From the beginning, TVA was charged with giving the people of the Tennessee Valley region a better opportunity to prosper through low-cost electricity, economic development, and partnerships with federal, state, regional, and local organizations and power distributors that help communities recruit and retain businesses, creating an average of 40,000 jobs each year. TVA also carries an original mission to protect the region’s natural resources while meeting power and economic development needs by managing the Tennessee River system for flood control, navigation, power production, recreation, and water quality. The river system sustains the world’s most diverse population of fish and mussel species and has supported human communities for thousands of years. Rich in Native American historical and cultural heritage, the TVA service area contains nearly 11,500 documented archaeological sites, many eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. Along this section of the Tennessee River, before construction of the dam and flooding for the reservoir, TVA classified and described 343 archaeological sites; artifacts from that work are now partly displayed at the Guntersville Museum and otherwise held by the University of Alabama and the Moundville Archaeological Park and Museum. Today TVA works with federally recognized tribes to preserve and protect the land through noninvasive archaeological techniques while managing public lands, protecting cultural resources, and meeting environmental standards.