The Flood Control Acts gave the US Army Corps of Engineers the power to construct dams, reservoirs, and other flood prevention construction projects. One of these authorized by the 1941 act was Lake Allatoona. Located north of Atlanta, Lake Allatoona was created in the latter half of the 1940s when a dam was constructed at the Allatoona pass, and the reservoir that created the lake finished filling in 1950. A small town by the same name was flooded so that the reservoir could be filled. Overall, the lake covers over 12,000 acres and it has a maximum depth of 145 feet. The power station installed in the dam has a maximum capacity of 85 megawatts.
Its situation as a federally owned lake provides opportunities for the lake to be central to conservation efforts. There are two major conservation projects occurring at the lake. In the late 1990s, several manmade osprey nests were constructed at the lake to compensate for the fact that the only osprey nest in the state was on a dying tree. Furthermore, another project has begun to replace the longleaf pine forests that were once characteristic of the region, but then were cut down to make room for farms before the lake project was commissioned.
Allatoona Lake. Mobile District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. (n.d.). Retrieved December 1, 2021, from https://www.sam.usace.army.mil/Missions/Civil-Works/Recreation/Allatoona-Lake/.