The DeSoto Falls Dam

On the Road 1 Minute

Arthur Abernathy Miller built the DeSoto Falls dam for hydroelectric power in the mid-1920s. He had grand dreams.

After buying up land around the falls on Lookout Mountain, Alabama, he and his partners began laying the groundwork for a park and resort area, while the generators would supply electricity to small valley towns below the mountain.

Most of their plans were wrecked by the Great Depression. However, they completed the power generating structure that first brought regular electrical supply to Fort Payne, Alabama, and other cities.

The dam today has been shorn of its top portion and of the hydroelectric plant that received water through a now vanished pipeline. Only the original concrete impoundment structure remains.

The dam and waterfall today are the most recognized image associated with this part of Northern Alabama. They have the odd beauty sometimes seen in ancient ruins — reminding visitors of something now gone.

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Published by Robert Craig Waters

Robert Craig Waters is a Florida writer. After leaving journalism in the early 1980s, he worked as an attorney, communications director, and public spokesman for the Florida Supreme Court in Tallahassee for 35 years. He grew up on a family farm in Beulah, Florida, not far from the Alabama border, before attending Brown University in the 1970s. His mother's family traces its roots to Weaverville, North Carolina. His father's family is from the small village of Burnt Corn, Alabama, where Mr. Waters spent part of his childhood.

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