Lake James

The boundary between Burke and McDowell Counties is shared by the sizable reservoir known as Lake James, which is located in the mountains of western North Carolina. It bears the name of James Buchanan Duke, a tobacco tycoon and supporter of Duke University. The lake is hidden behind a network of four earthen dams, with a surface level of 1200 feet (366 meters). It was built as a hydroelectric facility by Duke Power between 1916 and 1923. It is the uppermost lake on the Catawba River system and continues to produce electricity today.

Lake James is the result of James B. Duke's early 1900s initiative to build a network of dams and reservoirs on the Catawba River in North Carolina's Piedmont with the goal of generating electricity for the area. The Catawba River, which originates in the mountains close to the unincorporated community of Linville Falls (North Fork), as well as on the eastern slope of the Eastern Continental Divide, and the Linville River, which rises on the slopes of Grandfather Mountain and forges the Linville Gorge after plunging over Linville Falls north of the lake, meet at the confluence where the reservoir was built. Paddy's Creek (also known as Paddy Creek), which gives its name to a campsite, boat launch, and a section of Lake James State Park that includes a sandy beach swimming area, is one of the lesser flows that feed the reservoir.

The earthen works that built the reservoir were started in 1916, and they were finished in 1923. The little farming hamlet of Fonta Flora, which was dispersed between the productive river valley and the nearby low hills, suffered some losses as a result of the lake's flooding.