Exploring the history of Lake Norman

Cowan's Ford Dam on the Catawba River created Lake Norman when it was completed in 1963. (Duke Energy photo)

Lake Norman in the Piedmont of North Carolina is the state's largest lake, a destination for luxury home buyers and boaters. But before Lake Norman, there was the Catawba River and the many farms and settlements along the river.  Some newcomers here are surprised to learn that the lake is human-made - not natural.

The Davidson Historical Society explored the lake's history in a program Sunday, March 29, 2026, with two experts on lake history, Chuck McShane and Jan Blodgett. Nearly 100 people attended the panel discussion, at Bailey's Glen clubhouse in Cornelius. 

From left, Jan Blodgett, Chuck McShane and host David Boraks, at the Lake Norman history program on March 29, 2026. Listen to a replay of the event at the link below.

McShane is the author of "A History of Lake Norman: Fish Camps to Ferraris." By day, Chuck is a business market and public policy analyst. Beyond that, he's a researcher and writer with a keen interest in history. He has masters and PhD degrees from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. 

Jan Blodgett is a writer, community historian and the retired archivist at Davidson College. She has a master's in library science from Texas Woman's University, a master's in history from West Texas State University, and a PhD in American Studies from the University of Maryland, College Park. While at Davidson, she led a project to uncover the pre-lake history of the region. She's also the co-author, with Davidson College historian Ralph Levering, of "One Town, Many Voices," a history of Davidson, North Carolina, published by the Davidson Historical Society. 

PODCAST

Our March 29 program - available here as a podcast episode - explored the lake's history, and what's now beneath its waters. What happened to all those roads and bridges, buildings, and even cemeteries? 

BACKGROUND

The idea of building a hydro-electric dam at Cowan's Ford on the Catawba River was floated for decades before it happened. Beginning in the early 1900s, Duke Energy - then Southern Power Company - built a string of dams in the Catawba River basin to recruit and supply industry.  In the 1950s, this dam became a reality. It was constructed between 1959 and 1964. 

McShane says his book grew out of research for a Charlotte magazine article. "As I started to dive into it, I thought this deserves more than 3,000 words. So I turned that into 30,000 words in the book here," he recalled. 

The history of Lake Norman is about more than just a dam project, he said. "It's really the transformation of this region from something very rural into a suburb - a high-end suburb - of the Charlotte area," he said. Hence the "Ferraris" from his title. 

Duke contractors cleared the future lake bed of trees and structures before the lake filled. (Courtesy of Chuck McShane)

"This was the culmination of Duke Energy's decades-long expansion of the electrification of this this region, which really started in the in the late 1800s and ended in 1950s," McShane said. "You can really think about it as a part of the suburbanization of the United States, the need for power that really started to emerge in this area, and the growth of this area."

It all began in the early 1900s when James B. Duke, who helped found the energy company that now bears his name, led early purchases of land that would become the lake. 

Around the same time as McShane was working on his book, Blodgett began research for a digital mapping project called "Under the Lake," at Davidson College. At the March 29 event, she showed a 1912 map of the area, encompassing parts of Lincoln, Catawba, Iredell and Mecklenburg counties. At the time, the area was rural, with only a few small communities to speak of, she said.  

"This is small farms, very small communities. There are going to be some mills along the river," Blodgett said. But not much else. 

Cowan's Ford dam under construction. The dam built from 1959-64 created Lake Norman. (Courtesy of Chuck McShane)

Duke's people "had been purchasing land since 1906, basically. And they had half of the land already by 1959," she said. It was all part of planning for the future.

 "In 1910 no one needed the electricity. They were just imagining that it could happen," Blodgett said. 

When it did come, it happened relatively quickly. Formal planning began in 1958, land clearing in 1959, and the lake began filling in 1963, she said.  

One reason it could happen so quickly is that modern requirements such as environmental, historical and archaeological reviews just didn't exist, she said. "They did come to (Davidson) college and ask if we had anybody that could help with Indian sites, archaeological sites. We didn't. So they didn't," Blodgett said.

"It's interesting to think of now that there just weren't many people to care," she said. 

[Blodgett kicked off our program with what's called a land acknowledgement. "It's important to acknowledge that this land we're on was part of the Catawba Nation," she noted.]

The 1916 Catawba River flood inundated roads and bridges and was among the arguments for Cowan's Ford Dam. (Courtesy of Chuck McShane)

McShane and Blodgett showed photos and described what was demolished or left under the lake: 27 miles of roads, old bridges, farms and farm houses, mills, churches and graveyards. 

Those graveyards were moved -  l sometimes, said Blodgett. 

"They sometimes just moved tombstones, and they sometimes moved the graves. It was a mix of them," she said. 

She cited the example of one Baker's cemetery: "The tombstones ended up in the back of Center Church (Mount Mourne). They did not move the bodies. They just took the tombstones," she said. 

When the project started, it was a big deal for political and business leaders. The governor, Luther Hodges, and Duke officials gathered for the groundbreaking. And McShane showed photos of crowds that came to watch the construction and rising waters. 

"They set up bleachers, and they literally came back every week to see how far the water had come up the dam," McShane said. "Building the dam was a major, major project. One Duke Energy official from the time said that they used enough concrete to build a sidewalk from here to Oklahoma to make the dam. They had to build their own railway system to bring in supplies to build the turbines."

After the waters rose to their new, permanent level, Lake Norman gradually became more important to the regions development. Early on, Duke Energy sold or leased lots to its own employees for weekend cabins. While it once was a hard sell - being so far from Charlotte, and without Interstate 77 - the lakefront is now lined with multi-million dollar mansions. 

In 1973, when I-77 was completed up to Davidson, it inspired developers to propose Marine World theme park off Exit 30.  Blodgett talked about its failure. 

"The town council talked and said, 'You want to come? Fine. We're not giving you anything - no tax (breaks), no sewer support, no nothing.' And Marine World just walked. They didn't go to Mooresville. Marine World just took Shamu the whale and went off," Blodgett said. 

Podcast theme: Long and Low Cloud by Blue Dot Sessions