If you have driven Mission Road near the Cherokee and Clay County line, you have probably crossed paths with one of the most underrated pieces of mountain history in our area.
Mission Dam does not look like one of those massive “TVA style” dams that people think of when they hear hydropower. It is smaller. Quieter. Easier to miss.
But here’s the twist.
Mission Dam is the oldest dam on the Hiwassee River, and it has been producing power in one form or another for more than a century.
When you watch the drone footage, you are not just seeing water moving through a spillway. You are looking at a living artifact from the moment Western North Carolina first started turning mountain rivers into electricity.
Where it is and what it is
Mission Dam sits on the Hiwassee River in Clay County, North Carolina, positioned between two much bigger names in regional water history: Chatuge Dam and Hiwassee Dam.
It is about 50 feet tall and roughly 397 feet long.
It forms a small reservoir, about 47 acres.
Small by “big dam” standards, but not small in impact.
Why it was built (and why that matters)
Mission Dam was built in 1924 by the City of Andrews for one main reason: to supply energy.
That is a big deal historically, because this was pre TVA.
In the early 1900s, towns across the mountains were trying to modernize. Electricity was not a guarantee. It was a competitive advantage. Having local power meant you could light homes, support businesses, and keep up with the future. Mission Dam was Andrews making a bold move to control its own destiny using the river that was already there.
A clever design with a hidden problem
Mission Dam was built using an Ambursen design, sometimes called a buttress dam. Think of it like a structure that uses a series of supports and internal chambers to reduce the amount of concrete needed. It was an efficient, innovative idea for its time.
But those internal chambers can become a weakness as decades pass.
In 1999, many of the dam’s chambers were filled in because of concrete deterioration, essentially reinforcing areas that were originally hollow by design.
So yes, when people talk about “filling the dam in,” they literally mean strengthening those internal spaces.
Who owned it over time
Mission Dam has changed hands as the region’s power industry evolved:
- Built by the City of Andrews in 1924
- Purchased in 1929 by Nantahala Power & Light
- Upgraded in 1943
- Later operated by Duke Energy (unlike most big Hiwassee River dams, which are tied to TVA)
And then came the modern era shift.
Why Duke Energy sold it
In 2018, Duke Energy Carolinas announced it would sell five small hydro plants in the Western Carolinas region to Northbrook Energy, stating the move would save customers money over time while keeping clean energy in the mix.
Those five facilities were:
- Bryson
- Franklin
- Mission
- Tuxedo
- Gaston Shoals
WFAE later reported the completed sale price for the package was $4.75 million, and that Duke said the plants had become too expensive to maintain and operate.
A key detail most people never hear: Duke agreed to buy the electricity back from these facilities through a five year power purchase agreement.
So the power still flows into the same broader grid, but the ownership and day to day responsibility shifted.
Who owns Mission Dam now
Mission Dam is now owned through Northbrook’s hydropower arm (Northbrook Power Management and related entities).
Northbrook is a specialist in small hydropower operations. They say they operate 26 hydropower facilities for a variety of owners, including their own companies, and they focus on operations, maintenance, and asset management.
Also worth noting: Northbrook Energy’s public contact listing places them in Scottsdale, Arizona.
What happens to the electricity it generates
This is not power that gets “sent to Andrews” directly like in 1924.
Today, Mission is part of the larger grid. Per the sale terms, Duke purchased the energy generated by these facilities for five years through those power purchase agreements.
So in plain English:
Mission Dam generates electricity, it goes into the grid, and Duke buys it back under contract (at least for that initial period after the sale).
Why your drone video is worth watching
When most people see a small dam, they think, “That’s neat.”
What they do not realize is they are looking at:
- One of the earliest power projects on this river
- A 1920s engineering design that had to be reinforced a century later
- A piece of infrastructure that has survived multiple ownership eras, multiple upgrades, and a full shift in how energy is bought and sold
Your video makes all of that feel real, because you can actually see the river doing what it has been doing for generations: turning motion into power.
A mountain lifestyle footnote
This is one of the reasons living here feels different.
In the mountains, history is not always behind glass in a museum. Sometimes it’s running right beside the road, moving water, generating power, and reminding you that these communities were building big things long before most people paid attention.
If you enjoy this kind of local mountain story and you ever want to talk about living here full time, buying a cabin, land, or a home with a view, reach out to The Poltrock Team. We live here, we work here, and we love sharing what makes this corner of North Carolina special.
