Who’s behind the Lake Murray Flag, a symbol made to unify the community?

If you’ve been around Lake Murray, you may have noticed a green, red and blue flag flying from a boat or golf cart, or adhered to the back of a car as a decal.

That flag is the creation of Doug Gaines, a Chapin resident and retired law enforcement officer. Having lived in the Lake Murray area for over 15 years, Gaines was inspired to create the flag when he saw a friend with a specific flag for another lake.

“There’s all these communities that are all the way around the lake,” Gaines said. “I thought this would be a great thing to kind of unify all these different towns, kind of give us a symbol for Lake Murray.”

Every part of the flag has meaning behind it. The blue component with the state’s emblem represents both South Carolina and the lake itself. The white band is the dam side of the lake, and the two “swallowtails” on the end represent the Saluda River flowing in to form the reservoir.

The red and green fields represent the navigation colors for port and starboard, respectively. They are also tied to the lights on the shore of the lake, which are red on the Chapin side and green on the Lexington side.

“It’s kind of designed … geographically,” Gaines said.

While some consider the birth year of Lake Murray to be 1930, the year the dam was finished, Gaines consulted with the Capital City/Lake Murray Country regional tourism board on what year to put on the flag. He chose 1927, the year construction started and the soon-to-come lake was named.

Gaines first thought of creating the flag around three years ago. After toying around with the idea, he was given a push by his family.

“Finally my kids were like … ‘Dad, you need to do this,’” Gaines said.

Gaines trademarked the design in 2023 and now sells flags in multiple sizes, along with decals, the first product he put the design on.

Gaines’ flag products are sold in 3 Birds Boutique in Chapin, the store at Putnam’s Harbor and the Lake Murray Country gift shop. He also created an online order form with help from his kids.

The flags and decals are made in the United States and shipped to Gaines’ house, where he packages them and sends them out.

In the future, Gaines plans to get a website set up for the flag. He is also looking forward to 2027, Lake Murray’s centennial anniversary. While nothing is set up yet, Gaines hopes to see his flag fly at the Statehouse during the celebration.

The flag-making operation is just a hobby for Gaines, but he likes seeing it grow in popularity.

“It’s just making enough to keep buying more flags, basically,” Gaines said. “But when I go out and about, either on the lake or driving around, and when I see one of the decals on the back of a car or a flag flying on a dock or a boat, I’m like, ‘Yeah, there you go.’ It’s just kind of a fun thing to see that.”

This story was originally published July 11, 2025 at 5:00 AM.