Long before Lake Murray appeared on a map, the lower Saluda River was a place of human life and movement. Archaeological work near the dam has documented occupations reaching back roughly 13,500 years. By the early twentieth century, the future reservoir area was a settled rural landscape of farms, roads, ferries, schools, churches, cemeteries, and close-knit communities. That older landscape changed permanently when a vast hydroelectric project began acquiring land in 1925. Construction at Dreher Shoals followed from 1927 to 1930, and the new reservoir was named for William Spencer Murray, the engineer closely associated with its design and development.
Creating the lake was an extraordinary engineering achievement, but it also carried a profound human cost. Regional histories consistently report that roughly 5,000 residents lived on about 1,100 acquired parcels. Schools and churches were relocated, roads were rerouted, and the reservoir area encompassed 193 burial grounds containing 2,323 graves. Historical documentation indicates that many remains were left undisturbed and 148 bodies were disinterred and moved to higher ground. When Dreher Shoals Dam was completed in 1930, its approximately 1.5-mile earthen embankment was the largest of its kind in the world, and Lake Murray was the world’s largest reservoir built for power production. The Saluda Hydroelectric Plant helped expand electric service across central South Carolina, while the new lake reshaped the geography and economy of the Midlands.
Lake Murray soon became part of national history as well. From 1942 through 1945, sections of the lake served as a military practice-bombing range for aircrews training from the Columbia area. A B-25 Mitchell that went down during a 1943 training flight remained beneath the water for 62 years before its recovery in 2005. That same year, a large backup dam was completed downstream to provide additional protection against a severe earthquake. The historic original dam continues to operate; its five intake towers still carry water to turbines before it returns to the lower Saluda River.
Today Lake Murray spans nearly 50,000 acres across four counties and is known for boating, fishing, wildlife, public recreation, and the communities that grew around its shoreline. Yet it remains, at its core, a working hydroelectric reservoir built over an older river landscape. In 2025, Dreher Shoals Dam was recognized as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark—a fitting acknowledgment of a structure that changed South Carolina while continuing to serve it. Lake Murray’s history is therefore not a single tale of progress or loss, but both: an ancient river corridor, displaced homes and institutions, bold engineering, wartime service, and a living lake that still connects the Midlands to the Saluda River story.