About the Area
Photo Courtesy of Visit Lake Norman at Energy Explorium in Huntersville
Visit Lake Norman where your business and recreation is our pleasure! Nestled on the banks of beautiful Lake Norman are the Towns of Cornelius, Davidson and Huntersville. These unique towns present a wide array of leisure amenities for visitors and guests including upscale shopping, year-round golfing, NASCAR, fishing and other water activities. Lake Norman, the largest man-made lake in the Carolinas, is THE place for fun in the sun! Created in 1963 by Duke Energy, Lake Norman is 34 miles long with 520 miles of shoreline. Lake Norman offers numerous attractions to explore. From Lake Norman, you may enjoy the ease of traveling anywhere in the state. We're just north of Charlotte, and the mountains and coast are only a short drive away. Whatever your desire, find it outside your door in Lake Norman!
Town of Cornelius
Cornelius was established in 1905 and originated as a mill and farm community. Originally incorporated as ‘Liverpool', the town's name was changed to Cornelius to honor Joseph Benjamin Cornelius. When Lake Norman was formed, Cornelius added 54 miles of shoreline. Today, Cornelius is a laid-back town offering unique attractions, restaurants, lakeside parks and shopping.
Town of Davidson
Davidson is a charming, Southern college town. Davidson was founded in 1837, with the establishment of Davids
on College which remains a vital part to the town's identity today. In 2011, Davidson was awarded its first Tree City USA designation. Davidson one of just 72 communities in North Carolina and just 3,000 nationwide to receive the award. In 2004, Davidson was a Smart Growth Award winner for Overall Excellence in town planning and design, the main street of Davidson offers a variety of shops, restaurants, wide sidewalks and a public library. Davidson is bicycle and pedestrian friendly, so take a walk around the town and enjoy Davidson's more than 12 miles of greenways and bike lanes, parks, national arboretum, and beautiful flowers throughout town.
Town of Huntersville
NASCAR and natural parks, Huntersville has something for everyone! The town's historic sites include the historic homesteads Rural Hill and Latta Plantation. Visitors can tour the sites and explore the beautiful grounds and nature preserves. Huntersville is a destination for shopping and dining. Birkdale Village offers shopping, dining and entertainment, with its colorful buildings, bubbling fountains and beautiful gardens.Relocation Information
Lake Norman Quick Facts
- Year Built: 1959-1964
- Area: 32,510 acres at full pond
- Length: 33.6 miles
- Width: 9 miles
- Shore line length: 520 miles
- Maximum Depth: 110 feet
- Average Depth: 33.5 feet
- Maximum Draw-down: 15 feet
- Capacity: 3.4 trillion gallons of water
- Volume: 1,093,600 acre-feet
- Elevation at full pond: 760 feet above MSL
- Retention Time: 207 days (average)
- Drainage Area: 1,790 square miles
- Average River Flow at Cowans Ford Dam: 1,726 MGD
- Named for: Norman Atwater Cocke (former president of Duke Power)
- Source of the Catawba River: Evans Knob in Gower County
- Lake level: Call 1-800-829-5253
- Location: Latitude: 35.5177689 Longitude: -80.9557724
- Total length: 7,387 feet (1,279 feet is concrete, 6,108 feet is earthen)
- Maximum height: 130 feet
- Number of generators: 4
- Generating capacity: 350,000 kilowatts
- Note: Site of crucial 1781 revolutionary war battle between British General Cornwallis and American General Davidson and it forms Lake Norman.
- McGuire Nuclear Station
- Generation Units: 2
- Energy source: Uranium Dioxide (UO2)
- Generating capacity: 2258 megawatts (20% of Duke's total)
- Construction: 1971 - 1981
- Cost: $2 Billion
- Named for: William Bulgin McGuire, president of Duke Power from 1959 to 1971.
- Location: Huntersville, NC
- 17 miles northwest of Charlotte
- At Hwy. 73 and the Catawba River
- 700 acre site
- Generation units: 4
- Energy Source: Coal (18,000 tons per day at full power)
- Generating capacity: 2,090 megawatts (14% of Duke's total)
- Commercial Operation: 1965
- Named for: E.C. Marshall, president of Duke Power from 1949 to 1953.
- Location: Denver, NC
- 2 miles west of the Catawba River on Hwy 150
- Note: Marshall is the second largest coal-burning station in the Duke system. The four-unit station has consistently ranked as one of the most efficient coal plants in the nation.
Narrative from Lake Norman Our Inland Sea
By Bill & Diana Gleasner, Inc., The Peninsula Press, Denver, NC
"The Great River was named after the people who lived by it, the Catawba Indians, known in their own language as the Kawahcatawbas, "the people of the river." As the settlers began moving into the fertile lands along the Catawba, they brought with them diseases from Europe that the Catawbas had no resistance to, and in less than 175 years, their population dwindled from over 5,000 to less than 400.
These settlers built their cabins and farmed the land beside the Catawba River, but before long they were drawn into battle against the British Crown. In 1781, General Cornwallis proclaimed Charlotte to be "a damned hornet's nest of rebellion." At the battle site at Cowan's Ford, General William Lee Davidson, along with a band of Catawba Valley farmers were able to slow the advance of General Cornwallis. Early in the battle, General Davidson was shot and killed at the river bank. A monument honoring Davidson is located near the present site of Cowan's Ford Dam, but the exact location of his demise is under the waters of Lake Norman.
After the United States became an independent nation and the Civil War left the people demoralized in spirit, the people along the Catawba were simply existing. Ambitious James B. "Buck" Duke, president of the American Tobacco Company, saw a future in the textile industry in the Carolinas, using the waters of the Catawba to generate power needed to provide clothing for a growing nation. Buck and his brother, Ben, set out to learn everything they could about hydroelectric power.
Dr. W. Gill Wylie, who had already experimented with hydroelectric power in South Carolina with his Catawba Power Company, soon began discussions with the Duke Brothers while tending to their illnesses. Wylie introduced the Dukes to William S. Lee, a brilliant young engineer who was designing the Catawba Power Company's dams and power plants. Wylie needed funding, and Duke needed power. Duke, Lee and Wylie were looking at the larger picture, electricity would attract business and industry to the region.
The Southern Power Company was formed and William S. Lee's dream of transforming an entire river valley into a hydroelectric system was coming true. In 1927, the Southern Power Company became the Duke Power Company, and by 1928, ten dams were completed with a dozen powerhouses, making the Catawba "the world's most electrified river." William Lee's grandson, Bill Lee III, had the honor of designing and completing the one final dam which would be the largest undertaking of all, creating not only the largest lake in the Duke Power system, but the largest lake in the Carolinas.
Homes, family farms, and entire towns would end up under water. The village of Long Island, once a bustling river town with three textile mills, would be completely submerged. Some land owners refused to sell their land, but traded it for land along the future lake. Those who kept it long enough did very well indeed.
The ground breaking took place on September 28, 1959. It took four years to finish the huge dam, and another two years to fill the lake. Named after retired Duke Power President, Norman Atwater Cocke, people predicted Lake Norman to be an inland sea. It is 34 miles long and eight miles across at its widest point. Its surface area of 32,500 acres has 520 mile of shoreline. Lake Norman is 760 feet above sea level, 130 feet deep at its deepest point, and holds 3.4 trillion gallons.
There are three generating plants on Lake Norman: Cowan's Ford, the original power station; Marshall Steam Station, a coal-burning steam-electric generating station on NC 150; and the William B. McGuire Nuclear Station near the east abutment of Cowan's Ford Dam.
Those who call Lake Norman the biggest thing to happen on a river since the flood of 1916 appreciate its contribution to flood control. Because the lake can handle enormous amounts of water flowing down from the mountains, the torrential rains of 1940 and 1970 did not create a terrorizing replay of the flood of 1916 which took lives, farms, homes, animals, crops, bridges and roads, and destroyed businesses that were never rebuilt.
The cities of Charlotte and Mooresville rely on Lake Norman for their dependable water supply. Duke's professional foresters manage the quality of the water, plant nearly 1.8 million new trees on the land each year, stock the lake with fish, and regularly spray the shoreline with non-chemical light oil solution to control mosquitoes. A 2,135-acre water refuge was built below Cowan's Ford Dam to shelter migratory ducks and geese in the winter. Duke Power provided 10 public access areas around the lake as well as 1,300 acres for duke Power State Park.
There was a time when people stood on highways around the lake offering lake lots for sale for $1,000. There weren't many takers back then. With the completion of I-77, the entire lake became more accessible to urban centers to the south and north. Slowly, development began creeping north to the part of the lake that had always been agricultural. Today in four counties that surround the lake, there are more than 25,000 residents who like calling Lake Norman home.'"
A Brief History of Lake Norman
Source: History Courtesy of Queen's Landing
"The Catawba River began in earnest as several springs joined below Mount Mitchell, the highest peak in eastern America. The Stream accelerated as it plunged over boulders and down slopes where it widened and became a river. In times past, as it meandered through the Piedmont, spring rains sometimes overflowed its red banks, but no protest was offered. The Indians were as use to the ebb and flow as they were the bears lumbering through wild pea vines, and deer and buffalo grazing in the grass. The Indians called it Eswa Taroa, "The Great River". In their own language, they were the Kwachacatawbas, "The People of the River".
The river, a seemingly unending source of water, fish, game, and pottery clay, was named after the people who lived by it-The Catawba. While the Catawba Indians lived in harmony with the river, their relationships with neighboring tribes were anything but tranquil. One horrendous day-long battle ended with 1,100 Cherokee and 1,000 Catawba warriors killed and no territorial disputes solved. When the settlers arrived along the banks of the river, it proved disastrous to the Indians. Smallpox and other European diseases reduced the Catawba Indian Nation from 5,000 strong in the 1600's, to less than 400 in 1775. The settlers built cabins and farmed the land along the river banks. Ardent believers in God, education and freedom, they took dim view of the English meddling in their affairs. These pioneers had enough problems without paying one new British tax after another. Before long, the settlers were drawn into a bitter and bloody conflict with the Crown.
An important local skirmish of the American Revolution took place at Cowans Ford on the Catawba River on February 1, 1781. General Charles Cornwallis tried to cross the muddy Catawba River in pursuit of victory, but Brigadier General William Lee Davidson and his scrappy band of Catawba Valley farmers were waiting for him. Recent rains had swollen the Catawba, the ford was rocky, and the water at its most shallow point was waist deep. The Americans proved to be fine marksmen as the British struggled against a turbulent current. Unfortunately, early in the battle, General Davidson suffered a gunshot wound near the heart and fell from his horse onto the riverbank. The Americans held their ground and the British were successfully delayed, and the time gained allowed the American army to escape. General Davidson was a popular young general and a monument honoring him is located near the present sited of Cowans Ford Dam, the southern boundary of Lake Norman. The exact location of General Davidson's demise is under the waters of Lake Norman near the east end of the dam.
No one living in the Catawba River Valley ever forgot the great flood of 1916. They watched trees tumble off the river banks and snakes scramble for higher ground. The Catawba River, already swollen from heavy rains, turned into a raging torrent on July 16th. The river rose 54.9 feet in two days killing more than 50 people. Lake resident, Dill Kale, remembered watching a bar float by with chickens still sitting on their nests. Rebuilding would be a slow and painful process. The Southern railway system began the arduous task of replacing dozens of bridges and countless miles of tracks. A Duke Power plant, 18 miles below Charlotte, was out of commission for six months. The entire Buffalo Shoals Bridge was demolished. Ferries replacing the bridge operated for two years until a new bridge could be constructed. The Catawba had unleashed its diabolical fury on bewildered people. The river that had given them power to improve their lives, fish for their dinner tables, and a pleasant reprieve from the work-a-day world had become a rampaging enemy that we would not soon forget.
In 1957, Duke Power Company began a study that would become Duke power company's final damn on the Catawba River. James B. Duke began buying Catawba River land, approximately 33,000 acres were purchased. Homes, family farms and entire towns would end up under water. The village of Long Island, once a bustling river town with three textile mills, would be completely submerged. Buildings had to be dismantled and moved, churches and cemeteries relocated. Of the 70 roads affected, half became dead end routes, while the other half were re-routed or raised above water level. New bridges had to be built. But Bill Lee, who had designed the damn on Lake Norman, an avid sailor, tried to minimize these since they would hinder the progress of a sailboat. Some landowners, who refused to sell, traded their fertile farms for pine forests that would front the future lake- worthless land said some. Others put off making a decision until the last possible moment, finding it hard to believe that their land would eventually be flooded. These negotiations were always delicate- sometimes thorny.
Groundbreaking began on September 28, 1959. Bulldozers began pushing red clay. It would take 4 years to finish the huge project. When completed, Cowans Ford Dam was a massive tribute to Bill Lee's engineering talent. While much of the damn is of earthen construction, there's enough concrete in it to build a sidewalk all the way to the Pacific Ocean. This concrete section is as high as a 13-story building, 130 feet and 1,279 feet long. The entire earthen and concrete structure measures 7,387 feet in length.
Those who predicted that the lake would be an endless sea were right. Extending from the trailway of Lookout Dam to Cowan's Ford Dam, it's 34 miles long and 8 miles across at its widest point! Twice the size of the Sea of Galilee, its surface area of 32,500 acres has 520 miles of shoreline- more than the coast of North and South Carolina combined!
Lake Norman is 760 feet above sea level, 130 feet deep at its deepest point and holds 3.4 trillion gallons. No wonder it took all of 1962 and 1963 to build! Named for Norman Atwater Cocke, retired president of Duke Power, the lake is the culmination of a 60-year dream of hydroelectric development. Three generating plants on Lake Norman meet the needs of a steady flow of electricity into homes and businesses.
The original power station at the South end of Lake Norman was finished in 1967. Marshall Steam Station, a coal burning steam-electric generating station was completed in 1970. Marshall is one of the largest stations on the Duke system and one of the most efficient in the nation. The William B. McGuire nuclear system, near the East abutment of Cowan's Ford Dam, uses the heat of nuclear reactors to produce steam for turning its turbo generators."'
