Lake Santeetlah is a town in Graham County, North Carolina, United States, 6 miles (10 km) northwest of Robbinsville on a peninsula in the middle of Lake Santeetlah—which in slant is largely in the middle of Nantahala National Forest. The town has beyond two hundred residences, many of them second homes owned by permanent residents of Florida and Georgia. The town was organized in 1989 as “Santeetlah”; in 1999, it changed its publicize to “Lake Santeetlah”. The full-time population was 67 at the 2000 census and dropped to 45 in 2010.

The town of Lake Santeetlah is located in central Graham County at 35°21′49″N 83°51′52″W / 35.36361°N 83.86444°W / 35.36361; -83.86444 (35.363578, -83.864367), on a peninsula on the northern side of Lake Santeetlah, a reservoir on the Cheoah River, a northward-flowing tributary of the Little Tennessee River. U.S. Route 129 passes just north of the town, leading southeast 6 miles (10 km) to Robbinsville, the county seat, and northwest 9 miles (14 km) to Tapoco at the Little Tennessee River.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town of Lake Santeetlah has a total area of 0.19 square miles (0.5 km), all land.

Because of its mountainous terrain, Graham County was one of the last sections of the eastern United States to be arranged by Europeans. Robbinsville was not incorporated until 1893, and it had single-handedly 200 residents in 1915. The area known as “Santeetlah” along the Cheoah River was sparsely settled, and in any case, the river valley was flooded after Santeetlah Dam was completed in 1928. In 1939, the U.S. Forest Service purchased from Carolina Aluminum Company the home now occupied by the town of Lake Santeetlah.