The great dam at Lake Toxaway, 38 miles from Asheville,
broke at 7 o’clock Sunday night. It went out with a roar. The entire dam, built
of earth and stone, seemed to melt before the rush of waters within a few
minutes. The initial opening in the dam, caused, it is believed, by the seeping
of a natural spring at the base, was not longer than a railway coach.
The dam, built in 1902 at a cost of $38,000, was constructed
at a point where the hills are not more than 400 feet apart. Over this dam the
waters of Lake Toxaway river flowed down a narrow and densely wooded gorge for
a distance of 16 miles of comparatively uninhabited territory before emptying
into the Chuga river and striking the first towns in its path in South
Carolina, 3,500 feet below the Toxaway section.
There have been no unusual rains in the lake section for
several days, but it is thought that the dam was weakened by the heavy rains
which flooded western North Carolina during the week of July 16. This is the
third and largest of the lakes in the mountains of Western North Carolina which
have gone out since the July storms.
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