KENTUCKY LAKE

one of the world's largest man-made lakes, situated in Marshall, Calloway, Lyon, and Trigg counties, southwestern Kentucky, U.S.; its southern extremity overlaps into Tennessee. The lake is 184 miles (296 km) long and has more than 2,300 miles (3,700 km) of shoreline. It was created in 1944 by the impoundment of the Tennessee River by the Kentucky Dam, the largest (206 feet high, 8,422 feet long) in the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) system. The dam, near Gilbertsville and 22 miles (35 km) upstream from Paducah, regulates the flow from the Tennessee River into the Ohio River for navigation, hydropower, and flood control. Major recreation spots are Kenlake State Park on the lake's west shore and Kentucky Dam Village State Resort Park near the dam at the lake's northern end. There are facilities for boating, and the lake is stocked with bass, catfish, rockfish, bluegill, and crappie. Lake Barkley, another huge reservoir that has an approximately 1,000-mile (1,609-kilometre) shoreline and is impounded on the Cumberland River by Barkley Dam, lies east of Kentucky Lake. A 170,000-acre (68,790-hectare) wooded isthmus between the two lakes known as the Land Between the Lakes was developed by the TVA as a major recreation and conservation area and is the site of an environmental-education centre.