Long before campers pitched tents beneath towering oaks or anglers launched boats into Kentucky and Barkley Lakes, nearly 2,800 people called this peninsula home. Known then as Between the Rivers, the region was a close-knit collection of farms, churches, schools, country stores, and small villages where neighbors often gave directions by creek crossings instead of street names.
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| Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area today, showing the location of Golden Pond. Map by Ontheworldmap.com |
To make that vision a reality, every resident was required to relocate.
Entire communities vanished from the landscape, including Golden Pond, Kentucky, and Model and Tharpe, Tennessee, along with numerous smaller settlements scattered across the peninsula.
Most of these were tiny villages rather than incorporated towns. Golden Pond—the largest—had fewer than 300 residents when Land Between the Lakes was established. There were no factories, railroads, public water systems, or sewer lines. Electricity came from two rural electric cooperatives, and telephone service was limited to lines running along U.S. 68 and portions of the highway now known as the Woodlands Trace National Scenic Byway.
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| Visitors can walk on the concrete map at the Golden Pond overlook and imagine the homes and businesses that once existed there. |
Yet Golden Pond was once much more than a dot on the map.
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| A painting of Golden Pond, Kentucky, from mid-20th century. Artist unknown. |
During the early twentieth century, it was a thriving rural community with a hotel, bank, church, café, two general stores, and a filling station. Although a devastating fire destroyed much of the business district in 1933, residents rebuilt most of what had been lost.
Golden Pond also became famous during Prohibition.
While, as one resident observed, "the big percentage of people here never had anything to do with whisky making," the region nevertheless earned a reputation for producing exceptional corn liquor. Its rugged hills, dense forests, and remote location made it an ideal place for illegal distilleries.
One colorful story tells of a local "king bee" in Golden Pond, who acted as a wholesaler for area moonshiners. Distillers reportedly delivered their whiskey to him for distribution and payment. According to local tradition, the liquor was poured into a well on a nearby hill and flowed through pipes leading directly into the king bee's house—a tale that illustrates the folklore surrounding the area's moonshining past.
Federal authorities fought a long battle against the illicit trade. From the early 1930s through the 1950s, the Federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Unit maintained five or six investigators in the region. The last operating still was seized in 1967, although TVA officials reportedly discovered evidence of a recently abandoned still as late as 1969.
Golden Pond was only one of many communities that disappeared.
In Tennessee, settlements included Tip Top, Blue Spring, Caleb's Valley, Fort Henry, Futrell, and Iron Valley. Kentucky communities included Fenton, Turkey Creek, and Pleasant Hill in Trigg County, along with Twin Lakes, Woodson Chapel, and Carmack in Lyon County.
Today, little remains of these once-vibrant communities except scattered cemeteries, old foundations hidden beneath the trees, family photographs, and cherished memories. Their stories are preserved through exhibits at the Golden Pond Visitor Center, reunions, and social media groups maintained by former residents and their descendants.
Millions of people now visit Land Between the Lakes each year to enjoy its forests, lakes, and wildlife. Few realize they are walking roads once traveled by schoolchildren, farmers, merchants, and churchgoers—following the footsteps of generations who called Between the Rivers home.
Sources:
Ed Huddleston, “The Land Between the Rivers,” reprinted from Nashville Banner, Nashville, Tenn., September, 1957.
Marie Wells Coutu, The Development of the Land Between the Lakes 1961-1972: A Case Study in Public Relations, Master’s Thesis, Murray (Ky.) State University, August 1973.
Harry Bolser, “Lakes Land: Iron to Alcohol,” Courier-Journal and Times, Louisville, Ky., August 31, 1969.
Senior Class, Lyon County High School, One Century of Lyon County History, Eddyville, Ky., 1964.
The historical short story, “All That Glistens,” was inspired by an old photo of a woman from the Between the Rivers area of western Kentucky. The story was included in the 2023 Saturday Evening Post Great American Fiction collection and is now available free when you sign up for Marie's newsletter here. In her newsletter, she shares about her writing, historical tidbits, recommended books, and sometimes recipes.
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