Lake Allatoona
Lake Allatoona (occasionally Allatoona Lake) is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lake in Georgia, located in northwestern metro Atlanta. The lake is mostly in southwestern Cherokee County, but a significant part is in southeastern Bartow County, and a small part in Cobb County near Acworth. Red Top Mountain State Park is located on its shores, and Cartersville is the nearest large town.
The lake is popular for summer recreation, including boating served by several private marinas and public boat ramps. Acworth Beach is an area where the red clay soil has been covered with white beach sand, and roped off with floats for safety from boaters.
Allatoona also supplies much of the drinking water for the three counties it is in. The lake is supplied by the Etowah River, and its major tributary the Little River, as well as smaller streams like Noonday Creek. The Allatoona Dam holding back the lake was built on the Etowah, which in turn merges into the Coosa River downstream (northwest) at Rome. The watershed upstream (mostly northeast) of Allatoona covers about 1100 square miles or 2850 square kilometers.
The lake's full summer pool is 840 feet or 256 meters above mean sea level, though during major droughts it has dropped as much as 13 feet or 4 meters below this, exposing dangerous obstacles such as old tree stumps and former hills which are normally submerged at a safe depth. Its maximum capacity or flood stage is +23 feet or +7 meters (863 feet or 263 meters AMSL), though it has never been known to reach this level, and flooding of boat ramps and other lakeside facilities begins to occur well below it.
External links
Categories: USACE lakes