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Pickwick Reservoir

Photo of sailboats at dock on Pickwick Reservoir

Pickwick Reservoir is located in southwest Tennessee. It extends 53 miles south from the dam along the Mississippi-Alabama state line and then east into Alabama. The dam was completed in 1938 and the first two of its six hydroelectric generating units began operation the same year.

 

Pickwick Landing Dam is a significant producer of hydroelectric power. It provides a flat pool of water that extends eastward to Wilson Dam in Alabama and covers a portion of the treacherous Muscle Shoals, which once hampered navigation on the Tennessee River.

Pickwick Reservoir has excellent sportfishing areas, including the Wilson Dam tailwater at the upper end of the reservoir, noted for record-size smallmouth bass and catfish. Another favorite spot is the discharge basin at Colbert Fossil Plant west of Sheffield, Alabama, where the warm water discharged from the power plant attracts fish during cold weather.

Pickwick is popular with water skiers, and its large campground located on the water below the dam includes 35 sites with full hookups.

More information on TVA reservoirs:

Daily reservoir operation information

Sport-fishing index scores

Ecological health ratings

Tailwater improvements

Recreation Facilities

 

Pickwick:
Facts & Figures 

Construction of Pickwick Landing Dam began in 1934 and was completed in 1938.      

When the reservoir is full during the summer, Pickwick provides nearly 490 miles of winding shoreline and about 43,100 acres of water surface.      

Pickwick’s first turbine was the largest of its kind in the country when it was installed; its runner was more than 24 feet in diameter. New runners with a more efficient design were installed in the 1980s.      

Pickwick Landing Dam is 113 feet high and stretches nearly a mile and a half—7,715 feet—across the Tennessee River.      

The dam has two locks: one measures 110 by 600 feet and the other 110 by 1,000 feet.       

Pickwick has a flood-storage capacity of 417,700 acre-feet.   

The generating capacity of Pickwick Dam is 240,200 kilowatts of electricity.                

 

 

 

           
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