can see all the way over Rockwood to the plateau rising behind.
The quiet the stillness with all that light activity is unique..... and then there it is. The hum begins. The generators at the Chilhowee dam come on line.