New Episode: Lake Norman, Part 2: When the Water Came
When the River Changed | Made in Carolina Podcast
Before Lake Norman existed, the Catawba River shaped the rhythms of daily life across the Carolina Piedmont. Families farmed their
land. Mill villages grew beside its banks. Communities gathered in churches, schools, baseball fields, and front porches built over generations of shared routines and labor.
But in the early twentieth century, the river—and the lives connected to it—began to change.
In Episode 2 of Made in Carolina, we explore the early transformation of the Catawba River through the expansion of Duke Power and the creation of a regional hydroelectric system that would eventually lead to the creation of Lake Norman.
This episode traces the impact of the Great Flood of 1916, the rise of Southern Power, and the decisions that reshaped communities along the river. Through oral histories and historical interpretation, we hear how these changes unfolded differently across the region, through opportunity for some, and displacement and loss for others.
Featuring conversations with Chuck McShane, Richard Eller, Michael Connor, and Katie Dickinson, this episode explores what it meant to watch familiar roads disappear, communities become dismantled, and the river itself transformed.
As the water rose, families across the region faced difficult decisions about home, work, land, and memory.
This is the story of when the river began to change.
Featured Topics
The Great Flood of 1916
Duke Power and hydroelectric expansion
Southern Power and the Catawba River
Mill villages and community displacement
Long Island Mill, Monbo, and East Monbo
Oral histories from families who witnessed the lake’s creation
Memory, land loss, and regional transformation
Credits
Created, produced, and hosted by Lolita Rowe Original music by Sister Sai
Additional sound:
“steady rain_wind gust 158.wav” by leo153 (Freesound.org, CC0)
“Long Way” by Rexlambo (CC BY 3.0)
Resources
A History of Lake Norman: Fish Camps to Ferraris by Chuck McShane
North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources — Flood of 1916
Duke Energy Illumination — “From Great Flood, New Life for Catawba River”
French Broad Adventures — “Remembering the Flood of 1916”
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