Tellico Village

Tellico Village is a planned community on the western shore of Tellico Lake near Knoxville, Tennessee.

Related Topics:
Planned community - Tellico Lake - Knoxville - Tennessee

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Tellico Village is symbolic of American society at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It represents the choices Americans have made with regard to how they use their land, and how they have manipulated their environment to serve society.

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Tellico Village exists because a federal government agency, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), decided to dam up the Little Tennessee River at its confluence with the Tennessee River. The dam was completed in November 1979 after a long battle. The battle famously involved the Endangered Species Act of 1973 and a small fish called the snail darter. The TVA purchased additional land above the high water line of the reservoir (Tellico Lake). Part of this additional land became what is now Tellico Village.

Related Topics:
Tennessee Valley Authority - Little Tennessee River - Tennessee River - Endangered Species Act - Snail darter

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The community has three golf courses and a yacht and country club. The names of the golf courses, like the names of the streets and neighborhoods (each neighborhood within Tellico Village has its own name) are derived from American Indian words and names, mostly Cherokee. These include Toqua, meaning fish; and Tanasi, which was the name of a town that was the capital of the Cherokee Nation between 1721 and 1730. Tanasi is also the word from which Tennessee was derived.

Related Topics:
American Indian - Cherokee Nation

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The Tellico Dam controversy was an important turning point regarding how Americans think of and use their land and environment.

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The fact that the dam opponents nearly stopped the dam makes the Tellico controversy an especially important episode in U.S. environmental history. The case involved the U.S. Supreme Court, the several presidential administrations (most notably the Carter Administration), and the U.S. Congress.

Related Topics:
Environmental history - Carter

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