About: Lake Murray is located on the Saluda River in the Midlands of South Carolina in Lexington, Richland, Newberry, and Saluda counties. It has a max width of 41 miles and length of 14 miles. It is approximately 50,000 acres in size, and has roughly 650 miles of shoreline. It has an irregular shape, with several coves branching off it. Several small islands are located in the lake, such as the Jim Spence Islands, Shull Island, and Bomb Island, also known as Lunch Island, which is one of the largest nesting sites for Purple Martins in the nation. Dreher Island State Park is made up of three islands that extend into Lake Murray. The park offers camping, cabins, day use, and access to the lake for water activities.
Bomb Island is 8-10 acres and the remnant of a ridge top above the flood pool. Except for a few shortleaf pines on the western end of the island, most of the vegetation is in an early successional stage of fields, shrubs, and small trees. The island is burned on a regular basis by South Carolina Electric and Gas, the owner. In the 1970's purple martins started using the island as a pre-migratory summer roost and staging area. Numbers built up quickly so that by the 1980's this site was possibly the largest martin roost in the entire country. The area is attractive due to the lack of predators and the martins roost in shrubs and switch-cane 4-5 feet off the ground.
The Lexington Water Power Company built a hydroelectric dam to generate electricity from 1927 to 1930. The dam was named after William S. Murray, the engineer who designed it. At the time of its completion, Lake Murray was the world's largest man-made reservoir. Lake Murray is fed by the Saluda River, which flows from upstate South Carolina. The Saluda Dam (officially the Dreher Shoals Dam) was an engineering feat at the time of its construction. The dam, using the native red clay soil and bedrock, was the largest earthen dam in the world when it was completed in 1930.
