Monday, January 30, 2006

Beautiful Lake Cumberland


Lake Cumberland Facts (courtesy U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)

Lake Cumberland was filled with water in December 1950, and was constructed primarily for flood control and the production of hydroelectric power at a cost of about $80.4 million. Its shoreline measures 1,085 miles and the lake is spread over 50,250 acres at the top of the power pool.
It ranks 22nd in the One Hundred Largest Dams in the U.S. and required 11,568,900 cubic yards of material in construction. The reservoir ranks 9th in the U.S. in size with a capacity of 6,089,000 acre-feet, enough water to cover the entire Commonwealth of Kentucky to a depth of 3 inches. That's roughly 1.9 trillion gallons.
More than 4.7 million visitors spent 73,252,200 hours in pursuit of recreation and added more than $152,395,044.00 to the local economy in 1999. The number of visitor hours ranks Lake Cumberland 4th in the nation among 383 Corps Lakes.
Since it was impounded, Wolf Creek Dam has prevented more than $500,000,000 in flood damages for cities and communities downstream.
The six turbines at Lake Cumberland are capable of producing 270 megawatts of electricity, enough to supply the needs of an average city with a population of 375,000.
Cost of original dam construction: $81 million
Cost to repair leak in dam (discovered in 1967) during late 1970s: $96.4 million.

We gets lots of tourism from Ohio and we refer to them as the Ohio Navy! Some of them refer to themselves as that as well as you see in the picture below and they have a website too! Many folks come here for the fishing where they catch these huge striper bass. You can always hire a guide to help you with catching those big fish!







The lake holds lots of other activities such as skiing, swimming, tubing, and just relaxing with friends on a houseboat. We live on one small part of this lake which overlooks a private boat club. The houseboats below us are pictured here. The rest of the photos are not ones that I took nor do I know the folks in them. But if you like boating and fishing and the lake in general then Lake Cumberland is a good one to visit!

15 Comments:

Blogger David said...

Thanks for the lesson, it is a beautiful looking area.

11:42 AM  
Blogger Lucy Stern said...

Very nice history lesson...Thanks

12:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Ohio Navy". That's great!

1:51 PM  
Blogger Jamie Dawn said...

I'm a big lover of water & trees, so lakes really attract my attention. What an interesting post.

2:16 PM  
Blogger Fred said...

Yes, it was a great lesson. Those are some pretty big fish!

4:52 PM  
Blogger Cliff said...

Great photo's and story. You are one lucky dog, or dogette as the case may be. The stripers took a brand new rod and reel from my wife one afternoon here in Nebraska. Very aggressive fellers. Great post Rachel. I would never go on vacation if I lived there.

5:54 PM  
Blogger Ralph said...

Rachel
Lake Cumberland is amazing. Please don't tell me you live really close to it - that would just be cruel. Those fish pictures are amazing and with a shoreline of 1,085 miles even I might be able to catch a fish.
I do have to ask this what is a power pool? I have never heard that before.
Ralph

6:14 PM  
Blogger Paul Nichols said...

Very nice. I'm jealous. Maybe I'll bring some coffee and ...

6:22 PM  
Blogger OldLady Of The Hills said...

This is so very interesting...I can't get over the cost to fix that leak!!!! Good Lord! Pretty frightening....

That first photograph is really bautiful...I know you didn't take it, but you found it and posted it Rachel, so that we can see and appreciate this very very beautiful lake.
The photograph of the HouseBoats is wonderful, too, and that one I know you did take....it's GREAT!

9:39 PM  
Blogger Jim said...

I don't do boating since I gave away my John boat. Fishing by me hasn't started yet. Your lake looks like a good place to start, really pretty and all.
..

10:50 PM  
Blogger EV said...

Rachel, that was such an intersting post. Those bass are awesome! I live on a lake too. Although it's smaller- about 25 square miles. Thanx. I've been meaning to get you blogrolled; I'll see to it that today is the day. ;)

2:27 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Interesting trivia and beautiful pictures! I pray you are doing well!

5:32 AM  
Blogger thewriterslife said...

Beautiful! We have quite a bit of water and places to fish here on the Eastern Shore but I really enjoyed hearing about Lake Cumberland...absolutely beautiful!

5:34 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Gorgeous lake. You're so lucky to live on the water. That is a dream of mine. These were lovely photos to share with us. HUGE fish!!

10:16 AM  
Blogger Rachel said...

Ralph, I think by power pool they mean...well I'm not really sure what they mean, but since they are talking about how big the lake is at the top of the power pool, I thnk they mean at the part of the dam where the hydroelectric power starts? You can tour the dam and go down inside it, but I never have!

5:06 PM  

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