100 Year Anniversary of Georgia Hydroelectric Project

Now Streaming on GPB Originals

Follow this link to view the trailer:

Power Play Trailer

News Release

In the latter part of the twentieth century’s second decade, an emerging Georgia Railway and Power Company was working around the clock to create what at the time would become America’s third largest hydropower project.  The events that followed the completion of the Tugaloo Power Plant in 1914 in Tallulah Gorge and the subsequent closing of the Burton Dam in 1919 would flood the pioneer town of Burton and help create, at the time, the nation’s third largest hydroelectric project and Lake Burton in 1920.  Those events are celebrated in "Power Play", a television special that originally aired on September 24, 2019 on Georgia Public Broadcasting (channel 8 in Atlanta).   Power Play may now be viewed on the GPB Originals website.

Spanning over 160 years,  “Power Play 100 Years:  Lake Burton and Georgia’s Hydroelectric Revolution” gives viewing audiences an opportunity to learn about Atlanta and Georgia history pre and post civil war era through Atlanta’s successful 1996 Olympic bid and the role electric power played as the state developed and expanded over the decades.

Produced by digital content company, Project 360 Media in Atlanta, “Power Play” follows the effect of plentiful and affordable alternating current as it transformed the lives of millions through two world wars, Prohibition and the many other events that would shape Georgia and the south.  During the post civil war reconstruction era in Atlanta and the state of Georgia, we follow the journey through the decades and trace the little known historical facts of Georgia’s development of electricity and the people who made it happen.  The creation of Lake Burton and its  large reservoir capacity would become the lynchpin to supply the hydraulic water volume to create the huge impact that plentiful electricity would have on the growing city of Atlanta and Georgia’s economy through the 20th century.

Also commemorating the 100-year anniversary of the creation of Lake Burton is a book, expected out in the spring of 2020, by Lake Burton resident Mike Maffett, M.D., supported by the Lake Burton Civic Association, entitled, “Our Eden:  A Centennial History of Lake Burton and the Tallulah Basin”.  The book chronicles the history of the Rabun County area and the life, traditions and stories of the century old lake that is the largest reservoir on the Tallulah watershed.  We look forward to sharing additional information, including purchasing details, about the book in the near future.