On the waters of the Norris Reservoir, during the summer months, a nearly constant parade of various sorts of watercraft passes over the ruins of the Baker Iron Works and beside a long-neglected cemetery.

The old Baker's Forge Cemetery, TVA Disinterment Cemetery #240, took its name from the Baker Iron Works. Dating to at the least the early 1800s, the Baker Iron Works was Campbell County's first industry.

The lake and its shoreline are much more than an aquatic playground, but representative of a shared heritage that transcends time, among the descendants of those displaced by “the move” before the “water came up”.

In the spring of 2010, Peggy Heatherly Kosher, Carolyn Heatherly Murrell, Carolyn's husband, Ed Murrell, Robert Morton, and I embarked by boat from the Sugar Hollow Boat Dock in search of the Old Baker's Forge Cemetery. Phillip Boshears, an employee of the dock, was our skipper.

I knew that the cemetery was slightly upstream from the mouth of Sugar Hollow, but wasn't sure if we were going to land in the right place. After all, the pilgrims were originally headed for Virginia before landing at Plymouth Rock in what is now Massachusetts.

Fortunately, we landed right in the cemetery. Daylilies were coming up at the shoreline. Nearby we found creeping myrtle (also known as periwinkle) and before long we came upon Narcissus in bloom. I was not at all surprised to discover so many beautiful flowers flourishing. Old cemeteries that have not been over-mowed often offer a wealth of heirloom flowers planted many years ago-a living memorial to those interned there, as well as to their loved ones who planted them.

Most of the old cemetery, which straddles the shoreline of Norris Reservoir when the lake is full, has not been maintained since graves were removed in 1934, from up and down the Powell and Clinch Rivers as well as along numerous tributaries that the water would back up when the lake was filled.

My Mother visited the Old Baker’s Forge Cemetery as a child and years later after it had become overgrown with vegetation, but this was my first trip. I was surprised to learn that there very well may be have been more graves left behind than were moved.

Scattered among the holes left by grave removals were some marked with field-stones. A few field-stones were inscribed with crudely scraped initials, but Carolyn found one grave with a complete name, birthdate, and month of death. The inscription written in poured concrete, before it had dried, read “Gladis Miller B. May 2, 1904 D. Sep”.

There were far more disinterment cemeteries than re-internment cemeteries. Although some graves were re-interned in existing cemeteries, most were relocated to four new re-internment cemeteries established by TVA for the Norris Reservoir project. They are Baker's Forge Memorial, Indian Creek Memorial (now known as Cumberland View) in Campbell County and Big Barren Memorial and New Loyston Memorial in Union County.

Among the families that buried their dead at the old cemetery were Baker, Boshears, Chapman, Ford, Grant, Gray, Hatmaker, Heatherly, Housley, Jones, Malicotte, Miller, Nelson, Powell, Rains, Ridenour, Roach, Shoffner, Stout, Willoughby, Wilson, and Wyrick.

Writer's Note: If anyone has any information about “Gladis Miller B. May 2, 1904 D. Sep”, or those left behind in unmarked graves at the Old Baker's Forge Cemetery please contact me at JoeStephens10@hotmail.com