Butler, Tennessee: The Town That Wouldn't Drown

In the mountains of northeastern Tennessee, where Roan Creek flows into the Watauga River, there was once a busy little town called Butler. It was the commercial center of the Watauga Valley, with hotels, stores, restaurants, doctors' and dentists' offices, churches, a movie theater and its own private high school, Watauga Academy. Butler also had a flooding problem. The town flooded in 1867, 1886, 1901, 1902, 1916, 1924 and 1940. The 1940 flood killed six people, destroyed homes and washed out the railroad. In 1942, the Tennessee Valley Authority began building Watauga Dam downstream, to control floods and generate electricity. The dam would create a reservoir right over Butler. World War II halted construction, leaving the dam half-finished and the town in limbo. Residents couldn't sell their homes, and many doubted the dam would ever be completed. But in 1946, work resumed, and the TVA began buying homes, farms and businesses. On September 6, 1947, it completed the purchase of the town, including city hall and the jail, for $35,000. Butler, with about 600 residents and more than 125 homes and 50 businesses, moved to higher ground. Some people took their houses with them, moving the buildings to new sites. Graves were dug up and moved. One former resident later described the experience as "like a year-long funeral." Across the whole dam project, 761 families were relocated. On December 1, 1948, the dam's gates closed, and the water began to rise over Old Butler. It was the only incorporated town ever flooded by a TVA reservoir. Butler rebuilt on higher ground beside the new lake and became known as "the town that wouldn't drown." Old Butler stayed underwater. But in 1983, the TVA drew the lake down to work on the dam, and for a brief time the old town reappeared. Former residents walked the muddy streets, still lined with tree stumps, past foundations, stone walls, the concrete one-room jail and the rock walls of Don Stout's shoe store. Today, the Butler Museum, opened in 2000, preserves the old town's story. The rest of it is still at the bottom of Watauga Lake.