The conclusion of the Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie story

Episode 7 explores the aftermath of the flooding of the Santee Basin – how families relocated, rebuilt, and carried memory forward across generations. Through conversations with Dr. Robert Hart and Dr. Kelsey Moore, we explore the migration, federal resettlement programs, church-community rebuilding efforts, and the archival silences that obscure Black lived experiences. From sharecropping and wartime job shifts, to the promise of land and the reality of displacement in the Lowcountry, this story invites listeners to remember what’s often submerged — in water and in memory.

Featured Voices: Dr. Thomas Robert Hart, Dr. Kelsey Moore

Created, Produced, and Hosted by: Lolita Rowe Original Music: Sister Sai Website: Tiffany Messer-Bass

Sound Engineering: Saira Raza

Music Credits – Sister Sai

“Wanderer”

“Cerulean Mood”

“Dandelion”

🎧 Sound Effects – Freesound.org (CC0 License)

Old Piano – Somber Chords.wav — DeVern

Hitting Nail into Wall with Hammer — Kate_is_yellow

Samsung Smartphone Hammering — designerschoice

Pond Water & Ripples at Chappaquidick Bridge — Filmscore

Waves Gently Breaking on Lakeshore — leonelmail

Archival Audio – Library of Congress

John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip (AFC 1939/001),

American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Call to Action: Follow the series and share your reflections using #MadeInCarolinaPodcast

Support the show: ☕ buymeacoffee.com/madeincarolina

Resources:

Archival Image Credit: Many families tore down their houses in the Santee–Cooper Basin to rebuild them outside the flooded area. Near Bonneau, South Carolina. March 1941.Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division:LC-USF34-043456-D [P&P], LOT 1533 (corresponding photographic print).Other Number: E 5985.

Related links:

Great Migration – National Archives: https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/migrations/great-migration•

The Truth Behind “40 Acres and a Mule” – PBS: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/the-truth-behind-40-acres-and-a-mule/

Beneath the still waters of Lake Marion lies the ghost of a forest — and a town named Ferguson. Before the Santee River was dammed, the Santee River Cypress Lumber Company had already stripped much of the swamp bare, cutting and milling its centuries-old cypress. By the time the flood came, the forest that once sheltered the town was already gone.

This episode traces how the Santee Basin itself was transformed — not only socially but ecologically. Thousands of acres were cleared, burned, and drowned to make way for progress, yet pieces of that past remain: the stumps of Sparkleberry Swamp, the ghost forests along the coast, and the memories carried by the water. Through the words of historian Dr. Robert Hart, we follow the making of a waterscape — and reflect on what progress submerge.

Featured Voice

• Dr. Robert Hart, historian — on the environmental and coastal consequences of the Santee-Cooper Project

Credits Created, produced, and hosted by Lolita Rowe Original music by Sister Sai Website by Tiffany Messer Bass, with production support from Saira Raza

sound effects/field recordings from Freesound.com

S: Lake Waves 3.wav by Benboncan | License: Attribution 4.0

S: forest wind 1111AM 220617_0400.wav by klankbeeld | License: Attribution 4.0

S: Life underwater at Mamori.wav by laurent | License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0

S: Forest Birds Crow Wind by atks_ | License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0

Songs (all by Sister Sai)

- Ossabaw Sunrise (unreleased)

- Wanderer (from Extempore)

- Dandelion (from First Flight)

Archival Image: Cut-over land in the Santee-Cooper Basin.Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division,LC-USF34-043522-D [P&P], LOT 1533 (corresponding photographic print).Other Number: E 173.

Call to Action Visit madeincarolinapodcast.com for show notes and more stories waiting under the water. Share your reflections using #MadeInCarolinaPodcast or support the series on Buy Me a Coffee.

Next Episode Preview Next time, we follow the families who moved with the water — tracing how they rebuilt, remembered, and redefined home after the flood.

Across the Santee Basin, communities built lives rooted in land, labor, and belief. In the years after emancipation, Black, Indigenous, and European families shaped intertwined identities through farming, faith, and community — stories that still echo in the cemeteries, churches, and waters that remain. The Ground Remembers explores how race, land, and belief shaped who belonged — and what endures beneath the water.

Featured Voices: Dr. Thomas Robert Hart, Dr. Kelsey Moore Created, Produced, and Hosted by: Lolita Rowe Original Music: Sister Sai

Sound Credits: Tukinuitto, uitto / Log driving by YleArkisto — freesound.org/s/322618 — CC Attribution 4.0 ST Slide Guitar Blues Riff 2 by juskiddink — freesound.org/s/58493 — CC Attribution 4.0 African Drums at Night by hutsvoid — freesound.org/s/202419 — CC NonCommercial 4.0 Old Piano – Somber Chords by DeVern — freesound.org/s/427307 — CC0 BELLLrg – Cool Spring Baptist Church Recording by Nicholas Judy — TDC Gentle Waves – Sand Point Beach by Ambient-X — freesound.org/s/743340 — CC Attribution 4.0

Image Credit:Negro tenant farmer who had to move out of the Santee-Cooper basin, near Bonneau, South Carolina. LC-USF34-043512-D [P&P], LOT 1533 (corresponding photographic print). Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division — hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8c04944

Call to Action: Follow the series and share your reflections using #MadeInCarolinaPodcast.

Support the show: ☕ buymeacoffee.com/madeincarolina

Before Lake Marion or Lake Moultrie existed, South Carolina imagined connecting the Santee and Cooper Rivers to the port of Charleston. From the 18th-century Santee Canal to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal vision, this episode follows the long road from dream to dam — a story of ambition, technology, and belief in progress.

Historians Dr. Thomas Robert Hart explains how the New Deal reshaped the Lowcountry, while Dr. Kelsey Moore explores how that progress touched African American communities whose lands lay in its path.

Featured Voices: Dr. Thomas Robert Hart, Dr. Kelsey Moore

Credits Created, produced, and hosted by Lolita Rowe Original music by Sister Sai www.madeincarolinapodcast.com

Call to Action Follow the series and share your reflections using #MadeInCarolinaPodcast.

Resources & Further Reading

• The Southern Blues of the Great Flood — Scalawag Magazine https://scalawagmagazine.org/2022/02/southern-blues-music-great-flood/
• Lakes — South Carolina Encyclopedia https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/lakes/
• Santee Canal Site Investigations — South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/artsandsciences/sc_institute_archeology_and_anthropology/divisions/maritime_research/project_publications/siteinvestigations/santeecanal/
• Sunken Plantations: The Santee Cooper Project — Douglas Bostick (2008)
• Jacksonborough Assembly — South Carolina Encyclopedia https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/jacksonborough-assembly/
• Santee Canal: America’s First Superhighway — SCETV Classics https://www.scetv.org/stories/2025/santee-canal-americas-first-superhighway-etv-classics
• American Revolutionary War — Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Revolutionary_War

Sound Credits (Freesound.org)

Writing_Pen_01.wav — moai15 — CC0 reenactment2.aif — alienistcog — CC0 swamp.mp3 — saha213131 — CC0 2021-09-01-digging-006.wav — ilmari_freesound — CC0 Distant Thunder 3 — Fission9 — CC0 Heavy_Rain_Distant_Thunder.wav — morvei01 — CC0 electric hum less buzz.wav — soundofsong — CC0 light switch.wav — kwahmah_02 — Attribution 3.0 reenactment3.aif — alienistcog — CC0 78end.wav — x_25 — Attribution 3.0 Cajun Lick Full.wav — JustPlainPhillip — Attribution 4.0 waltz_op_posth_a_minor_3.flac — Kardithron — CC0 Old Piano - Somber Chords.wav — DeVern — CC0

Episode Description

As Lake Murray filled, entire communities vanished beneath the rising waters—homes, churches, and hundreds of graves now rest below the surface. In this episode, archivist and storyteller Lolita Rowe explores the remnants of those submerged memories. Featuring reflections from J.R. Fennell of the Lexington County Museum, along with archival voices from Ralph and Herman Wessinger, this story highlights the deep roots, loss, and remembrance preserved beneath the waters of Lake Murray.

Featured Voices

• J.R. Fennell, Lexington County Museum
• Ralph and Herman Wessinger – Interview on the Lake (May 18, 1979), Lexington County Museum

Credits

Created, produced, and hosted by Lolita Rowe

Original music by Sister Sai

Archival audio courtesy of the Lexington County Museum

Special thanks to J.R. Fennell and the Lexington County Museum.

Website maintained by Tiffany Messer Bass.

Special Thanks to my Mom, Brenda Rowe. Thanks for listening to all my iterations of this and my many podcast scripts.

☕ Support the show: Buy Me a Coffee

Like, share, and follow for more on TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram

Website: Made in Carolina Podcast

Sound Credits

• Old Piano – Somber Chords.wav by DeVern — CC 0
• marching_snare_with_reverb.wav by waldschrat1510 — CC 0
• B-25s Taking Off by Fight2FlyPhoto — CC BY 3.0
• Gentle Waves – Sand Point Beach At Sunrise 6-20-24 by Ambient-X — CC BY 4.0
• Cello created by Lolita Rowe in GarageBand.
• Music by Sister Sai

Resources & Further Reading

• Cemeteries Beneath Lake Murray Holding Lexington History Honored on Land with Memorials – Catharine Barone, Lexington Chronicle, July 29, 2025

• History of Lake Murray
• Remembering the Columbia Army Air Base – Margaret D., Richland Library Blog, November 9, 2022

• Southern Museum of Flight

Episode 2 – Building the Lake Season 1: Submerged Towns

Beneath Lake Murray lies a story of labor, endurance, and transformation. Episode 2 uncovers how thousands of workers—Black, white, immigrant, and Indigenous—built one of the South’s largest man-made lakes. Through archival footage, oral histories, and expert insight, we reveal the human cost, progress, and memory tied to the creation of the Saluda Dam.

Featuring J.R. Fennell of the Lexington County Museum, Jane Guignard Curry from the Walker Local and Family History Center, and oral histories from Ralph and Herman Wessinger.

🎧 Created, produced, and hosted by Lolita Rowe Original music by Sister Sai Archival audio courtesy of the University of South Carolina Moving Image Research Collections Special thanks to J.R. Fennell, the Lexington County Museum, and the Walker Local and Family History Center at Richland Library Website maintained by Tiffany Messer Bass

☕ Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/madeincarolinapodcast

📚 Research & Archives: Gandy Dancers (1994), Folkstreams – folkstreams.net/films/gandy-dancers

Wikipedia – “Gandy Dancer” (Sept 2025) – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandy_dancer Lake Murray Dam – Outtakes (1929)

Fox Movietone News Collection, USC MIRC https://digital.tcl.sc.edu/digital/collection/MVTN/id/6132/rec/1

Oral History with Jane Guignard Curry – localhistory.richlandlibrary.com/digital/collection/p16817coll19

Ralph & Herman Wessinger Interview (1979), Lexington County Museum

🌊 Sound Credits: Bigvegie, bitlab_coop, visualasylum, kyles, dobroide, Ambient-X (via Freesound.org)

🗓️ Coming Next: The final chapter of Lake Murray explores what lies beneath the water today and the military mysteries that still rest below the surface.

🎧 New episodes drop every Thursday.

Before Lake Murray ever existed, this land was home to thriving communities that would soon face upheaval as the dam project began. In this first episode of our Submerged Towns mini-series, Lolita Rowe is joined by J.R. Fennel to explore the lives, work, and faith that shaped the communities which disappeared beneath the waters of Lake Murray.

✨ Episode Credits

• Host & Producer: Lolita Rowe
• Guest: J.R. Fennel, Director of the Lexington County Museum
• Theme & Original Music: Sister Sai — sistersai.bandcamp.com
• Additional Sound Effects: sourced from Freesound, used under Creative Commons licenses (full attributions below).

🎧 Sound Effect Attributions (Freesound)

• BELLLrg-Samsung Galaxy Smartphone, CU_Cool Spring Baptist Church, Ringing, Pulley Squeaks_TDC — by designerschoice — link — License: Creative Commons 0
• river church bells 8pm 210626_0299.mp3 — by klankbeeld — link — License: Attribution 4.0
• 20171029_calm.morning.wav — by dobroide — link — License: Attribution 4.0
• Gentle Waves - Sand Point Beach At Sunrise 6-20-24 — by Ambient-X — link — License: Attribution 4.0

💙 Support the Podcast

Made in Carolina is an independent project. If you’d like to support the show, you can buy me a coffee to help me keep bringing these Carolina stories to life.

🔗 Stay Connected

• Facebook: Made in Carolina Podcast
• Instagram: @madeincarolinapodcast
• TikTok: @madeincarolinapodcast
• YouTube: @madeincarolinapodcast
• Email: [email protected]

A sneak peek at Season One: Submerged Towns, where we uncover the stories of communities lost beneath engineered lakes across the Carolinas.

This episode includes the sound Gentle Waves – Sand Point Beach At Sunrise 6-20-24 by Ambient-X, available on Freesound and licensed under CC BY 4.0.