Lexington Water and Power Company (now known as South Carolina Electric &Gas) built the dam in order to generate electricity.  The lake and the down or under construction from 1927 through 1930.

Approximate 100,000 acres of land was purchased for the building of the dam and light.  Land was purchased from more than 5000 fans.  The lady sold between $15.00 and $45.00 an acre

To make room for the lake, nearly a dozen communities that to be abandoned, including Derrick, Pine Ridge, Selwood, Wessinger, Cantsville, Leaphart, Savilla, Boyleston, Lorena, Holly’s Ferry and Lorick’s Ferry.

Six schools, three churches and about 193 graveyards containing 2,323 graves had to be moved.  Some families chose not to give the graves, and at several area churches there are monuments with these names listed.

To clear the land and log the trees, from the earlier you the cover of water, an average rate of 50¢ per day, was paid to 2000 men to clear the 65,000 acres by hand and using crosscut saws and axes.  Out of the trees cut down, one million board feet of lumber was manufactured.  Some of the lumber was used in the construction and some was used to build a three mile railroad between the dam site and what is known to today as Irmo.

Each of the towers is 223 feet tall.  The four smaller ones were built 16 feet in diameter to draw water from the bottom of the lake into the penstocks (a channel or pipe use to control water flow or supply water to something such as a hydroelectric plant). The pensotcks deliver water from the base of the towers and the lake to the turbines in the power plant 1,150 feet away.  Water enters the turbines through a spiral case of tapered tubes that diverts water through the turbines.  Wickets (or gates) regulate the amount of water that enters.  The largest tower is 60 feet in diameter and feeds water too massive arch conduit beneath it.

At a cost of $20.1 million, the dam was built in three sections.  The dam as 1½ miles long, 375 feet high and covers 99 acres.  The four spillgates, each 37 ½ feet long by 25 feet wide are on the Lexington end of the den.  Between 1943 in 1946, two additional gates were added to the spillway, and the dam was strengthened by raising the crest 3 feet.  The spillways were constructed to handle any flood situation where the lake’s level rose above the 360’ mark.

All August 31, 1929 the reservoir began filling with water.  Lake Murray covers approximate 50,000 acres of land and 650 miles of shoreline it is 41 miles long and 14 miles wide at its widest point.

On December 1, 1930 at 7:00 AM the first electric power - 1000 kilowatts-- was delivered and Lake Murray was celebrated as the world’s largest power reservoir.

The official name of the dam is Dreher Shoals, although most people refer to it as Lake Murray Dam.

What is under the lake has been the fascination of many people.  They are nearly a dozen communities, thousands of graves, the Wise Ferry Bridge, bomber airplanes, a pipeline, several railroad tank cars, an old rock house, also homes, boats, and bomb fragments under the waters of Lake Murray.

In the early 1940’ the U.S. Military used the lake to train bomber pilots B-25 bomber airplanes. Seven of the lake’s islands, Bomb, Shull, Wessinger, Dreher, Spence Misty and Holley Key were used as practice targets.