Lake Marion & Moultrie, Part 1: Reaching the Port of Charleston

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.

Listen to this episode here!

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 across social media.

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

Image credit: Archival image: Santee Canal Structures, Black Oak Lock House Ruins, Moncks Corner, SC. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division (HABS SC-370-V).