Dunbar's Cove

I read this book long ago when I was about 19 or 20. It is a very powerful story that has stayed with me over the years.
Set in the 1930's, Dunbar's Cove is the story of David Dunbar and his family and also of TVA man Crawford Gates. Dunbar is a farmer with a strong attachment to his land. The TVA starts building a dam which will flood his “cove” (a small fertile valley). The TVA's point man is Crawford Gates, and it is his job to get everyone to move from the designated flood area. Dunbar refuses to move, and when threatened with confiscation of his property, though a gentle man and though he has formed a reluctant friendship with Gates, he resorts to threats and guns to defy the government. Of course one man cannot stand against the government for ever, and Gates eventually finds an acceptable resolution the the dilemma. The course to that resolution forms a warmly moving story.