Relic lost a century ago in Tennessee River found by dredging crew, TVA says

A “long-lost relic” tied to the nation’s WWI defense effort has been rediscovered under unusual circumstances in northern Alabama.

The object – which resembles an antique dumpster – was found by accident, nearly 90 feet down in the Tennessee River, according to the Tennessee Valley Authority.

“A century-old surprise has surfaced at Wilson Dam!” the TVA wrote in an Oct. 21 Facebook post.

“While doing routine dredging work, crews discovered a 100-year-plus-year-old crane bucket used in the dam’s original construction. Despite the bucket’s age, it’s in great shape.”

Crane buckets typically get called historical artifacts, but this case is unusual.

Wilson Dam was authorized by the National Defense Act of 1916 to help power critical nitrate factories – a key ingredient for explosives needed for the war, the TVA says. Construction on the 137-foot-high dam began in 1918 and was completed in 1925, seven years after the war ended.

How one of them plunged into the river remains a mystery, but finding it counts as a prize, TVA officials told McClatchy News in an email.

Wilson Dam plant manager Tabatha Lolley says a crane clamshell bucket was pulling up debris from in front of the dam when it clamped down on something big and mysterious. The bucket stands more than 5-feet high and is nearly 6-feet wide.

“My first reaction was, how cool is this for the crew to find? I can only imagine the crew’s excitement. It would be like an archaeologist discovering a long-lost relic,” Lolley said.

“This construction bucket played a role in the U.S. war effort in World War I. TVA maintains a collection of thousands historical artifacts, some of which were used in construction of our dams. This is the first historic concrete bucket in TVA’s artifact collection.”

The location of the bucket was a spot where construction was ongoing until the dam was finished, so it’s likely the bucket sat where it fell, officials said. Just “a handful” of buckets were used for pouring wet concrete, making each one valuable to the project, she said.

TVA intends to keep the bucket like any other prized artifact, and will display it next to the Wilson Dam transformer yard.

Wilson Dam is about a 115-mile drive northwest of Birmingham, Alabama. “On average, 3,700 vessels pass through Wilson’s locks each year,” TVA says.

This story was originally published October 27, 2025 at 7:37 AM with the headline "Relic lost a century ago in Tennessee River found by dredging crew, TVA says."