Written in 1983 for the National Conference on Public Administration in New York, Stephen Rechichar and Michael Fitzgerald's paper, "The Big Dam and the Little Fish: TVA's Tellico Dream in an Era of Intragovernmental Regulation," outlines the controversial construction of Tellico Dam on the Little Tennessee River between 1936 and 1979 by the Tennessee Valley Authority. Sources are taken from the Tennessee Valley Authority, local people and local officials, state and federal documents.

This collection contains information in the form of magazine and newspaper articles, correspondence, court proceedings, congressional records and other materials concerning the lengthy battle between the Tennessee Endangered Species Committee and the Tennessee Valley Authority over the building of the Tellico Dam and the dam's threat to various elements of the local environment, particularly an endangered species of fish, the Snail Darter.