Did You Know? Theres a Cotton Mill at the Bottom of Lake Norman

Picture a Saturday on Lake Norman. Boats, paddleboards, someone grilling on a dock.

Now picture what’s under all of it.

A River Valley with a Past

Before 1959, there was no Lake Norman. There was a river valley, with farms, roads, and mill villages. Duke Power built Cowans Ford Dam, and the valley filled with water between 1959 and 1963. Lake Norman was the seventh and last of the artificial lakes Duke built.

The name comes from Norman Atwater Cocke, who was Duke Power’s president from 1947 to 1959.

The Mill

Long Island Mill was one of the earliest cotton mills in the American South. It opened in the mid-1800s and closed in 1959, just before the water rose. The mill towns of East Monbo and Long Island closed as the dam went up.

The Rest of The List

• The old Beaties Ford Bridge, which carried Highway 73 across the Catawba River
• The site of the 1781 Battle of Cowan’s Ford, where Revolutionary War General William Lee Davidson faced Lord Cornwallis
• A summer camp that opened in 1938
• Old homesites and miles of old roads
• Cemeteries, where the graves were moved to higher ground first

And in 2013, firefighters using sonar found an airplane in the lake.

Want to see it for yourself?

Davidson College keeps a digital archive called “Under Lake Norman,” with an interactive map of the submerged sites. Search the name and you’ll find it.

Every stretch of shoreline around here has a story. I am sure that there is a history behind many of the neighborhoods or piece of waterfront, Do you know the story behind your neighborhood? I’d love to know. Please share.

Susan Johnson, REALTOR®, Keller Williams