Appalachian History Series – Dix Dam and Herrington Lake: Power, Labor, and the Remaking of a Kentucky Valley
Before Herrington Lake became a place of boat docks, fishing coves, and lake houses, the Dix River ran through a narrower central Kentucky valley between farms, cliffs, roads, and small communities. The river moved northward toward the Kentucky River near High Bridge, passing through country tied to Mercer, Garrard, Boyle, and the larger Bluegrass region. It was not yet a lake. It was a working river valley.
That changed in the 1920s, when private power development, engineering ambition, and the rising demand for electricity converged on the Dix River. Dix Dam was built not as a federal New Deal project, and not as a later recreation lake, but as a hydroelectric power project. Its purpose was to hold back the river, create a reservoir, and send water through a generating plant that could help supply Kentucky Utilities’ growing system.
The result was Herrington Lake. The lake took its name from L. B. Herrington, a central figure in the power project, and it became one of Kentucky’s best known manmade lakes. Yet the story of Dix Dam is larger than a scenic reservoir. It is a story of engineering, land acquisition, labor, racial violence, public water, regional memory, and a changed landscape that still shapes central Kentucky a century later.
A private power idea on the Dix River
The idea behind Dix Dam grew from the early twentieth century push for dependable electric power. Cities, industries, homes, and public institutions were using more electricity, and utilities looked for river sites where water could be stored and released through hydroelectric equipment.
L. B. Herrington promoted the idea of harnessing the Dix River. The work was carried forward through the Kentucky Hydro-Electric Company and the Dix River Power Company, which later became connected to Kentucky Utilities. The dam and hydro plant were built in the 1920s as part of that private utility expansion.
The safest chronology places major construction beginning in the fall of 1923, the closing of the river and impoundment beginning in 1925, and the generating units entering service in November 1925. Some local histories and postcard descriptions use 1927 for completion or power generation, but federal and utility records point strongly to November 1925 as the beginning of hydroelectric operation. For that reason, 1923 to 1925 is the better working frame for construction and initial operation, with 1927 treated carefully unless tied to a specific later stage of the project.
Building the rock-fill dam
Dix Dam was a major engineering achievement for Kentucky. Near-contemporary engineering literature described it as the world’s largest rock-fill dam on the Dix River. Later engineering studies remembered it as one of the important early high rock-fill dams in the United States.
The work required blasting, quarrying, hauling, and placing enormous quantities of stone. The dam was not simply poured into place like a concrete wall. It was a rock-fill structure, built with large stone and smaller material fitted together, with a concrete face and hydroelectric works that turned the stored water into power.
The construction site became a temporary world of its own. At the height of the project, official utility memory describes as many as 2,000 workers on the job. The camp included housing and services needed to support a large workforce in a rural valley. For a few years, the Dix River site was not only a construction project. It was a small industrial settlement.
The scale of the dam impressed engineers and the public. Postcards and later local memory often presented Dix Dam as a marvel, a giant stone structure set into the cliffs of the Dix River. That image was real, but it was not the whole story.
The violence at the construction camp
The history of Dix Dam cannot be told only as a story of progress. In November 1924, while the dam was still under construction, racial violence broke out at the worksite.
Associated Press reports from the time said that armed white workers drove hundreds of Black laborers from the Dix River Dam construction area after the killing of a white worker named Edward Winkly, sometimes spelled Winkle in reports. The newspaper accounts stated that National Guard troops were sent to the site after reports of rioting reached state officials. The reports also described Black workers being forced from the camp, some of them later gathered and returned under guard or company supervision.
The details must be handled carefully because the surviving newspaper language reflects the racial assumptions and terminology of the 1920s. What can be said plainly is that the dam project depended on Black labor as well as white labor, and that Black workers at the camp became targets of collective violence after a killing for which individual suspects had not been tried. The episode belongs in the history of Dix Dam because it shows the human cost hidden behind many large construction projects of the period.
Dix Dam was an engineering landmark, but it was also a workplace. Its story includes the men who cut stone, blasted cliffs, lived in the camp, faced danger, and, in the case of Black laborers in 1924, faced racial terror at the edge of the construction zone.
A lake rises behind the wall
When the dam closed the Dix River, the valley behind it began to fill. Herrington Lake was created by the impoundment of the river, stretching the water into a long reservoir through parts of central Kentucky. The new lake covered former bottomlands, changed roads and access routes, and transformed the meaning of the river corridor.
The reservoir served a practical utility purpose first. Water stored behind the dam could be released through the hydroelectric plant to produce electricity. The lake also became part of the Kentucky River basin’s water system. Later water resource reports identified Herrington Lake as the largest non-federal reservoir in the Kentucky River basin, used for electric power generation, cooling water connected to the E. W. Brown Generating Station, public water supply, and low-flow support downstream.
The lake also affected Danville’s water system. Engineering literature from 1925 noted that the new reservoir raised water levels at the site of Danville’s water works and required new facilities. That detail shows how a power project on the Dix River reached beyond the dam itself. It changed municipal infrastructure, water access, and planning in nearby communities.
From power project to public landmark
Dix Dam began as a private utility project, but Herrington Lake soon became part of public life. Postcards from Kentucky Historical Society collections, Centre College, and other archives show the dam and lake being presented as scenic, impressive, and worth visiting. The same place that had been a dangerous construction site became a symbol of modern Kentucky.
Visitors saw the dam, the cliffs, the lake, and the new recreational possibilities. Fishing, boating, cottages, and sightseeing grew into the public identity of Herrington Lake. The lake became a destination for people from Danville, Harrodsburg, Lancaster, Burgin, and nearby communities, as well as visitors from farther away.
This change is important. Herrington Lake was not natural in the old sense, but over time it became familiar enough that many people experienced it as part of the permanent landscape. A valley that had been remade for power became a place of memory, recreation, and local identity.
The dam in later utility history
The hydroelectric plant at Dix Dam remained part of Kentucky Utilities’ generation system. The original hydro plant was once a principal source of power. In modern utility use, it is more limited, often associated with water conditions and lake elevation, but it still produces electricity. With all three units running, the present plant is described by the utility as capable of producing 33 megawatts.
Federal generating records list three Dix Dam units in Mercer County with November 1925 operating dates. Those records help settle the date question and show the project’s place in the wider history of hydroelectric development.
Dix Dam also became tied to the E. W. Brown Generating Station area, where later electric generation, lake management, environmental regulation, and public concern overlapped. The same reservoir built for hydroelectric power became connected to cooling water, public supply, shoreline development, and water quality planning.
Water quality and a managed lake
The long history of Herrington Lake did not end with construction. Over time, the lake became part of a managed environmental system. State and federal water studies have examined the Dix River watershed, Herrington Lake, tributaries, nutrients, bacteria, dissolved oxygen, and water quality concerns.
Kentucky Division of Water materials describe the Dix River watershed as extending through Garrard, Mercer, Boyle, Lincoln, Casey, and Rockcastle counties. They also show that modern concerns around Herrington Lake are tied not only to the dam itself, but to the larger watershed that feeds the reservoir. Farms, towns, septic systems, stormwater, wastewater treatment, and tributaries all became part of the lake’s story.
USGS monitoring and mapping near Dix Dam also show how the site remains an active subject of technical study. In the twenty first century, the lakebed and water movement near the dam were mapped to help understand impoundment safety and dam conditions. A project built in the 1920s still requires attention, measurement, and maintenance.
A valley changed for a century
Dix Dam changed the Dix River valley in ways that are easy to see and harder to measure. It created Herrington Lake, produced hydroelectric power, altered public water systems, shaped local recreation, and left behind postcards, photographs, engineering studies, legal records, and family memories.
It also left harder histories. The 1924 violence at the construction camp reminds us that large public and private works were built by people whose names were often not preserved with the same care as engineers, utility officers, and investors. The dam’s stone face and the lake’s deep water can make the project look finished and settled, but the human history beneath it is more complicated.
A century later, Dix Dam still stands near Burgin and High Bridge. Herrington Lake still fills the old river valley. What began as a private power experiment became one of central Kentucky’s defining built landscapes. The story of Dix Dam is not only about a wall across a river. It is about how technology, labor, capital, race, water, and memory came together to remake a Kentucky valley.
Sources & further reading
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. “MBR/EIA Index: Kentucky Utilities Co., Dix Dam Units 1, 2, and 3.” Accessed May 29, 2026. https://mbrweb.ferc.gov/SearchlkpEIA/Index?page=23
LG&E and KU. “Dix Dam Generating Station.” Accessed May 29, 2026. https://lge-ku.com/our-company/community/neighbor-neighbor/dix-dam-generating-station
LG&E and KU. “LG&E and KU Celebrate 100 Years of Generating Renewable Energy at Dix Dam.” November 14, 2025. https://lge-ku.com/newsroom/press-releases/2025/11/14/lge-and-ku-celebrate-100-years-generating-renewable-energy-dix
LG&E and KU. “E.W. Brown Generating Station.” Accessed May 29, 2026. https://lge-ku.com/our-company/community/neighbor-neighbor/ew-brown-generating-station
PPL Corporation. “100 Years of Power: Dix Dam, Dix Hydro and Herrington Lake Celebrate a Century.” November 14, 2025. https://www.pplweb.com/blog/100-years-of-power-dix-dam-dix-hydro-and-herrington-lake-celebrate-a-century/
United States War Department. “Report on the Dix River Project.” Congressional Serial Set. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/SERIALSET-09760_00_00-003-0085-0000/pdf/SERIALSET-09760_00_00-003-0085-0000.pdf
Howson, George W. “World’s Largest Rock-Fill Dam Built on Dix River.” Engineering News-Record 94, no. 14, April 2, 1925.
Hansen, Paul. “Dam Floods Danville Water-Works.” Engineering News-Record 94, no. 16, April 16, 1925. https://archive.org/details/sim_enr_engineering-news-record_1925-04-16_94_16_0
Schmidt, L. A. “Rockfill Dams: Dix River Dam.” Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers 125, no. 2, 1960. https://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/TACEAT.0008007
Howson, George W. “Design of Rockfill Dams.” Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers 104, 1939.
Campbell, William Alden. The Design and Construction of Rockfill Dams. Stanford, CA: Stanford University, 1934. https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Design_and_Construction_of_Rockfill.html?id=x5oUAAAAIAAJ
Library of Congress Copyright Office. Catalog of Copyright Entries, 1926: Works of Art, Photographs, Prints and Pictorial Illustrations. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1926. https://archive.org/stream/catalogofcopyrig214libr/catalogofcopyrig214libr_djvu.txt
University of Louisville Photographic Archives. “Dix River (Ky.), Caufield & Shook Collection.” Digital Collections. Accessed May 29, 2026. https://digital.library.louisville.edu/?f%5Bcontributor_sim%5D%5B%5D=Caufield+%26+Shook&f%5Blocation_sim%5D%5B%5D=Dix+River+%28Ky.%29&f%5Bsubject_sim%5D%5B%5D=Rivers&locale=en&per_page=50&sort=identifier_ssi+asc
University of Louisville Photographic Archives. “Dix Dam, Aerial View, Lancaster, Kentucky, 1928.” Caufield & Shook Collection. Accessed May 29, 2026. https://digital.library.louisville.edu/concern/images/ulpa_cs_095345?locale=en
Kentucky Historical Society. “Dix River Dam, Near High Bridge and Burgin, ‘In Old Kentucky.’” Digital Collections. Accessed May 29, 2026. https://www.kyhistory.com/digital/collection/PH/id/9898/
Kentucky Historical Society. “Dix River Hydro-Electric Dam, Near High Bridge and Burgin, Ky.” Digital Collections. Accessed May 29, 2026. https://www.kyhistory.com/digital/collection/PH/id/9900/
Centre College Special Collections. “Dix River Dam near Danville, Kentucky.” Centre College Digital Archives. Accessed May 29, 2026. https://centre.omeka.net/items/show/982
Library of Congress. Olmsted Associates Records: Kentucky Utilities Co., Dix River Hydroelectric Plant, Louisville, Ky., 1925. Manuscript Division finding aid. Accessed May 29, 2026. https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms001018.3
National Archives at Atlanta. “RG 142: Tennessee Valley Authority, Project Histories and Reports, 0-1179 Dix River Dam, Reprint of Articles.” Finding aid. Accessed May 29, 2026. https://www.archives.gov/files/atlanta/finding-aids/rg142-tennessee-valley-authority-890185.pdf
Griffin Daily News. “Trouble at Dix River Dam.” November 10, 1924. https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn83009936/1924-11-10/ed-1/seq-1/
Notable Kentucky African Americans Database. “Rioting at the Dix River Dam Project Site.” University of Kentucky Libraries. Accessed May 29, 2026. https://nkaa.uky.edu/nkaa/items/show/1553
Wright, George C. Racial Violence in Kentucky, 1865–1940: Lynchings, Mob Rule, and “Legal Lynchings.” Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1990.
Ruby, A. T., III. Methods for Noninvasive Bathymetric and Velocity Surveys for Impoundment Safety: A Case Study of Herrington Lake at Dix Dam near Burgin, Kentucky. Scientific Investigations Map 3198. Reston, VA: U.S. Geological Survey, 2012. https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/sim3198
Crain, Angela S., and others. Modeling Hydrodynamics and Water Quality in Herrington Lake, Kentucky. Water-Resources Investigations Report 99-4281. Louisville, KY: U.S. Geological Survey, 2000. https://pubs.usgs.gov/wri/1999/4281/report.pdf
U.S. Geological Survey. “Herrington Lake near Burgin, KY, Monitoring Location 03286000.” National Water Information System. Accessed May 29, 2026. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/03286000/
U.S. Geological Survey. “Dix River near Danville, KY, Monitoring Location 03285000.” National Water Information System. Accessed May 29, 2026. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/03285000/
U.S. Geological Survey. “Dix River at Dix Dam near Burgin, KY, Monitoring Location 03286200.” Water Quality Portal. Accessed May 29, 2026. https://www.waterqualitydata.us/provider/NWIS/USGS-KY/USGS-03286200/
Kentucky Geological Survey. Kentucky River Basin. Lexington: University of Kentucky. https://kgs.uky.edu/kgsweb/olops/pub/kgs/mc188_12.pdf
Herrington Lake Conservation League. “Herrington Lake History.” Accessed May 29, 2026. https://www.hlcl.org/herrington-lake-history
Kentucky Tourism. “Herrington Lake.” Accessed May 29, 2026. https://www.kentuckytourism.com/explore/herrington-lake-2437
Author Note: Dix Dam is one of those Kentucky landmarks that can look simple from a distance, just a wall, a lake, and a power plant. The deeper story is more complicated, with engineering ambition, private utility power, Black labor, racial violence, recreation, and a changed river valley all tied together.