Located along the lake shore at Wirtz, Virginia is the Gwin Dudley Home Site, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.

The limited early residential developments around the lake consisted largely of small trailer parks and modest houses.

However, residential growth has been steady since the mid-1980s and increasingly upscale with large lakefront houses, condominiums, and communities centered on golf courses.

American Electric Power (AEP) is licensed to operate the Smith Mountain Project by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

In December, 2009 the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granted Appalachian Power a new license to operate the hydro-electricity plant.

Any variance requests are reviewed by interested State and Federal agencies such as Virginia Dept of Game and Inland Fisheries.

The area lies in a broad valley nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of rural south-central Virginia.

The level of the lake normally varies by one to two feet (0.3 to 0.6 m) during the day and night, as water flows through (and is pumped back through) the dam.

Boating, water skiing, wakeboarding, riding personal watercraft, and sailing are common activities as is fishing, especially for striped bass.

The fee-based state park (located on the Bedford County side, off Smith Mountain Parkway), the free Smith Mountain Community Park (located on the Franklin County side of the lake) and six government-managed boat launching ramps also provide public access.

[5] In 2003, however, a fish kill among adult striped bass[7] occurred due to an outbreak of parasitic arthropods of genus Achtheres,[7][8] loss of forage[8] associated with an abnormal shad winterkill during 2002 to 2003[7][9] and overpopulation.