Lake Jocassee

Jocassee Dam (often called Lake Jocassee Dam) is an embankment dam on the Keowee River, straddling the border of Pickens and Oconee counties in South Carolina in the United States. The dam forms Lake Jocassee, which is fed by the Toxaway, Thompson, Horsepasture and Whitewater Rivers, and serves primarily for hydroelectric power generation and flood control. The dam and reservoir are part of the Keowee-Toxaway Hydroelectric Project, owned and operated by Duke Energy.Completed in 1973, the dam is a zoned earth and rock fill structure, standing 385 feet (117 m) high with a crest length of 1,800 feet (550 m). At full pool, the reservoir has a storage capacity of 1,185,000 acre-feet (1.462×109 m3), encompassing 75 miles (121 km) of shoreline and 7,500 acres (3,000 ha). Floodwater is released through a spillway controlled by two 40-by-32-foot (12.2 m × 9.8 m) gates, with a capacity of 45,700 cubic feet per second (1,290 m3/s).The dam supports a 710 megawatts (950,000 hp) hydroelectric station, generating power from four turbines. Two of the turbines were installed in 1973, while the third and fourth units came online in 1975. The power station functions as a pumped-storage operation designed to provide peaking power, and generates an average of 811 million kilowatt-hours (2.92×109 MJ) per year. The dam is shown under construction in the 1972 thriller film Deliverance.

The Whitewater River is a 14.6-mile-long (23.5 km) river that flows south from headwaters in Transylvania County, North Carolina, over Upper Whitewater Falls and Lower Whitewater Falls before crossing into South Carolina and entering Lake Jocassee, the reservoir behind Lake Jocassee Dam. In Lake Jocassee the Whitewater River is joined by the Toxaway River to form the Keowee River. The confluence is submerged beneath the waters of Lake Jocassee. Via the Keowee and Seneca rivers, the Whitewater River is part of the Savannah River watershed.

The Toxaway River is a 21.4-mile-long (34.4 km) waterway that flows south from headwaters in Transylvania County, North Carolina, into Lake Toxaway and over Toxaway Falls, after which it crosses into South Carolina and enters Lake Jocassee, the reservoir behind Lake Jocassee Dam. In Lake Jocassee the Toxaway River is joined by the Whitewater River to form the Keowee River. The confluence is submerged beneath the waters of Lake Jocassee. Via the Keowee and Seneca rivers, the Toxaway River is part of the Savannah River watershed.

Devils Fork State Park is in northwestern South Carolina on the eastern edge of the Sumter National Forest at the edge of 7,500-acre (3,035 ha) Lake Jocassee. It is located three miles (5 km) off SC 11, the Cherokee Scenic Highway, near the town of Salem, South Carolina. The park offers hiking, camping (including several paddle-in primitive sites), canoeing and kayaking. The park is well known for rainbow and brown trout, as well as largemouth, smallmouth, and white bass, crappie, bream and catfish. The park has accommodations for scuba divers, including a walk-in ramp; thirty foot visibility is common, and due to the lake's recent creation, roads, houses, signs and other marks of human habitation can be seen on the lake bottom. The 622-acre (2.5 km2) park was created in 1990. The park has many small waterfalls that feed lake Jocassee, and is home to the Oconee Bell, a wildflower indigenous to North and South Carolina that grows throughout the park; more than 90 percent of the world population of these delicate white and pink flowers is found in the park.

Keowee-Toxaway State Park is a state park in Pickens County, South Carolina. It was created in 1970 along the shores of Lake Keowee from lands previously owned by Duke Power.The Keowee-Toxaway Museum includes exhibits about the area Cherokee Indians and their interactions with local settlers. There are four interpretive kiosks along one trail that also highlight the Cherokees. Trail has since been closed and artifacts moved to the Cherokee museum in Walhalla, South Carolina. The park includes several picnic shelters as well as fishing and boat access to the adjacent lake. Hiking can be done on the 3.1 mi (5.0 km) Raven Rock hiking trail or the 1.4 mi (2.3 km) Natural Bridge hiking trail, as well as a short interpretive loop trail. The park also offers both backcountry and paved campsites, as well as cabin lodging.

Nine Times is an unincorporated community in Pickens County. The community was so named on account of the nine water crossings of a path over a nearby creek.

Salem is a U.S. town in Oconee County, South Carolina. The population was 135 at the 2010 United States Census.

Fort Prince George was a fort constructed in 1753 in the Province of South Carolina, on the Cherokee Path across the Keowee River from the Cherokee town of Keowee. The fort was named for the Prince of Wales, who would later become King George III of the United Kingdom. It was the principal Carolinian trading post among the Cherokee "Lower Towns".

Keowee (Cherokee: ᎫᏩᎯᏱ, romanized: Guwahiyi) was a Cherokee town in the far northwest corner of present-day South Carolina. It was the principal town of what were called the seven Lower Towns, located along the Keowee River (Colonists referred to the lower reaches of the river as the Savannah in its lower reaches, with its mouth at the city they named Savannah). Keowee was situated on the Lower Cherokee Traders' Path, part of the Upper Road through the Piedmont. In 1752 the Cherokee established New Keowee Town nearby, off the traders' path but in a more defensible location. Both historic sites are within present-day Oconee County, South Carolina at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. European Americans developed the town of Clemson, South Carolina, south of here after they began to populate the area. When the Keowee River was dammed in a mid-20th century hydropower project, both former Keowee sites were submerged in the early 1970s beneath the waters of Lake Keowee. Before that, archeological excavation was conducted by specialists from the University of South Carolina to establish history and recover thousands of artifacts. Human and animal remains were also discovered at the site.

Gorges State Park is a 7,709-acre (31.20 km2) North Carolina state park in Transylvania County, North Carolina in the United States and along with other conservation lands is part of a 100,000+ acre conservation corridor stretching some 80 miles along the NC/SC state line. The land, along Jocassee Gorges, was purchased by the state from Duke Energy Corporation in 1999. It is North Carolina's westernmost state park and one of the state's newest. The park is adjacent to part of the Pisgah National Forest and the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission's Toxaway Game Land. Gorges State Park provides the principal access to the Horsepasture River on these adjoining public lands.

Sunset is an unincorporated community in Pickens County, South Carolina, United States. The community is located along South Carolina Highway 11 8.3 miles (13.4 km) northwest of Pickens. Sunset has a post office with ZIP code 29685, which opened on January 11, 1906.

Upper Whitewater Falls is a waterfall in North Carolina on the Whitewater River. As with most of North Carolina's waterfalls, it is in the mountainous area of the state. There is a cluster of falls in the area where the borders of Georgia and the Carolinas come together. Whitewater Falls is part of that group, very close to the South Carolina border. According to the U.S. Forest Service, "With a 411-foot plunge, Upper Whitewater Falls in North Carolina is the highest waterfall east of the Rockies." However, this claim is likely exaggerated, and the actual height is likely closer to 350-400 feet. Furthermore, several other waterfalls have contended to be the highest waterfall east of the Rockies, including Crabtree Falls in Virginia, Amicalola Falls in Georgia, and Glassmine Falls in North Carolina, which depends on the way waterfalls are defined and categorized.