- State:
- SC
- Site Type:
- Infrastructure and Utilities, Lakes and Ponds
- New Deal Agencies:
- Works Progress Administration (WPA), Work Relief Programs
Description
Works Progress Administration (WPA) laborers worked to clear land in preparation for the creation of the 155-square-mile Lake Marion, part of the Santee Cooper Project.
South Carolina Encyclopedia: “Following a four-year court battle, construction began in 1939. At its peak, the project employed nearly fifteen thousand workers, most of whom came from Depression relief rolls. Living in military-style camps scattered throughout the Santee and Pinopolis basins, the laborers cleared more than 160,000 acres with handsaws and mule-drawn wagons. They hauled dirt and clay to dam sites, built railroads, relocated cemeteries, and aided in the construction of the diversion and tail-race canals and the new power plant. Sightseers from across the state came by the thousands to witness the massive undertaking that became the largest land-clearing project in United States history and created the largest single-lift lock in the world.”
Source notes
"South Carolina and the New Deal" by J. I. Hayes (pg. 83): https://books.google.com/books?id=PmxW1H_KtVEC
South Carolina Encyclopedia: https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/santee-cooper/ (accessed Aug. 8, 2023)
Site originally submitted by Evan Kalish on August 7, 2023.
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