This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/YS.2ADI/3108.1 Message Board Post: The Corps of Engineers spent eighty-six million dollars building the Walter F. George Lock and Dam that began in 1955 and was completed in 1963. It was built across the bold and swift Chattahoochee River which according to the late Henry County historian William W. Nordan was then the third swiftest river in the world. One historian states that Chattahoochee means “painted rock” in the native tongue of the Creeks. It was built at Fort Gaines, Georgia, established as a military outpost for protection of white settlers against Native Americans in 1816. The dam is just north of the old Franklin Landing. Franklin, Henry County, Alabama was the first settlement in the county with the first migration made in 1816 by William Brown and George Gamble. The dam is known locally as the “Fort Gaines Dam” or “the dam at Fort Gaines.” A hydroelectric dam, the late Fort Gaines historian P. C. King Jr. states in FORT GAINES AND ENVIRONS, 1976, that the “main purpose of this huge dam was to make the Chattahoochee River navigable to Columbus, Georgia.” The shoreline was drastically changed north of the dam creating a 46,000 acre lake that has no official name approved by Congress. Its most common name is Lake Eufaula, but is also known as Lake Walter F. George and the Walter F. George Reservoir. The “backwaters”, what the area is often called and what the lake was called in the early 1960s covered many of the lands of original settlers. This covered area was where the earliest settlers landed once entering the Alabama Territory (1817-1819) and the State of Alabama after December 14, 1819. When Brown and Gamble entered the area is was Washington County, Mississippi Territory. During the territorial years it was Conecuh County. Two prominent features of historical interest that is now under Lake Eufaula are the old frontier community of Otho, Alabama (post office 1854-1905). By the time the land was flooded, Otho had already become one of the “lost” towns of Henry County. Another place of interest is Prospect Bluff where an early Creek Indian town existed and a place where settlers bought land and congregated around. I cannot prove it by document, but would say that landowners were compensated for the flooded land. When the Corps of Engineers built the Abbie Creek Public Use Area east of Haleburg where the old Yatta Abba Creek enters the river negotiations were made with landowner Otis Money for purchase. There was a wrangle over this and I think after Mr. Money refused the “fair market value” of the land it was condemned by the United States government and ceased for public use. Again, I can not document this as fact either. Just speaking from memory and supposition alone. Perhaps another researcher can answer this question. Would really like to know more on this fact from others!! Steve