Two New Ways Onto Norris Lake This Year, and Who Gets to Call Theirs the First

Tom Tye of La Follette fishes from the spot locals call Graveyard Point at Well Springs. One morning he tied his boat to a big rock there and went to park his car and trailer. When he got back, the boat had drifted out onto Norris Lake. Swimmers grabbed the rope and brought it back to him. He told the story to WLAF at the dedication of the new courtesy dock that replaced that rock as the place to tie off.

That dock is one of two accessibility projects finished this summer on the Campbell County side of Norris Lake. The other is at Oak Grove, near Rocky Top. They opened six weeks apart and were built by different agencies for different kinds of trips. That difference explains a small public disagreement over which one counts as the first.

A Rock, a Rope, and a $100,000 Dock at Well Springs

On paper the Well Springs site is the Davis Cemetery Access Area. The local name, Graveyard Point, comes from the same cemetery. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and Campbell County finished installing a new courtesy dock there, and TWRA announced it in a July 31, 2026 release. The release calls the project "the conclusion of a project that has been in the works for several years."

The dock cost $100,000. TWRA put in $75,000 in federal Sportfish Restoration grant money and Campbell County added a $25,000 match. The release calls the dock fully ADA accessible.

The dock went in at a launch people were already using. WLAF's photo captions call it "one of the most popular launch sites on Norris Lake in Campbell County." The project added a dock beside the existing ramp. Before it opened, a boater launching alone at Well Springs had no courtesy dock to tie up to while moving the truck, which is how Tye ended up relying on a rock.

The work behind it goes back years. Former 1st District Commissioner Robert Higginbotham first brought the launch before the county commission in 2021, WLAF reported. "The courtesy dock has been a long time coming," he said at the dedication on Monday, July 27. 3rd District Commissioner Rusty Orick, the county's liaison with TWRA, saw it through. Mayor Jack Lynch and Commissioners Johnny Bruce, Dewayne Baird and Zachery Marlow also attended.

Oak Grove Was Rebuilt Around the Paddler

Six weeks earlier, on Monday, June 15, TVA and Tennessee State Parks cut the ribbon on upgrades at the Oak Grove Boat Ramp, off Oak Grove Road. That project was about who runs the site as much as what got built. WATE reported that TVA issued Tennessee State Parks a public recreation license, which hands management and maintenance of the access to the state park system.

TVA contract specialist Brian Ross told WATE the project started with a meeting about giving Norris Dam State Park better water access. It grew from there into a repaved parking lot, drainage upgrades, a BoardSafe adaptive kayak launch and a courtesy pier. Ross told WVLT that "the icing on the cake today" was the kayak launch and pier.

He also explained why the parking mattered to him. He first brought his daughter to Oak Grove when she was about 3, with a small kids' kayak, and "it wasn't exactly the greatest place to park back then," he told WATE.

TVA also said the BoardSafe zone keeps kayak launching separate from the boat courtesy area, according to WVLT. On a busy ramp, that means a paddler sliding into the water isn't working around trailers backing down. BoardSafe's full system can include a gangway, a launch chute, a floating dock and an adaptive boarding kit with pieces such as a transfer bench and grab bars. The reports from the ribbon cutting don't say which of those optional pieces are at Oak Grove, so check in person before planning around a specific feature.

Tennessee State Parks lists the Accessible Paddling Launch at Oak Grove as open daily from 5:00 AM to 10:00 PM, with accessible parking at the launch. The Norris Dam State Park accessibility page carries photos of the ramp and floating dock.

Which One Came First Depends on What You Count

Commissioner Orick and TWRA each described the Well Springs dock in their own terms:

"This makes our second ADA approved launch in Campbell County with the other at the Oak Grove Access to Norris Lake." Commissioner Rusty Orick, at the July 27 dedication, as reported by WLAF

"The new dock is fully ADA accessible and offers the first wheelchair accessible dock on the Campbell County portion of Norris Lake." TWRA news release, July 31, 2026

WLAF later ran the TWRA wording under the headline "First wheelchair accessible dock on Campbell portion of Norris Lake opens," and the Claiborne Progress carried the release on August 4.

Both statements can hold up because they describe different things. Orick counted accessible launches. TWRA counted wheelchair-accessible docks. Oak Grove was built and run around paddling, with a kayak launch on a state-park-managed site. Well Springs added a courtesy dock for boaters and anglers at a TWRA access area. The agencies were counting different categories, and neither has publicly corrected the other.

For someone at home deciding where to go, that difference matters more than the ranking.

Matching the Site to the Trip

If you're bringing a kayak, and especially if someone in the group needs a transfer-friendly entry, Oak Grove is the one designed for that. If you're trailering a fishing boat and launching alone, the Well Springs dock solves the problem Tye described, because you have somewhere to tie off while you park.

The Lake Those Docks Sit On Is Still Dropping

Both projects opened at summer pool. By the time you read this, the lake is well into its seasonal drawdown. TVA says it starts releasing water from tributary storage reservoirs like Norris faster after Labor Day weekend, and reservoirs typically reach at least their winter flood-guide levels by January 1. In a normal-rainfall year, TVA says, Norris varies by about 29 feet between summer and winter.

That means the shoreline at both sites will look very different in December than it did at the ribbon cuttings. Floating docks are designed to move with the water, but neither agency has said how far down each new installation stays usable. The Oak Grove photos on the state park page were taken in June, at high water.

Before a late-fall trip to either site:

• Check the current Norris level on TVA's Norris lake-levels page. TVA notes that release schedules can change without notice.
• For Oak Grove, Norris Dam State Park is the managing office. Its accessibility page is the listing to watch for hours or changes.
• For Well Springs, TWRA's boating and fishing access map lists the agency's public sites. Search it for the Davis Cemetery Access Area, since that's the official name.
• Expect shallow spots near shore to be shallower than they were in summer. In its piece "The Annual Drawdown Is upon Us," TVA warns that shallow areas grow shallower as the drawdown goes on and that caution is needed.

Our team at Alco Builders and Realty keeps track of how each Norris Lake cove, ramp and dock behaves from summer pool to winter pool, because a property's distance to good water access depends on the season. If you'd like to know which public launches are closest to a lakefront lot you're considering, or how your own stretch of shoreline compares, schedule a consultation with us.