10/10/2023
We love the history of DeSoto Falls and the Mentone area. Check out DeSoto State Park’s post about a little history of DeSoto Falls. Lazy River Cottage is on one of the 266 original lots platted by Miller pre Great Depression.
Undated picture showing the generator house at bottom of basin, and the large pipe that fed it coming down from the cliff
Read up on the fascinating history of the dam above DeSoto Falls!
We find that a good number of our visitors visit the DeSoto Falls Picnic Area to enjoy the falls, and never realize the rich history of the area. The A. A. Miller dam can be seen first thing from the parking lot, and several times a year we get asked when we 'turn on' the waterfall ;) Especially right now since we are so dry!
While a attraction today, the dam was built above the falls to hold back the West Fork of Little River for recreation, and to later generate power for the towns of Fort Payne, Mentone, Valley Head, Collinsville, Alabama and Menlo, Georgia.
The man who built the twenty-foot high dam above DeSoto Falls in the mid 1920's was Arthur Abernathy Miller, a brilliant self-educated electrical engineer. He built the dam to help supply power for his hydroelectric generator which he constructed below the falls, on the west side of the gorge.(the foundation can still be seen in the basin)
Read more here: www.alapark.com/DSP-legends
Info: www.appalachianhistory.net/2018/01/all-machinery-stopped-and-lights-went.html?fbclid=IwAR1PMe9NoDIh4LFoI__S3vt7zHpqloj0ObBUxC1KI7cfu45bXrPwckKqMsY
Vacation at Lazy River Cabin on Little River, just steps away from Desoto Falls in Mentone, AL.
