Book delves into history before, after Weiss was built

By Kevyn Bowling

CENTRE — Next time you drive over one of the many bridges in Cherokee County, take a quick look at the water below. You'll see the green water, a boat or two, maybe someone fishing. But there was a time before most of those bridges were built when there was no lake, just the meandering Coosa River and the occasional farmhouse.

Many of us may find that hard to believe because the Weiss Lake is all we know. But there was such a time, and Scott Wright has written a book about it. Wright, the managing editor of this weekly newspaper, teamed up with a Charleston, S.C.-based company called The History Press to deliver the first published history of the dam that transformed this rural community forever.

What gave Wright the idea for the project?

“The History Press sent a mass email to magazines and newspapers asking ideas for regional history books,” he said. “I thought about two or three ideas before I realized it was sitting all around me -- Weiss Lake. I knew a little bit about the lake from covering it as the editor here for all these years but I soon realized there was much I didn't know.”

Wright got the go-ahead from editor John Wilkinson at The History Press in April and by the end of July produced “A History of Weiss Lake.” The book captures life in Cherokee County before the lake was built, the process of construction and how the county has adjusted to the changes in the decades since. The 128 pages include rare photos and stories from people who were around for all three stages.

“The best part about the whole process was the things I learned about Cherokee County,” Wright said. “The roads and bends and ferries that my mom and dad talked about when I was a kid mean so much more to me now. I'd always heard of Round Mountain, but I never knew it was an entire community that was swallowed by the lake until I wrote this book.”

The book includes the little-remembered saga of a group of local farmers and ginners who banded together to try and stop Alabama Power from taking their land.

Although Wright does well with what is in the book, he says much was left out.

“I think there is at least another book about Weiss Lake,” he said. “There are interviews that I was unable to use. You wouldn't believe how many people have come up to me since they found out I was writing or had finished this book and said, 'Wow! You should have talked to so and so.' There is at least again as many stories as I used in this book that can be used in another."

Wright said he even listed his email in the acknowledgments.

“If anyone wants to send me a story, I'll be glad to listen,” he said. “I still have all my notes. Maybe we can do another one sometime soon.”

Anyone who wants to know more about Weiss Lake or Cherokee County should read this book. It is a coffee table must-have for every lake house in the county. I'm sure if you bring a copy into The Post, Wright will be glad to sign it for you.

The book can be purchased at The Post and other local businesses. It can also be bought online at Amazon.com. There will also be a book signing Tuesday at 9 a.m. in the lobby of the Gadsden State Cherokee Campus.

Wright said he hopes to schedule other book signings before the holidays and again in the spring when the out-of-state fishermen begin their annual trek to the “Crappie Capital of the World.”