Lake Marion (South Carolina)

Lake Marion is the largest lake in South Carolina, centrally located and with territory within five counties. The lake is referred to as South Carolina's inland sea. It has a 315-mile (507 km) shoreline and covers nearly 110,000 acres (450 square kilometers or 173.7 square miles) of rolling farmlands, former marshes, and river valley landscape.

The Santee River was dammed in the 1940s to supply hydroelectric power, as part of the rural electrification efforts initiated under President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal during the Great Depression. It is one of the fifty largest lakes in the United States, whether natural or man-made reservoirs, but covers only about a third of the area of the fifteenth largest in size.

Origin

Lake Marion was created by the construction of the Santee Dam in November 1941, part of the state-owned electric and water utility Santee Cooper's Hydroelectric and Navigation Project. The project also included the construction of the Pinopolis Dam (Cooper River Dam) to create Lake Moultrie, immediately downstream, and a diversion canal seven and a half miles long to connect the two.

Lake Marion

Lake Marion or Marion Lake may refer to:

Lake Marion (McLeod County, Minnesota)

Lake Marion is a lake in McLeod County, in the U.S. state of Minnesota.

Lake Marion was named for Marion Hoag, the daughter of settler Charles Hoag.

See also

References

Coordinates: 44°47′0″N 94°23′5″W / 44.78333°N 94.38472°W / 44.78333; -94.38472