College student looking for information on lake's history

If your family was affected by the construction of Clarks Hill/Thurmond Lake back in the 1940s, a history student is eager to hear about your experiences.

As many in Lincoln County know well, the federal government purchased and flooded a significant part of the county's eastern portion for the lake beginning in the 1940s. People were living on at least some of the land parcels that the government acquired in Lincoln and neighboring counties in Georgia and South Carolina, while many other parcels were not occupied.

"I'm hoping to recreate the story of that time period, back before the dam was finished and the lake filled up," said Rob Shapard, the student researching the lake's history. "It would be a major thrill to find people who were living in the area back then and had to move for the lake, or had to sell land.

"But I know that was a long time ago, and I'm also very interested to talk with people who had parents, grandparents or other family members who were affected," he added. "I think the affected people are an important and kind of forgotten part of the lake's history, and preserving their stories would be valuable."

Shapard, 40, lives in North Carolina and has gone back to graduate school in American history at N.C. State University in Raleigh. But he grew up in Griffin and spent a lot of his youth fishing on farm ponds in central Georgia.

"I used to read about places like Clarks Hill in the fishing and outdoors magazines when I was a kid, seeing all the photos of these huge fish being caught at Clarks Hill or other lakes," he said. "I was always kind of curious about the stories behind the big reservoirs in the state, how they came to be built and what the lay of the land and the community were like before the lakes existed."

The lake that has become such a central part of Lincoln County and nearby counties was authorized by Congress in 1944 to prevent floods downstream, generate electricity and improve navigation on the Savannah River. Crews installed the first of seven generators at the power plant in 1952 and finished that plant a couple years later.

"Looking at some of the old newspapers, the supporters of the dam had such lofty goals for it, really for the whole upper Savannah valley," Shapard said. "But I haven't seen much discussion so far in the back papers of how people felt about moving or selling land."

Shapard's plan is to write a research paper this spring on the experiences of people affected by the dam. He intends to come back to Lincolnton in the next couple of weeks to interview people and record some of their stories.

If you would be willing to share your experiences with Shapard, as well as photographs or other records, he can be reached by email at rpshapar@ncsu.edu, regular mail at Rob Shapard, c/o Department of History, Campus Box 8108, N.C. State University, Raleigh NC 27695, or by telephone at (919) 960-5992.