by Kate Seltzer

Lake Anna turns 50 this year, and so did Louisa resident Anna Anderson, the lake’s namesake.

Anna’s grandfather, Carson S. Winston, served as the Louisa District Board of Supervisors member for Louisa County at the time of the lake’s building. When the nuclear power plant cooling lake was proposed, Anna was just a few months old.

“In the discussion during the board of supervisors meetings where they were trying to figure out a name to call the lake, I had just recently been born,” Anna said. “My grandfather always told me that with the North and South Anna rivers running into the lake, as well as him just having had a granddaughter born whose name was Anna as well, he proposed that the lake be named Lake Anna.”

Anna explained that this history makes her feel connected to the community and to her family.

“In this day and age, my grandfather’s been long deceased, and nobody really knows his name anymore,” she said. “It’s kind of fun. It’s a fun history to play around with. I’ve enjoyed telling the story, and everybody thinks it’s kind of funny.”

Anna doesn’t let the fame go to her head, but it is a family source of pride.

“My husband jokes, he says, ‘little do people know that the lake was named after you, and you’re in their presence and they don’t even know it!’” she explained.

Anna remembers her grandfather as being hardworking and dedicated to serving his community. He was a residential home contractor, and his wife Thelma – Anna’s grandmother – worked as a secretary in his office.

“Prospective home builders or clients would come to their office and look at the different blueprints of the Miller homes that my grandfather offered to build,” Anna recalled.

Winston was committed to seeing the construction of those homes all the way through.

“They did just about everything from the ground up,” Anna said.

Most of his construction was residential, but Winston was also responsible for building a Tastee-Freez (now a Chinese restaurant) in the town of Louisa and a Virginia Department of Transportation building just outside of the town.

Winston was also a farmer, raising cows and growing grain. He would haul hay, grain and cows to Richmond and bring back 100 pound sacks of fertilizer to Louisa.

“He was very much a business-minded individual, so when the construction side was not doing well business-wise, typically the farm side would help supplement that,” Anna said.

Winston grew up as a tobacco farmer, and he never finished school.

“His teacher, Mrs. Turner, who lived up the road, told my grandfather that he needed to keep his head in the books, but my grandfather said that he’s got bigger and better things to do,” Anna recalled.

Those aspirations included running for and winning a position on the Louisa County Board of Supervisors. Anna remembers going door to door with him to ask people in the town about their concerns and what they’d like to see changed.

“Community service was something he felt strongly about,” she said. “He enjoyed being able to be the voice of the people as well. He was very people-oriented.”

Anna and her grandfather also shared a love of horses. When Winston and Thelma were dating, he used to ride his horse over to see her.

“We always had horses,” Anna said. “He and I would always love to go trail riding together just around the farm.”

Anna’s son Caleb Anderson, who recently moved to Texas, believes the community couldn’t have picked a better person for the lake to be named after.

“She is definitely one of my best friends,” he said of his mom. “Anytime you need anything, she’s always there. She’s just the nicest person you’ll ever meet. She’ll do anything for anybody even if she doesn’t know them.”

Caleb loves sharing the story of the lake’s name.

“It’s kind of funny,” he said. “Every time you sit there, you think, ‘that’s pretty cool, it’s named after Mom.’ We always go out with friends on the lake, we’re always telling the story. Some people believe you, some people don’t. It’s cool to see so many people out there enjoying the lake, too.”

Some residents of the county were initially skeptical about the formation of the lake, records show. An article published in The Richmond News Leader in April of 1968, “Project Floods Louisa with Suspense,” reflected some of those doubts. Residents near the North Anna river basin feared they would lose their homes and farms, while people living along the edge of the proposed lake were “delighted with its promise of recreation and increased trade.”

“Nobody has heard a word from the power company,” said one woman quoted in the article who worried she would lose her home to the lake. “It doesn’t make you feel good when you’ve been born and raised in a place.”

According to the article, young people– maybe anticipating future decades of fishing and boating – were all for the development of the lake.

“Donald Acors, a senior at Spotsylvania High School who lives on the Louisa side of the river just below the proposed dam, is overjoyed,” the article reads. “‘The kids are all for it,’ he said. Looking up the small river he sighed. ‘Eleven thousand acres is a lot of water.’”

In 1974, an editorial in the News Leader defended the future lake and the Virginia Electric and Power Company (Vepco), who was responsible for the safety of the proposed nuclear power plant.

“Presumably, [those opposed to the power plant] would fill the future power needs of Virginia by rubbing together a couple of Boy Scouts,” the editorial reads. “A day-long, on-site inspection fails to bear out the fears of the doom-and-gloomers… They are doing close to incredible things at North Anna – and all so that we can heat our homes and use our electric can openers.”

A 30th Anniversary reflection of the lake published in The Central Virginian in 2002 described public opinion of the power plant over the course of the previous 30 years.

“The operation of a nuclear power plant has not been without controversy, and the company has faced protests and court cases throughout its history,” the article read. “Concerned Citizens of Louisa County continues its role as a watchdog organization, staying atop of issues such as spent fuel storage, including dry cask storage, and other safety and environmental topics.”

Despite both the controversy and the substantial population and economic growth around the lake, much of the surrounding county remains similar to how it was 50 years ago.

“Louisa in general is a fairly rural community still today,” said Katelyn Coughlin, executive director of the Louisa County Historical Society. “The area around Lake Anna doesn’t feel that way because there’s been so much growth with people moving down. For the most part, Louisa still maintains what it was like in the 1940s and 50s.”

Today, the Anderson family loves tubing, wakeboarding, fishing and boating on the lake. Caleb says the family connection continues to be meaningful.

“It’s cool that the family has history with the lake,” Caleb said. “My great-grandfather put a lot of hard work into getting the lake built; it’s cool. My family history kind of helped get the lake built.”

In the last 50 years, the Andersons have watched the community grow exponentially.

“[My husband and I] are actually working around the lake a lot, and it has amazed me just in our business to be able to see the various sides of the lake, just how much it’s grown,” Anna explained. “I would have never guessed in a million years that Lake Anna would be as developed as it’s become, or like a vacation destination like it has.”

Her hope for Lake Anna and the people around it is that the lake continues to foster community.

“I hope we won’t lose that sense of community; Louisa is such a small rural town,” Anna said. “I hope that we don’t lose that in spite of all the growth that’s happening.”

Newspaper records provided courtesy of the Louisa County Historical Society.