History

The Yonah Hydroelectric Plant is situated three miles below the Tugalo Plant on the Tugalo River, which at that point forms the border between Georgia and South Carolina. The eastern half of Yonah dam is, in fact, in South Carolina. The origin of the name "Yonah" is a Cherokee Indian word that means "big black bear."

Yonah's dam is 90 feet high and 980 feet long. The gravity concrete structure impounds Lake Yonah. In producing electricity, the plant uses all of the water that passes through Tugalo Dam, which comes from the storage reservoirs on the Tallulah River as well as from the flow of the Chattooga River. Like the other plants in the North Georgia Hydro Group, Yonah is still making an important contribution to present-day energy requirements. Its original three generating units can still produce a total of 22,500 kilowatts.

Construction of the dam was begun in 1923, the same year the Terrora project was started and a year after work had resumed on Tugalo. To get the necessary materials and equipment to the Tugalo and Yonah sites, a special railroad was built from a point on the Southern Railway near Toccoa, to Tugalo, passing the site of the Yonah development. Upon completion of the two plants, the railroad was dismantled.

The Yonah Plant was completed and placed in operation in 1925. Its powerhouse, located on the river's west bank, houses three generators, each with a capacity of 7,500 kilowatts. Each generator is directly connected to a 12,500-horsepower water wheel. These three water wheels, like those of the other plants in the group, were manufactured by the S. Morgan Smith Company, which was one of the largest builders of water turbines in the world. The company's founder, S. Morgan Smith, was the first pioneer of hydroelectric development in Georgia. He was responsible for the 1902-4 construction of Morgan Falls near Atlanta, one of the earliest such power plants in the state.