What is so significant about Lake Norman? I mean it’s just a lake? Lake Norman is a man-made lake north of Charlotte that has over 500 miles of shoreline. Lake Norman was created by The Duke Energy Company in the early 1960’s. The Duke Energy Company’s goal was to use the Catawba River to make electricity on the south end of the lake using nuclear power. On the north side of the lake, the steam plant used lake water and burning coal. Lake Norman was named after a former president of Duke Energy Company; Norman Cocke. Before Lake Norman was created, the land underneath the lake was a very rural area primarily used for agriculture and mill towns. I chose Lake Norman because I have lived around the lake for a majority of my life and the particular scope of my “place” was to analyze the view of the lake from my parents’ house, the surrounding scenery and the impact that industrialization, urbanization, and reshaping nature landscape has had on the Lake Norman area.
When looking out onto the lake, there are homes along the shorelines and peninsulas, wildlife in natural habitats on islands throughout the lake, as well as recreational use of the lake. Lake Norman was primarily made to produce electricity using hydropower and nuclear energy such as The McGuire Nuclear Station and Marshal Steam Station, which are on opposite ends of the lake. The Marshal Steam Station has always been a memorable sight in my viewpoint of the lake because the steam clouds coming from the plant off in the distance will rise above the tree line that surrounds the shoreline which were always visible even on cloudy days. The Marshal Plant was a coal plant used to produce electricity on the northern end of the lake near the Statesville area. On the South end of the Lake, McGuire Nuclear Power Station produces power to the surrounding areas of the lake and into Charlotte. Looking out on the lake from my vantage point, you can see a section of the main channel which runs downstream from the Catawba River to the McGuire Plant which could be seen at night from the house because of the lights around the large facility as well as periodically hearing test alarms from the plant. The two power plants are very significant to the area due to how it altered the surrounding landscapes that existed before the lake was created such as farm land and small rural mill towns. “Before Lake Norman, the areas surrounding the Catawba River were very different. Farming, cotton mills, and textile mills were the way of life” (Jacobs, 2008). The people who lived in these mill towns were forced to move from their homes because the surrounding land would be flooded by the Catawba River being dammed up by the Cowan’s Ford Dam. The McGuire plant would use the lake to produce electricity for the surrounding areas. “Locals in the area thought the Southern Power Company were crazy because they wanted to bring hydroelectric power to the area. During that time homes were not wired for power and there were very few businesses in the area that were prepared to use electricity” (Gleasner & Gleasner, 1986). From the start of this project in the 1960’s where electricity was nonexistent across the landscape, to modern day where the surrounding areas of the power plant are upscale and heavily reliant on the electricity provided by power plant’s shows how this project to harness energy from the lake benefitted the modern city and urbanized many rural areas that were located along surrounding areas of Lake Norman. “In 1911, Statesville became connected to a second power line that ran through the area from Lincolnton ("Iredell's countryside changed," 1974). Soon people started installing electricity in their homes and upgrading from wood stoves to electric heat and appliances” (Gleasner & Gleasner, 1986). The importance of the power plants, McGuire in particular is the reason why my “place” exists at all, even though my main focus of Lake Norman is based on the scenery and man-made landscape that was created to increase industrialization as well as urbanization to outer city suburbs like Cornelius, Huntersville, Denver, Davidson, Mooresville, and other surrounding suburb cities and rural areas.
“The Duke Power Company decided to put 2,500 lots on indefinite lease ("Lake Norman region," 1965). Sometime later the company started selling lots of land on Lake Norman, they hired men to stand on N.C. 16 to garner interest in buying lots on Lake Norman for $1,000 (Gleasner & Gleasner, 1986). One newspaper article from 1965 said a “mild building boom is in the area” ("Lake Norman region," 1965)” (LakeNorman-Shumake, 2015). This helped to attract more people to growing suburbs in the Lake Norman are which was in the outer city of Charlotte. Due to low cost of waterfront land, as well as increase in business commerce made rural areas start to urbanize to accommodate more people as well as growth of development surrounding Lake Norman.
Growing up in the Lake Norman area allowed me to experience a suburb city life and get to witness nature in my backyard by being able to see wildlife, natural structures on the lake, and mountains off in the distance. I always enjoyed being out on the water and seeing wildlife that lives on and around the lake. I had always wondered what the landscape looked like before the lake was created. From personal experiences being on Lake Norman, I have found an old house in ruins on a small island in the middle of the lake, a bridge submerged under the lake along the main channel, old cars underwater by my house, and many other remnants of the previous landscape that used to exist. I have enjoyed being able to witness the nature that exists in this man-made lake as well as how the Lake Norman area has grown because of Duke Energy using the lake to produce electricity using hydropower. This place was significant to me because the lake has a lot of history and it shares a lot of themes discussed in class such as ideas of urbanization of rural cities, bringing city and nature closer together, and how Lake Norman is used for municipal reasons as well as for recreational use.