Santee, South Carolina

Santee takes its name from the Santee people, a Siouan-speaking nation that once farmed this river valley and was nearly annihilated in the Yamasee War of seventeen fifteen to seventeen seventeen. The modern town of fewer than eight hundred sits beside Lake Marion, one of the largest man-made lakes east of the Mississippi, impounded by the Santee Cooper hydroelectric project completed in nineteen forty-two. The project put thousands of men to work during the Depression and displaced entire farming communities, including most of the former Santee township, beneath its waters. Today the lake draws anglers and boaters year-round, and Santee is a quiet gateway to one of the Southeast's most productive freshwater fisheries.