Tennis Anyone - Reservoirs Different than Lakes

Gil Francis stopped me before I hardly got going.

I had called this longtime spokesman for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to speak about South Holston Lake.

"South Holston Reservoir?" Francis asked.

"Yes," I said. "The lake."

But, there again, Francis called it "a reservoir."

"A reservoir is manmade," Francis told me. "Mother Nature makes lakes, and they occur naturally in the world."

This I understood.

"The dam backs up the water that creates the reservoir," Francis said. "A lake is usually freshwater, and it’s usually an inland body. It’s a naturally occurring body of water, as opposed to a reservoir."

Now, hearing all this brought me back a few months earlier when I had met a couple of biologists on the surface of Mountain Lake.

There, I had asked them about "other lakes."

"What other lakes?"

"Claytor Lake," I said. "Smith Mountain Lake."

"Oh," one of them replied. "You’re talking about reservoirs."

Now, after all this, I decided to change.

Hanging up with Francis, I swore to never again dub my beloved South Holston a "lake."

Then, about a week later, on a springlike Saturday, I drove down to the U.S. Highway 421 bridge near Friendship.

And, there, I noticed the little green sign on the side of the road calling this giant waterhole "South Holston Lake."

Turning to "The Official 2007 Transportation Map" for Tennessee, I saw it called the same thing.

Back home, my old, three-dimensional topographic map also used the "South Holston Lake" label.

In fact, that map called all other blue areas "lake" at Boone, Cherokee and Watauga.

Finally, I went to Google.

I figured that would solve everything.

As it turned out, I found 24,600 hits for "South Holston Lake" and 840 hits for "South Holston Reservoir."

Sounds like the contest is over.

Technically, still, I will agree this is a "reservoir."

But you know what?

Saying, "Let’s go relax at the reservoir" doesn’t sound nearly as fun as "Let’s go make a wake on the lake."