Dale Hollow Today

Dale Hollow Dam was authorized by the Flood Control Act of 1938 to tame chronic flooding along the Cumberland River system. Construction began in March 1942 and finished in October 1943 — on an accelerated wartime schedule with over 1,000 workers. The prime contractor was Morrison-Knudsen, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District designed and supervised the project. It was the first of nine Corps power plants built in the Cumberland basin. The powerhouse was suspended during WWII; the first generating unit came online in 1948, the second in 1949, and the third in 1953.

The dam sits on the Obey River near Celina in Clay County, Tennessee. When the reservoir filled, it covered farms, bottomland, roads, and entire communities in the Obey and Wolf River valleys. The most significant was Willow Grove, the area's second-largest community in the 1920s–30s, with a gristmill, churches, a school, and generations of family farmland. On July 18, 1942, residents held a farewell picnic on the school grounds before the water rose. Former Willow Grove families still gather annually on Labor Day weekend. In 2016, an aerial photo of the old school's foundation visible on the lake bottom went viral.

Today the lake covers 27,700 acres with 620 miles of shoreline, spanning Clay, Pickett, Overton, and Fentress counties in Tennessee and Clinton and Cumberland counties in Kentucky. Average depth is 50 feet with a maximum of 130 feet. Dale Hollow is consistently ranked among the clearest lakes in the Southeast — Secchi disc readings average 18–20 feet and can reach 30–40 feet. The clarity comes from the watershed's Fort Payne Formation limestone geology, which naturally filters groundwater and spring inputs, combined with low nutrient loads and minimal shoreline development.

On July 9, 1955, David Lee Hayes was trolling a pearl Bomber lure on Dale Hollow when he landed an 11 lb 15 oz smallmouth bass — a world record that still stands today, over 70 years later. The record survived a brief controversy in 1996 when a lost document led to temporary disqualification, but the IGFA and Kentucky reinstated it after investigation. Hayes, then 80, lived to see his name restored. Dale Hollow remains one of the premier smallmouth fisheries in the world.