Monday, Apr. 06, 2009

Lake Murray area 101

• Schools: School District 5 and the north shore of Lake Murray are synonymous. Local classrooms rated among the best in the state and the appeal of lakefront living are the main attractions for those who call the area home.

• Suburbs: The towns of Irmo and Chapin are the hubs of suburbs spread along both sides of I-26. Both communities are small parts of large ZIP codes. A few fingers of Columbia stretch into the area, mainly the commercial parts of Harbison.

• The fight against sprawl: Some residents are challenging growth to keep the more rural flavor of unincorporated communities of Ballentine, Dutch Fork, Hilton and White Rock.

• The commute: Many residents work in downtown Columbia, enduring the commute through what residents call “Malfunction Junction” — the I-26/I-20 interchange.

Did You Know?

• Manmade Lake Murray is 79 years old, created by flooding a Saluda River Valley in the 1920s to generate electricity for the area.

• The lakeshore is 650 miles. The lake covers 47,500 acres — 78 square miles — at its normal high level.

• It is named after the New York engineer who oversaw construction of the earthen dam that formed it.

• While the lake is a popular place to live and play, South Carolina Electric & Gas relies on its hydropower as a backup source of making electricity.

• New guidelines on lake operations are in the works, shaped in part by waterfront groups.

• Some of the 64 islands in the lake were practice targets for military aviators in World War II. A crashed bomber was recovered from its depths in 2006. It is displayed at the Southern Museum of Flight in Birmingham, Ala.

— Tim Flach

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