Hales Bar Dam

A cursed 1913 hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River, built on sacred Native American land, plagued by construction deaths and now one of Tennessee's most haunted sites.

Construction began in 1905 on what would become one of America's first major multipurpose dams. Legend holds that War Chief Dragging Canoe cursed this sacred land during the 1775 Treaty of Sycamore Shoals. The curse seemed to manifest immediately — a boiler explosion killed one worker, a falling derrick crushed two others, drownings occurred, and murders plagued the construction camps. The dam leaked from the day it opened in 1913 despite two decades of repair attempts by the TVA, leading to its replacement by Nickajack Dam in 1967. The abandoned powerhouse is now considered one of Tennessee's most haunted locations. Shadow figures move through the tunnels, and investigators have documented apparitions of former construction workers. The second floor is notorious for encounters with the ghost of a young woman who met a violent end. Children's spirits are connected to a tragic tunnel flooding incident. Featured on Ghost Adventures and Ghost Hunters.