Belews Lake
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Belews Lake is a man-made reservoir in Stokes, Rockingham, and Forsyth counties of North Carolina, near the towns of Stokesdale and Walnut Cove. It was created in 1973 by the Duke Energy corporation to provide cooling water for the corporation's Belews Creek Steam Station, a coal-burning power plant. The lake has a surface area of 3,864 acres and an 88-mile shoreline. It is held back by a rolled earth dam and a concrete spillway. The northern portion of the lake commonly has depths of over 100 feet and the lake reaches up to 130 feet deep in the vicinity of the dam. There is no hydroelectric power generation at this dam, so the lake is not bound by many FERC regulations. It was formed from Belews Creek, a small tributary of the Dan River. U.S. Route 158 and North Carolina State Highway 65, as well as a number of secondary roads provide access to the lake. Boating and water skiing is common on the lake.
