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Later that year the family received the news that their country would ask even more. Plans had begun to be made to build the Fontana Dam. This dam would be built to produce power for the Tennessee Valley as well as for flood control there. This would require that all the land, along with the towns of Proctor, Judson, Bushnell and Ja'pan and the surrounding communities would need to be confiscated so that the basin could be filled. While these families knew that this was a huge sacrifice they really had no choice but to do what was asked of them. Fred and Martha soon realized that once again they would need to begin making plans to re-build their lives. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) gave most families about $37.00 per acre for their land. Many took down their existing homes and carried them with them to rebuild. Fred and Martha bought the old Panther Creek church building, tore it down, and built the house that is now known as the "Clementine Cove", high above the flood line. The nails that were used were gathered from the old Stecoah School building which had burned. Again, they used their ingenuity to survive. Of course, these mountain people did not fully realize at that time that this event in their lives would set in motion an even greater world changing event. Their sacrifice made possible the building of the atomic bombs that were dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki by enabling the production of power for use at Oak Ridge, Tennessee for the Manhattan Project.

These families were to speak little of this part of their past since they realized that many others had sacrificed even more. Using their skills and strength of character each family used what they could to make a new life for themselves. Fred and Martha began their new way of life by buying the old general store of Ja'pan from Grady & Lona Andrews Mashburn. Fred pulled the old store up from Panther Creek with mules to sit near their new home in the Clementine Cove. He also built cabins and small boats with handmade paddles for rent. This would enable them to begin their life again with the introduction of the new Fontana Lake.

After the war, Chet arrived home from the Army to find that he didn't even know where home was. He came by taxi from Bryson City and passed the new home place before realizing where he was. On March 29, 1947, exactly 4 years after he had been inducted into the Army, Chet married Blanche Rose who was only 13 when he left. Many other families also received their son's home. Jim Paige, a medic and prisoner of war, met and married Eldred. Frances married Elmo Andrews from Ja'pan. Elmo had served in the Philippines where his ship was hit by a kamikaze plane and is noted to have driven the first American Vehicle onto the Japanese mainland after the bombs were dropped.

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