Free Watauga Lake Vector. SVG, PDF, EPS, DXF, GeoJSON, Shapefile, High-Res PNG.
Every Watauga Lake vector file you'll ever need. Free, public-domain, every reasonable format, every reasonable color combination. No attribution required, no signup, no watermark, no paywall. Just the files.
About Watauga Lake
Watauga Lake is a 6,430-acre TVA reservoir on the Watauga River in the Cherokee National Forest, formed by Watauga Dam (1948). It is one of the highest-elevation TVA lakes (1,975 ft summer pool) and is known for unusually clear, deep water.
Quick downloads
Most people want one of these four. If your use case isn’t obvious from the names, scroll to the use-case sections or the full variants list below.
SVG
Vector for the web, modern design tools, Cricut.
Universal vector. Opens in Illustrator, Affinity, Inkscape, every print shop.
Pick by use case
Web designers and developers
SVG is what you want. The simplified version is about 10× smaller than the full file and looks identical at typical screen sizes.
Print, illustration, and Adobe / Affinity / Inkscape
PDF is the universal vector format. The 8192-pixel PNG is more than enough for poster-size printing at 300 DPI.
Laser cutters, CNC, vinyl, Cricut, Silhouette
DXF is the standard for hardware. For Cricut and Silhouette vinyl cutters, use the silhouette SVG (solid black on transparent).
GIS and mapping
The full GIS bundle. Shapefile is the GIS lingua franca. KML/KMZ open in Google Earth. GeoJSON is the easiest format to script against.
Color and style variants
Every reasonable combination. Each row links to a vector (SVG plus PDF or EPS where it makes sense) and four PNG resolutions: 1024, 2048, 4096, and 8192 pixels wide.
Frequently asked about Watauga Lake
Is the Watauga Lake outline really free?
Yes. Watauga Lake’s outline is derived from OpenStreetMap, which is itself built from public-domain US Geological Survey hydrography. The rendered images and styled vectors here are released under CC0. No attribution. No signup. No watermark.
Can I sell Watauga Lake t-shirts, mugs, or signage made from this?
Yes. CC0 places no restrictions on commercial use. You can screen-print, embroider, laser-cut, frame, embed, or sell anything you make from the Watauga Lake files without asking us, crediting us, or paying us.
What file format do I need for a Cricut or laser cutter?
For Cricut and Silhouette vinyl cutters, use the Watauga Lake silhouette SVG (solid black on transparent). For laser cutters, CNC routers, AutoCAD, or Fusion 360, use the DXF. If your software chokes on the full geometry, the simplified SVG is about 10× smaller and looks identical at typical cutting sizes.
Do you have files for other lakes nearby?
Yes. The same workflow that produced the Watauga Lake files works for any reservoir on the Watauga River system. We’ve published files for Wilbur Lake and South Holston Lake (plus the rest of the chain). The full directory is at /free-lake-vectors/.
What if I need a Watauga Lake variant that isn’t here?
If we missed a color, format, or size, drop a note and we’ll add it. We’d rather take five minutes to add a variant than have anyone go pay a stock-vector site for what is, ultimately, a polygon traced from public-domain map data.
License
These files are released to the public domain under CC0 1.0. No attribution required. No restrictions on commercial use, modification, redistribution, or anything else. Paint it on a boat. Screen-print it on t-shirts and sell those t-shirts. Frame it on your wall. Embed it on your website. Laser-cut it into wooden coasters. Ship it as part of a software product. None of that requires asking us, crediting us, or paying us.
The lake-outline geometry was extracted from OpenStreetMap and projected through the Tennessee State Plane (Lambert Conformal Conic). OSM is a community-curated dataset built largely from public-domain US Geological Survey hydrography. If you republish the raw GeoJSON or Shapefile and want to be a good citizen, OSM asks for an "© OpenStreetMap contributors" credit (per the ODbL). For the rendered images and styled vectors above, no credit is legally required.
Other Tennessee River lakes
Same workflow, same license, same files. See the full directory →