Lake Murray is known as the “Crown Jewel” of South Carolina for its beauty and pristine waters. The lake covers approximately 50,000 acres, is 14 miles wide, 41 miles long, has over 500 miles of shoreline, and water depths greater than 200’ deep. At an elevation of approximately 358’ AMSL this great lake borders Lexington, Richland, Saluda, and Newberry Counties.

In the late 1920s the construction began on Lake Murray with the clearing of 60,000 acres of timber. The land was cleared to the high water mark of 360’ AMSL. During this time there were over 2,000 men employed and 37 saw mills in operation.

The Construction of The Saluda Dam began in the 1920s and at the time it was the world’s largest earthen dam. The chief engineer of the project was William Murray of which the lake is named after. At completion in the 1930s the dam spanned 1.5 miles and is over 200 feet tall. This mammoth dam was built to harness the Saluda River for the creation of hydroelectric energy to serve the surrounding area.  

For more than seventy years, Lake Murray has provided electricity for residents of the South Carolina midlands. Since its completion the dam has underwent several improvements based on dynamic stability analysis due to the possibility of earthquakes in this area.

The most recent dam improvement was the construction of a back up dam built to hold

back the waters of Lake Murray if there is a failure of the main dam. This massive project took place from 2002 and was completed in 2005 at a cost of over $250M.