|
| |
 | Lock History
Construction of the auxiliary lock began in December 1935 and was
put into operation in 1937 by TVA. Work on the main
lock began in March 1963. It was put into operation in 1965.
|
| Area History
The Guntersville Lock was constructed near the site of the
Cherokee village of Tali. Early records show that Hernando DeSoto
visited this area in 1540. In 1785, John Gunter, a Welshman, moved
here from North Carolina to trade with the natives. He took a
Cherokee wife and collected a large fortune.
Gunter began operating a
ferry across the Tennessee River in 1820, leading the area to be known
as Gunter's Landing. Andrew Jackson once camped at Gunter's
Landing while fighting the Creek Indians. He persuaded Dick Brown
and Edward Gunter to recruit a group of Cherokee to aid him. The
resulting action served as the prelude to the Battle of Horseshoe Bend,
where Jackson handed a final defeat to the Creek Nation. Later,
Jackson also built a wagon road to the area so he could transport
supplies to Southern battles. This later became known as the
Jackson Trail and was the main travel artery to the southern region for
more than a century.
In 1835, just a year before his death, John Gunter built the area's
first painted house.
Gunter's Landing's first educational facility was a Presbyterian
mission school. It was located on the old Creek Path used by the
tribe to reach their hunting grounds. Dick and Catherine Brown,
half Cherokee, served as teachers at the school, and Dick even served as
an interpreter for Sequoia, the developer of the Cherokee alphabet.
Louis Wyeth came to Guntersville, Alabama from Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania in 1837. He made Guntersville the county seat and in
1847 had the town incorporated by the state legislature. It's
location on the river made Guntersville a focal point during the Civil
War. Federal shelling partially burned the town, and troops on
both sides passed through the city.
When the war was over, Guntersville was rebuilt, and it began
growing. The railroad came to the town in 1892. The
availability of both water and rail transport ensured commercial
development could thrive. |
|
|
