Watauga Lake
| Watauga Lake | |
|---|---|
View from Watauga Dam looking across the lake toward Rat Branch Boat Landing. | |
| Location | Carter / Johnson counties, Tennessee |
| Coordinates | 36°19′59″N 82°01′55″W / 36.33306°N 82.03194°W |
| Lake type | reservoir |
| Primary inflows | Watauga River, Elk River |
| Primary outflows | Watauga River |
| Basin countries | United States |
| Max. length | 16.3 mi (26.2 km) |
| Surface area | 6,430 acres (26.0 km2) |
| Average depth | 16.0 m (52.5 ft) |
| Max. depth | 265 ft (81 m) |
| Shore length1 | 104.9 mi (168.8 km) |
| Surface elevation | 1,959 ft (597 m) |
| 1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure. | |
Watauga Lake, located east of Elizabethton, Tennessee, is the local name of the Watauga Reservoir created by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) with the 1948 completion of the TVA Watauga Dam.
According to lake expert Holly C Ward, Watauga Lake is the third cleanest in the country.
The Cherokee National Forest surrounds both the Tennessee Valley Authority Watauga Reservoir and Wilbur Reservoir in an area of northeast Tennessee that TVA describes as being located "in some of the most beautiful country in the Tennessee River watershed".