The Summersville Lake Project was built under the supervision of the Army Corps of Engineers between 1960 and 1966 at a cost of nearly $48 million. By the end of 1974 it had paid for itself by prevented flood damages in the Gauley and Kanawha River areas estimated at almost $67 million. The dam is on Gauley River near the town of Summersville in Nicholas County, West Virginia, and controls a drainage area of 803 square miles. It is one of the Corps most scenic dams. A rock-fill type, Summersville is the second largest dam of this type in the eastern United States and required 12 million cubic yards of earth and rock. The dam is 390 feet high (about as tall as a 40-story building) and 2,280 feet long. During summer, the lake is raised to 1,652 feet above sea level, providing 2,790 surface acres of water for recreation. During late fall and winter it is lowered to 1,575 feet to provide maximum space for storage of floodwaters. Water is released from the lake through a 1,555-foot-long, 29-foot-wide tunnel controlled at the lower end by three 9-foot-wide valves.

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