Qualla: Lake Murray (South Carolina)

Lake Murray (South Carolina): Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dr. Blazer, CC BY-SA 4.0. Between 1927 and 1930, workers built a dam 1.5 miles long and 213 feet high across the Saluda River in central South Carolina, using nothing more exotic than the red clay soil under their feet. When it was finished, the Saluda Dam was the largest earthen dam in the world. Behind it rose Lake Murray - 41 miles long, 14 miles wide, 50,000 acres - the largest man-made reservoir on Earth at the time of completion. To make room for the water, surveyors first had to move three churches, six schools, and 193 graveyards containing 2,323 graves.

Image: Dr. Blazer | CC BY-SA 4.0

Lake Murray (South Carolina): The Dutch Fork

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Thomson200, CC0. Long before the dam, the lower Saluda River valley was settled in the 1750s by German and Swiss emigrants. Two main communities took root: the Dutch Fork at the meeting of the Broad and Saluda Rivers, and the Saxe-Gotha township. By 1760, the Dutch Fork held 483 settler families....

Image: Thomson200 | CC0

Lake Murray (South Carolina): T. C. Williams Moves the Dead

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Vrc84, CC BY-SA 3.0. On July 8, 1927, the Federal Power Commission granted Lexington Water Power Company a license to build a dam at Dreher Shoals, ten miles west of Columbia. The reservoir and its protective margins would cover about 65,000 acres, but to secure that land - much of it never properly ...

Image: Vrc84 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Lake Murray (South Carolina): An Engineering First

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit PegasusRacer28, CC BY-SA 4.0. Construction relied on the native red clay - a material engineers had largely dismissed for major dam work - and on bedrock anchoring the structure to the Piedmont. A three-mile railroad spur was built from the Columbia, Newberry & Laurens Railroad at Irmo to haul construction ma...

Image: PegasusRacer28 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Lake Murray (South Carolina): Bomb Island and the B-25

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Savannah River Site, Public domain. Lake Murray today is laced with small islands - Jim Spence Islands, Shull Island, and the islands of Dreher Island State Park, where three different islands now host a state recreation area in the northwest corner. The most famous is Bomb Island, locally called Lunch Island, one ...

Image: Savannah River Site | Public domain

Lake Murray (South Carolina): Fish, Fireworks, and the Dreher Walkway

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Greygh0st at English Wikipedia, Public domain. Modern Lake Murray is South Carolina's recreational backyard. Largemouth bass, striped bass, blue and channel catfish, black and white crappie, and redear sunfish all thrive in the water. Public boat landings - Murray's, Jake's, Koon - dot the shoreline. North of Lexington, a wal...

Image: Greygh0st at English Wikipedia | Public domain