High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Chickamauga Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River in Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA. The dam is owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the late 1930s as part of a New Deal era initiative to improve navigation and bring flood control and economic development to the Tennessee Valley. The dam impounds the 36,240-acre (14,670 ha) Chickamauga Lake and feeds into Nickajack Lake. Chickamauga Dam is named for the Chickamauga, a politically-detached branch of the Cherokee whose chief village was located just north of the dam site during the 18th century. The tribe`s name has also been applied to several streams in the Chattanooga area, as well as an important American Civil War battle and a sandbar that existed at the dam site prior to its construction.