Had been watching the big Tonka toys move rocks, dirt and Stones
from one area to another, ( that’s what they do best ) when
suddenly realized that an extra hour had passed , where did it go
and then got to thinking, had a day dream that we were on an island
named for a famous man name Stone.
In the 1700’s, a wandering hunter by the name of Uriah Stone
turned up a small river which was later named in his honor.
He found a country of open grasslands, cedar barrens, and woodlands
which so abounded in game it staggered his imagination. The
Stone’s River Basin had long been the favored hunting grounds
of the Creek, Chickasaws, Shawnees, and Cherokees. Andrew
Jackson followed some years later and built a magnificent columned
mansion on a plantation near the Stones River which he called
“The Hermitage”. Two hundred years later the
Congress of the United States, by the authority of the Flood
Control Act of 1946, commissioned the construction of a project
under the name, “Stewarts Ferry Reservoir”.
Public Law 85-496, approved July 2, 1958, changed the name to J.
Percy Priest in honor of the late Congressman from Tennessee.
Construction began June 2, 1963 and the dam was completed in
1968. The 33,0540-acre project is managed by a natural
resource management staff under the direction of the District
Commander in Nashville.
J. Percy Priest Dam is visible from Interstate 40 and is located
between miles six and seven of the Stones River. It is
conveniently located about ten miles east of downtown Nashville and
impounds a lake 42 miles long. J. Percy Priest Lake covers
portions of Davidson, Rutherford, and Wilson Counties and consists
of 14,200 surface acres of water at summer pool elevation (490 feet
above mean sea level). The water is surrounded by 18,854
acres of public lands; 10,000 acres are devoted to wildlife
management.