Wheeler Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River in Lauderdale County in the U.S. state of Alabama. It is one of nine dams on the river owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the mid-1930s as part of a New Deal-era initiative to improve navigation on the river and bring flood control and economic development to the region. The dam impounds the Wheeler Lake of 67,070 acres (271 km2) and its tailwaters feed into Wilson Lake. Wheeler Dam is named for Civil War general and U.S. Congressman Joseph "Joe" Wheeler, who once lived in the area. Congressman Wheeler was an early advocate of federal development of the Muscle Shoals area.[1]