Lake Marion (South Carolina)

Lake Marion
Lake Marion (top) and Lake Moultrie (bottom right) from space
Location	Clarendon / Orangeburg / Berkeley / Calhoun / Sumter counties, South Carolina, US
Coordinates	33°27′14″N 80°09′50″W
Type	reservoir
Basin countries	United States
Surface area	110,000 acres (45,000 ha)

Lake Marion is the largest lake in South Carolina. It is centrally located. Parts of it are in five different counties. The lake is referred to as South Carolina's inland sea. It has a 315-mile (507-kilometre) shoreline. It covers almost 110,000 acres (450 square kilometers or 173.7 square miles) of rolling farmlands, former marshes, and river valley landscape.

The Santee River was dammed in the 1940s to supply hydroelectric power. This was part of the rural electrification efforts initiated under President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal during the Great Depression. It is one of the fifty largest lakes in the United States, whether natural or man-made reservoirs. It covers only about a third of the area of the fifteenth largest in size.

Visitors can travel from Lake Marion through the Diversion Canal to Lake Moultrie. At the end of Lake Moultrie lies the 75-foot high Pinopolis Lock which will lower boaters down to the Tailrace Canal which takes you to the Cooper River and on to Charleston.