Issue link: https://alabamapower.uberflip.com/i/722088
49 stumps and trees underwater, with time, have deteriorated, making the lake more conducive to skiing and boating. "We've got a whole new class of people who are recreational boaters," he said. Longtime observer Melvyn Salter – former Cherokee County Probate Court judge, County Commission chairman and pastor of Centre First Baptist Church – says the county "is becoming a retirement, resort and agricultural community because we don't have a lot of major industry. "We have thousands of people every year come here for crappie and bass tournaments. It's hard to put the amount of dollars and cents on what Weiss Lake has come to mean to our county." Named after Ferdinand C. Weiss – vice president of engineering and construction and an Alabama Power board member until his death in 1959 – the dam has drawn praise from environmentalists and conservationists for the 2014 restoration of water flow to the original 20-mile Coosa River bed. As part of the federal relicensing of Weiss Dam, the flow is expected to revitalize the endangered southern clubshell mussel and other aquatic life, while giving canoers and kayakers a new place to float their boats. "It used to be dead," Collins said. "But I've seen more kayakers in that area. I've heard a lot of comments from fishermen along there catching crappie and catfish." Weiss Dam created a lake that is the No. 1 tourist attraction for Cherokee County.