After a particularly devastating flood on the Tennessee River in 1937, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) announced a new building project which would have far-reaching effects on the river and the area through which it flowed. Kentucky Dam would help control flooding on the river, facilitate commercial traffic, and provide a highly desirable recreation area called Kentucky Lake. The downside? The dam would raise the water level by 55 feet, flooding much of the current shoreline and forcing communities along the river to abandon their homes, farms, businesses and infrastructure to relocate farther from the river’s edge. Many of these things were destroyed before the dam was opened in August of 1944. Others still exist far underneath the surface. And one, the Old Danville Grain Elevator, rises above the surface as a legacy to the city that was once its home.
The Danville Grain Elevator, also know as the Transfer Station and as the Danville Wharf, was built in 1918 by the L&N Railroad. Used to transfer goods between barges and rail cars, its three bottom levels were all open for barges, depending on the water level. Trains docked at the fourth of the six levels and two elevators carried goods from one floor to another. (Photo from http://www.fourriversexplorer.com)
When Kentucky Dam was opened, the TVA flooded entire towns, but left the Transfer Station standing, perhaps because of the prohibitive cost of demolishing such a sturdy structure. Indeed, it has stood, two-thirds submerged, for eighty years, as a curious legacy to its hometown and its lost way of life.
"Catfish forage among concrete pillars
where riverside barges met trackside trains,
swapped loads of peanuts and cotton,
oak barrel staves and distilled corn."
- Excerpt from "Kentucky Lake Legacy"
in my chapbook, Mississippi Meanderings
Gene and I knew nothing about the grain elevator until we happened upon it, south of the Danville Landing County Park, where we’d camped for the night. Imagine our surprise to find the top two graffiti-covered floors of a building like this standing like a sentinel out near the middle of the lake! Later, we were just as intrigued by its interesting history. Thank you for stopping in today to read the story of its legacy!
If you’ve already ordered a copy of Mississippi Meanderings, thank you! If you would like to read more poems about our impressions of this amazing river system, you can order your advance copy from Finishing Line Press here until May 31st. Books ordered during the presale period will be sent the week of July 26th, the book’s official release date. It will also be available after July 26th at the Finishing Line Press website, on Amazon, from me, or from an independent bookstore near you.
Gratefully, Barb
Author Barb Geiger 