Journalist and historian Chuck McShane traces the triumphs and troubles of Lake Norman from the region's colonial beginnings to its modern incarnation. On a muggy September day in 1959, North Carolina governor Luther Hodges set off the first charge of dynamite for the Cowan's Ford Dam project. The dam channeled Catawba River waters into the largest lake in North Carolina: Lake Norman. The project was the culmination of James Buchanan Duke's dream of an electrified South and the beginning of the region's future. Over the years, the area around Lake Norman transformed from a countryside of cornstalks and cattle fields to an elite suburb full of luxurious subdivisions and thirty-five-foot sailboats.

This history of industry and energy development around Mooresville, North Carolina tells the story of the early use of harnessing hydropower for the textile industry, and resulted in the creation of Lake Norman. The year 1957 brought change to Mooresville and southern Iredell County, and that change arrived in trucks. Big white ones flashed the logo of Burlington Industries, the new owners of the Mooresville Cotton Mills. Bright yellow ones from the Duke Power Company brought earth-moving machines to clear the Catawba River bottomland. That project, envisioned by James Buchanan Duke, Dr. Gill Wylie, and William States Lee Jr., had the end goal of harnessing the energy of the Catawba River to provide electricity for the textile industry in the Carolinas. Duke Power's plan for Cowans Ford Lake was the last piece of the network of hydroelectric stations, and the result was beautiful Lake Norman.

Beneath the Surface is an extension of the author’s two previous books that offer the unique blend of science and sport. This book focuses on Lake Norman North Carolina but all of its information is useful to any fresh water fisherman. The author is considered a Sonar expert and this book is full of Sonar image photo interpretations to help those fishermen who have not developed the skill of using Sonar fish finders to improve their catch rate. The tips presented on catching the various species of fish resident to Lake Norman are useful for these species wherever they reside. Several myths about fishing are discussed and some of these myths are crushed by the Author with detailed back up information to support his contentions.