Why does this town in northern Alabama, situated along the Tennessee River, appear to be flourishing despite the lingering effects of the Great Depression?  The town benefitted from the rapid expansion of regional employment by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).  This large and innovative New Deal federal agency was reshaping the economy, the landscape, and the flow of water along the course of the Tennessee River and its tributaries.  

The agency eventually constructed sixteen hydroelectric dams from 1933 to 1944 that also controlled seasonal flooding and improved navigation. Construction on two of these—Guntersville and Wilson Dams—employed thousands of workers near Florence.  The TVA also employed workers to manage forest land and fisheries, to control malaria-spreading mosquitoes, and to build and maintain the electric grid.  Affordable power generated at TVA hydroelectric plants made the region attractive to industry, and even to the US military. The TVA Norris Dam supplied reliable electric power to the plants that developed America’s first atomic weapons.