APRIL 2005
Community Calendar . . . .
2005 Nashville Earth Day Festival
Saturday, April 23 - Centennial Park
12 noon - 7 PM
Join the Nashville community for a day of celebration at the 2005
Nashville Earth Day Festival. The festival, themed “Clean and Green
All Year Long,” will include presentation booths from community
groups, environmental organizations and government agencies; an
interactive area for children of all ages; live music; speakers;
performers; educational programs; fun and much more. Information
is available on the Web at www.nashville.gov/earthday.
Upcoming Events
April 30 – The Middle Tennessee Daylily Society will hold its Spring Daylily Sale from
10 AM-4 PM at The Mall at Green Hills.
May 20-22 – Tennessee Storytelling Festival, Murfreesboro, TN.
May 6-8 – TACA Spring Craft Fair will be held at Centennial Park.
April 22-24 – The Nashville Ballet presents the classic story Sleeping Beauty at TPAC,
accompanied by the Nashville Symphony. Call TPAC at 255-2787 to purchase tickets.
May 1 – The Nashville Arthritis Foundation’s NASHVILLE WALK will be
held on Sunday, May 1, at the Nashville Zoo. Check in is 3 PM. Start
Time is 5 PM. Register at www.arthritis.org. Fundraising goal is $100
per walker.
April 25 – May 1 - The LPGA is back and in full swing in the Middle Tennessee area
with the Franklin American Mortgage Championship. Benefiting the Monroe
Carell, Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, the event will be held at the Vanderbilt
Legends Club in Franklin, TN. For more information on the event, sponsorships or
volunteer opportunities, call 309-9747 or visit the event’s Web site at
www.nashvillelpga.com.
April-Fast for the Hungry with Nashville’s Table! Go without food for just a day and
donate the money you would have spent on meals to Nashville’s Table. For more
information, visit www.nashvillestable.org.
May 4 – The 2005 Annual Goodwill Job Fair will be held at the Tennessee State
Fairgrounds, Vaughn Building from 9AM – 3 PM. Over 50 employers are expected. For
those seeking employment: Bring 50 copies of your current resume with you to make
the best use of your time.
May 21 - 22 - The Mid-South Chapter of the Lupus Foundation hosts the “Down
The Garden Path” 6th Annual Garden Tour. Tickets may be purchased at the
event site located at the corner of Honeywood Ave. and Belle Meade Blvd. next to
Immanuel Baptist Church in the City of Belle Meade. For more information, call
the Nashville Lupus Office at 298-2273 or visit www.lupustennessee.org.
TVA started where Nashville’s pioneers met trouble
In 1780, when Nashville’s settlers encountered the stretch of the Tennessee River known as
Muscle Shoals, it looked dark, foreboding and dangerous. They had no way of knowing that the
shoals would eventually lead to the creation of an organization that would – in the eyes of many
people, at least – be a godsend for the city they were about to settle.
The story of the relationship between Muscle Shoals and Nashville starts early. Nashville’s
original settlers left upper east Tennessee in two groups. James Robertson took a group of men
and cattle overland, using the Cumberland Gap trail as the main route. John Donelson, meanwhile,
led a party of men, women and children on rafts, down the Tennessee River and then up the Ohio
and the Cumberland Rivers.
The river trip was a harrowing voyage that occurred in the dead of an unusual cold winter (the
Cumberland River froze solid that year). Native American war parties, many of whom were
being led by a Cherokee chief named Dragging Canoe, attacked the fleet of 20 or so flatboats
numerous times. In the bloodiest encounter of all, they slaughtered every man, woman and child
on board a boat that had fallen behind the others.
As if that weren’t bad enough, the river itself was dangerous. The Tennessee River was nothing
like the placid and calm body of water it is today. Parts of it were so shallow and fast that it was
hard to navigate. None was more so than Muscle Shoals, a 17-mile stretch of swift cascades,
unpredictable rock formations and shallow areas in what is now northwest Alabama.
Donelson kept a journal on the trip. “When we approached them [the Shoals] they had a dreadful
appearance . . . The water being high made a terrible roaring, which could be heard at some
distance among the driftwood heaped frightfully upon the points of the islands, the current
running in every possible direction. Here we did not know how soon we should be dashed to
pieces.”
Somehow, the settlers made it through the shoals, and to the new fort at the place then known as
French Lick. The North Carolina legislature renamed it Fort Nashborough, and later Nashville.
Fast-forward 135 years. America is about to be dragged into World War I, and the nation is badly
in need of plants that make nitrates (which are used to make gunpowder and fertilizer). By now,
hydroelectric power has been invented, and as it turns out, the things that made the Muscle
Shoals a nightmare for navigation – rapidly descending water in large quantities – make it ideal
for a power-generating dam.
In 1915, such a project is begun. Before it is completed, however, the war ends.
(continued . . .)
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During the 1920s, the question of what to do with Muscle Shoals and the unfinished Wilson
Dam became one of the biggest debates in America. At one point, automobile maker Henry
Ford offered to take over the Muscle Shoals project, turning the entire region into an industrial
development the like of which the world has never seen. Civic leaders all over the South
(including in Nashville) got excited about that possibility.
Senator George W. Norris of Nebraska - The Father of TVA. He is
shown here visiting Norris Dam, which was named in his honor.
Norris was the key supporter of President Franklin Roosevelt’s
creation of TVA, a New Deal innovative solution, that helped lift
the nation out of the depths of the Great Depression.
The U. S. House approved Ford’s plan quickly, but
the Senate rejected it, in large part because of the
vocal opposition of Nebraska Senator George
Norris. Exactly how Norris got so interested in the
Tennessee Valley is still a bit of a mystery.
Apparently, he became drawn into it because he was
the most ardent opponent of Ford’s offer; he didn’t
think the government should sell such an important
project to a private company. After he helped kill
that offer, he was heavily criticized by southern
leaders for putting a stop to a deal that would have
helped the South. So it may have been guilt as much
as anything else that turned the problem of the
Tennessee River into Norris’ obsession.
In 1926, Norris introduced a bill that called on the federal government to take over the Muscle
Shoals project and build more dams along the Tennessee River as a part of a coordinated plan
for flood control, navigation and fertilizer production. The idea went nowhere under Presidents
Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover. This angered Norris so much that in 1932 he, a
Republican, endorsed Democrat Franklin Roosevelt.
Roosevelt was grateful for Norris’ support. And in January 1933, a few weeks after Roosevelt
won the election, Norris accompanied Roosevelt on a trip to Muscle Shoals. “This should be a
happy day for you, George,” Roosevelt said, as the two men stood beside Wilson Dam. “It is,
Mr. President,” Norris responded. “I see my dreams come true.”
That day, Roosevelt made a speech in Montgomery. “Muscle Shoals is more than an
opportunity to do a good turn for the people of one or two states,” he said. “It is an opportunity
to do a great deal for the people of many states and the whole country by tying industry,
agriculture, forestry and flood control in one great development and so afford a better place for
millions yet unborn in the days to come.”
Roosevelt then sent Congress a proposal establishing something called the Tennessee Valley
Authority. Its many functions included flood control, navigation, fertilizer production, reforestation, industrial development and power production. (It is of some significance that power
production was not a primary goal of TVA but an inevitable by-product of it.) On a practical
level, it would construct and maintain a series of high dams along the river. They were located
in places that Army Corps of Engineers surveyor (and Williamson County native) Lewis
Watkins had recommended in a study produced in the late 1920s.
The TVA bill passed quickly. Before long it was building dams and providing electricity to
areas in the Tennessee Valley for far cheaper prices than the people in Nashville were paying.
Nashville’s leaders began campaigning for the right to buy TVA power in Middle Tennessee.
Springtime Reminders from NES . . .
Call Before You Dig . . .
A complex network of lines, pipes, and cables is
buried underground here in Nashville. This equipment
carries water, electricity, telephone, gas, and cable
television.
If you are planning on doing a little digging, you
can learn where underground equipment is located in
your digging area by calling Tennessee One Call.
Digging without this information could not only be
dangerous, but costly, if you damage underground transmission equipment. So the next
time you plan to dig, do it safely by calling Tennessee One Call at 366-1987.
Trees & Utility Lines
Determining where to plant a tree is a decision that should not be taken lightly.
Many factors should be considered prior to planting, especially what type of tree to plant
and where the tree will be located in relation to overhead or underground utility lines.
Proper tree and site selection will provide trouble-free beauty and pleasure for years to
come. The illustration below indicates approximately where trees should be planted in
relation to overhead utility lines.