Greenwood County records that Lake Greenwood was created between 1935 and 1940 with construction of Buzzard’s Roost Dam. The project transformed the Saluda River landscape into an 11,400-acre reservoir that now touches Greenwood, Laurens and Newberry counties.
Management changed over time while the county retained an unusually direct role in the lake. Greenwood County says the Greenwood County Electric Power Commission originally managed the lake, Duke Power later leased hydroelectric and lake operations, Santee Cooper leased the hydroelectric facility beginning in 2007, and Lockhart Power entered an agreement with the county to generate power in 2020.
The modern lake is both infrastructure and a public recreation resource. Greenwood County’s Lake Management Department administers shoreline and encroachment work, county access areas and FERC-related responsibilities, while SCDNR maintains fishing information, public-access resources and fish-attractor information for anglers.
That combination makes Lake Greenwood different from many South Carolina reservoirs: it is not simply a power-company lake with a recreation layer attached. County management, state fisheries work, lakeside communities and a long-running local fishing culture all shape what the lake is today.