May 20 2009

3 Guests
Principal at NRES
Two guest from Irmo News.

Pitch for the CART fund.

Lyman health and happiness.

John birthday

Golf Ball and the Sand wedge.

Emily King…thanks for fundraising. Don’t have final count. Pres Eddie thanks for all that was done.

Rotary board meeting, Fri, 7:30 open to all

Annual luncheon for chamber announced (today) @ Carrabbas.

Blood drive for Red Cross today.

Beetle vacation @ Summit Rotary Club in Prescott Arizona. Presented club banner.

Need to update directory. Members not contacted please see Larry and John Adair for new picture.

Happy dollars…lots of thanks, too many to recount. Big time for graduations from various programs, lots of people demonstrating Service above Self.

Ginnie Barr introduces speaker. Randall Sheally, a Lake Murray historian. From a historic area family. Speaker had previous service in USArmy.


Guest Speaker…brought lot of pictures, charts, etc.

His goal, have a permanent Lake Murray museum. Asked people to sign in to help with that effort.
Has a list of people who have lost lives in Lake Murray since its construction.
The build period…1927-1930. Original request for permit filed in 1925 for dam and power plant. The dam was built as Dreher Shoals Dam, which is the proper name. Water was used for electricity and there was a dispute over where and who would build the dam.

The firm that built the dam was part owed by Mr. Spencer Murray, from a NY firm, Murray and Flood. The soil was good for dam building at the Irmo spot. The original idea for a dam goes back as far as Robert E. Lee.
Sept 1927, first shovel. First electricity, June 1930. None of the dirt was hauled by truck. 70% wooded, 30% farmland. 6 schools, 3 churches, 192 cemeteries. Options were given to grave owners. 37 requests for memorial markers. Many done at no expense to the families.
People moved and sold land. Average price, $15 per acre. The going price at that time, $25 per acre. Some people only sold water rights. Most of the islands are still privately owned. Some people are still mad that the power company stole the land. The highest Mr. Shealy has seen on an acre was $90.
People that wanted to move back to the lake shore…they bought it back at $15 an acre.
Majority of homes were disassembled and moved. A few homes did get washed downstream. One house in Newberry did flood with people in it but the sheriff torched it to stop people from moving back in.
Some families were broken up because of the lake. Moved to different sides of the lake, etc., thus the different spellings of names, etc.
There were 9 ferries and one bridge. The bridge is still in the lake (Wise ferry).
The Santee lake was build at about the same time
It was the largest earthen dam when built, now it is the 3rd. 3 earthen buckets and 2 bulldozers. The dirt was built using railroad tracks across the dam and dirt dumped.
Dirt came from beach area of Lexington, the spillway, the boat ramp area, and the train run taking coal to the steam plant.

Meeting ended at 8:30.