had built councilhouses on top of the mounds. In addition, other prehistoric sites, dating to as early as the Archaic period, were flooded. Other impacts The contemporary port of Morganton was submerged by the Tellico lake. The British colonial Fort Loudon was preserved by excavation of soil required to raise the site by , and the fort was reconstructed into a state park. Translocation of snail darters Remnant populations of the snail darter were later removed from the Little Tennessee River and translocated into other streams. In total, 219 snail darters were removed from the Tellico basin. Most of these were transferred to the Hiwassee River in Polk County in southeast Tennessee, which established a base habitat in the river by 1982. The Holston, French Broad, Nolichucky rivers of central East Tennessee also have been established as habitats for the snail darter. Completion and recent history The Tellico lake began to form on November 29, 1979, after the gates were closed on the dam. Still intent on development projects to improve the economic conditions of the Little Tennessee Valley, the TVA began sales on lakefront acreage that the agency seized through eminent domain. Many landowners whose property was seized by TVA were unable to qualify to bid on their former lands. In April 1982, the Tellico Reservoir Development Agency (TRDA) was established by the Tennessee state legislature with state and TVA funding, to promote economic development initiatives in the Tellico region. The TRDA assisted in the creation of several industrial parks for industrial and corporate investment to reduce the unemployment rate in the area. In September of the same year, the TVA suggested constructing toxic waste dumps on Tellico-acquired sites. One of these sites known as the Tellico Peninsula, was billed as the prime spot on the Tellico site for economic development. Despite attempts, the Tellico Peninsula site has remained undeveloped since site work was completed in the 1980s, aside from a Christensen Shipyards facility which closed following the Great Recession. In 2017, proposals were announced for the site to be redeveloped into a mixed-use town center community. Resort development The residential component of the failed Timberlake project underwent a rebirth with the purchase in late 1984 of more than along the western shore of the Tellico Reservoir by Cooper Communities Inc. (CCI), a private real estate firm based out of Bella Vista, Arkansas. This development became a planned retirement