No site about LBL can be complete without mention of the people who once lived between the rivers, before they were forced from their homes by TVA. They call themselves "The People Between the Rivers," and their story is a very sad one. These people had lived in the area for six or seven generations, living in isolation because of the rivers and lack of bridges. The Tennessee River to the west, the Cumberland River to the east, and the Ohio River to the north formed natural boundaries that separated these people from the outside world.

Some families between the rivers were forced to relocate as many as four times: once when Kentucky Lake was created, again when Barkley Lake was created, again as a result of TVA's repayment of wildlife habitat acreage to the State Wildlife Department, and finally as a result of the creation of LBL.

The story is best told by one of the People Between the Rivers, David Nickell, in an article to which the following link will take you. I'll just let David tell the story. Please take the time to read it: you will be shocked, sickened, and angered by they way these people were treated.

The author, David Nickell, has given me permission to include his article as part of this website, so here's the link...

http://home.earthlink.net/~tsjay49/david_nickell.html

The People Between the Rivers still live in the general area, and they have simple and fair demands as to how LBL should be managed. They want continued access to their family cemeteries, strict adherence to the promise that LBL would be non-commercial, and they would like to  reclaim their heritage as honest, intelligent, independent, hard-working people and not be seen as the backward, ignorant, impoverished people that they were portrayed to be by TVA in a propaganda campaign designed to gain public support for their eviction. They know they will never get their land back, and their demands are only fair, considering what has happened to them.