Lake Murray Information - Asset Realty, Inc.

The Jewel of South Carolina...Lake Murray!
Named after William Murray, the engineer who, with his partner T. C. Williams, conceived and built "the world's largest earthen dam" at the time it was finished. Their vision brought abundant electricity to the middle part of South Carolina. Work on the dam across the Saluda River was started on September 21, 1927 and was finished on June 30, 1930.

The river begins near the North Carolina border. As it runs to the sea, it fills the Greenville Water reservoir, Lake Greenwood, and then Lake Murray. Past the dam, the Saluda joins the Congaree and Wateree rivers to flow to the Atlantic Ocean.

The dam and the 5 pump stations, that are distinctively Lake Murray, were built over 200 feet tall. The dam itself runs a distance of a mile and a half across. The ground level of the dam is over a quarter of a mile thick. The lake, at it's longest point, is forty-one miles long and, over fourteen miles wide. State Highway 6 runs along the top of the dam, giving a panoramic view of the water on one side as it connects Irmo and Lexington.

The lake has 649 miles of shoreline property, and forms over 50,000 acres. In order to make the lake a possibility, over 1000 tracts of land were acquired, and 5,000 homes were relocated. Initially, it gave plenty of jobs and cheap electricity to the people of the Midlands of South Carolina, and since, has given them recreation, relaxation, and a place to call home.