Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-04
PROGRESS WIPES
OUT 4H|LL BILLY
Eastern Tennessee Power
Developments Bring Mod
ern Life Into Mountains.
b. the Associated Press.

b. the Associated Press.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn, September A.
The hill billy is fast disappearing from
LAST Tennessee and the factory work.
man is taking nm pi.ce-
Within the walls of the EaSe Ten
nessee Valley. the simple mode Of liv-
ing of a half million people is being
revolutionized by Harvesting a score
of streams tumbling down the Southern
Appalachians.
Industrial development in the "Ruhr
OF America" q name now commonly
applied 20 the section. which inc''t s
not only East Tennessee, but the West
ern Carolinas. has few parallels in the
''new South"
Transformation of a rather obscure
section is reflected by the 1880 census,
which placed two cities in the valley,
Chattanooga and Knoxville, in the 100,-
600 class. A half dozen towns at the
head of the valley have doubled or
trebled in the last 10 years.
Water Power Is Reason.
Water power in this section, secret
of the netamorphoSis, has held atten-
ton since the Government in 1918
started construction of the Wilson Dam
on the Tennessee at Muscle Shoals,
Ala. This plant, largest in the valley,
has a capacity of 100000 horsepower.
But Muscle Shoals is only hint OF
what's brewing. A survey of East Ten
nessee streams by Army engineers
shows possible utilization of about l40
water power projects, which could gen.
crate 100000 horsepower.
Proposals include $43,000.000 dam
In the Clinch River, near Knoxville,
provided for in a Muscle Shoals bill
Ehich failed to pass the last Congress.
IT would have been one Of the largest
storage dams in the region.
Actual developments find the Alum
snum Co. of America with plants at
Alcoa, at the foot of the Smoky Noun
tains near the mouth of the Little
Tennessee.
$500 in Model City.
Where in 1918 hogs and cattle fed
shrill whistles now signal an army OF
$500 to work in a model city, with
space provided for an increase to 35,-
900 and an acre Of parks set aside for
every 100 residents. Just now the pros
pective development is only one-fourth
completed.
Hydroelectric plants on the Little
Tennessee, two across the State line
b. North Carolina and one in Tennessee,
generate Z5U,UUU horsepower.
German and American capitalists
have spent $22, 100000 near Elizabeth
town, Tenn, for rayon plants and the
town has grown from 2,849 in 1920 to
S.100 in 1880. Five thousand men and
women are employed.
When completed the plants will cost
$50, 100000 and employ more than 25,.
900. The first units began operation as
recently as 1927.
A huge hydroelectric plant, costing
about $4,000, 900 and generating $4,000
horsepower from the Big Pigeon River
near Waterville, N. c., distributes power
over East Tennessee and Western North
Carolina.
Three Big Developments.
Three large developments, the biggest
being Hales Bar Dam on the Tennessee,
20 miles west of Chattanooga, are own
ed BY the Tennessee Electric Power Co.
The Hales Bar Dam, including the lock,
is 2.4o0 feet long.
The American Cyanamid Co. has per-
mits TO build three large dams on the
Holston River near johnson City, Tenn,
the power to be utilized for manufacture
ing in a $25, 000, 900 development.
Other projects have spread zinc
crushing, copper refining. fertilizer man
ufacturing. metal and woodworking
plants and knitting mills over the val
ley. In Polk County two companies