Cheat Lake’s Name Lost in History
Morgantown Dominion Post
7 March 2011
WHAT’S IN A NAME
CHEAT LAKE CURLS like a fat snake south from the Pennsylvania state
line into Monongalia County, then turns into the wild rapids of the
Cheat River, stretching 156 miles to its origin near Shavers Fork,
Randolph County.
But Cheat Lake, officially, isn’t Cheat Lake. It’s really Lake Lynn.
The lake was formed in 1925, when West Penn Power Co. built a dam
across the Cheat River “to serve the needs of a hydroelectric
generating facility, the 52-megawatt Lake Lynn Power Station,”
according to the website “Cheat Lake Today.”
West Penn Power was folded into Allegheny Energy, which recently merged
with FirstEnergy. FirstEnergy has announced it is reviving the name
West Penn Power for its Pennsylvania operations.
The lake created by the dam is 13 miles long, with a maximum depth of
90 feet at the dam, and contains a trio of submerged islands where the
Ices Ferry Bridge crosses. You can see the islands in the winter when
the lake is at its lowest point.
The power station began operating May 31, 1926, and can generate 52
megawatts of electricity from water running through the 1,000-foot-long
dam. The water cascades down a 624-feet spillway, the website notes.
At a ceremony in 1927, a bronze tablet, embedded in a great rock near
the power station, dedicates the lake and the generating facility to
the public “In lasting beauty for recreation and the supplying of
essential service.” The 13-mile lake has been a popular recreation spot
ever since.
In June 2000, Allegheny Energy opened to the public a 20-acre park and
4.5-mile hiking and biking trail on the lake’s eastern banks.
While it’s easy to find the source for the name “Lake Lynn” (a nearby
community built by the power company), the origin for “Cheat River” is
lost in history.
In it’s entry for Cheat Lake, “The West Virginia Encyclopedia” reads:
“Roots of laurel and hardwood leaves tint the water, hiding sharp rocks
and treacherous currents. This lead to drownings which some say caused
settlers who began to live along its banks before the American
Revolution to say the river ‘cheated’ people of their lives.”
“Others think it was named for the cheat grass that sprang up in newly
cleared lands, or for an early French settler, or from a word of Indian
origins.”
Evelyn Ryan researches and writes this column. Send ideas and
suggestions to newsroom@dominionpost.com.