LONG TIME GONE - A HOME UNDER WATER ON FALLING WATER RIVER & GRAVES DISINTERRED
LONG - TIME - GONE By Anna Allison-Burgess PUTNAM COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF TENNESSEE Center Hill Lake was created in 1948 by damming the Caney Fork River. Approximately 18,000 acres of farmland, houses, schools, and churches were submerged. While no ‘famous town’ was submerged, imagine the haunted, underwater landscapes of these rural communities. Before flooding, graves from local cemeteries were exhumed and transferred to places like Mount Holly Cemetery in Smithville, Tennessee. A family member was requested to be present during exhumation - I have a copy of one such list from the Robinson Cemetery at the top of Cookeville Boat Dock Hill in Putnam County. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers constructed the Center Hill Dam, inundating the area in the late 1940s. LIST OF GRAVES MOVED FROM ROBINSON HILL CEMETERY TO MT. HOLLY Nancy A. Childress Green Robinson is documented as to attending the disinterment of 7 out of the 9 graves around 1948: graves ...