Lake Moultrie Land Clearing – SC

Description

Works Progress Administration (WPA) laborers worked to clear land in preparation for the creation of the 95-square-mile Lake Moultrie, 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.”