默里湖底消失的城镇

默里湖底消失的城镇

The Lake Murray reservoir in South Carolina is popular for boating, fishing and general waterside merriment. But there's an untold story that lies beneath the lake's surface: there were once towns where the reservoir now stands. In fact, remnants of towns abandoned during the reservoir's construction still stand in the depths of Lake Murray, including a bridge, a graveyard and a stone house.

南卡罗来纳州的默里湖水库以划船、钓鱼和一般的水边娱乐而闻名。但是在湖的表面下有一个不为人知的故事:现在水库的位置曾经有一些城镇。事实上，在水库建设过程中被遗弃的城镇的遗迹仍然矗立在默里湖的深处，包括一座桥、一座墓地和一座石屋。

Lake Murray looks like any other lake from the surface, but it's what lies underneath that's interesting. (Photo: Isis4563 [public domain]/Wikimedia Commons)

A whale of a dam

巨大的水坝

Stretching for about 50,000 acres with 500 miles of shoreline, the Lake Murray dam was constructed between 1927 and 1930 to create a source of electricity for the city of Columbia and the ever-growing number of mills that required power. Upon its completion, it was considered the largest earthen dam in the world. To build it, the power company bought more than 1,000 tracts of land — much of it forest land — from more than 5,000 people. These people, descendants of German, Dutch and Swiss immigrants who settled the area in the mid-1700s, were all relocated to make way for the dam. During their time there, the settlers had created nine small communities.

默里湖大坝占地约5万英亩，有500英里长的海岸线，建于1927年至1930年间，为哥伦比亚市提供电力，同时也为越来越多的工厂提供电力。建成后，它被认为是世界上最大的土坝。为了修建大坝，这家电力公司从5000多人手中购买了1000多块土地，其中大部分是林地。这些人都是18世纪中期在该地区定居的德国、荷兰和瑞士移民的后裔，他们都被重新安置，以便为大坝让路。在此期间，定居者建立了九个小社区。

Crews laid down railroad tracks to move the earth around and likely razed buildings, but plenty of markers from the lost towns remain in Lake Murray (which looks like it might not work working, but it is.) Even the railroad tracks remain.

工作人员铺设了铁路来移动周围的泥土，可能是被夷为平地的建筑物，但默里湖仍然保留着大量来自失落城镇的标记(看起来可能无法工作，但确实如此)。甚至铁轨也保留了下来。

What was left behind

留下了什么

A rock house built circa 1800 on the Saluda River now lies under the waters of Lake Murray South Carolina. (Photo: [public domain] Wikimedia Commons)

In their free time John Baker, a scuba shop owner, and Steve Franklin, a commercial pilot, have spent hours exploring the depths of Lake Murray. Speaking to local CBS affiliate WLTX 19, the two shared their recollections of dives.

业余时间，水肺店老板约翰·贝克和商业飞行员史蒂夫·富兰克林花了好几个小时探索默里湖的深处。在接受当地哥伦比亚广播公司WLTX 19频道采访时，两人分享了他们对潜水的回忆。

"There are a lot of towns throughout the lake. Churches, schools, cemeteries," Franklin said.

“整个湖上有很多城镇。教堂、学校、墓地，”富兰克林说。

The cemeteries were left behind as a result of the the relocated townspeople not wanting the power company to dig up and move the remains of their loved ones. More 2,300 graves sit at the bottom of Lake Murray.

这些墓地被留下来的原因是搬迁的居民不希望电力公司挖掘和移动他们亲人的遗体。超过2300个坟墓坐落在穆雷湖底。

"Most of the cemeteries are from the 1800s," Franklin said. "There's three different kinds of cemeteries: old slave cemeteries — because of slavery in that time; smaller family plots, 4 or 5 family members buried there with small headstones and markers; then you have the large multi-family plots."

“大多数墓地都是19世纪的，”富兰克林说。“有三种不同的墓地:旧奴隶墓地——因为当时的奴隶制度;较小的家庭墓地，4或5名家庭成员葬在那里，有小墓碑和标记;然后就有了大型的多地块墓地。”

One remnant of the towns is a stone house constructed in the 1800s that you can see above. Even though most of the structure is still standing, the murky waters of Lake Murray make it difficult to find, even for experienced divers like Baker and Franklin.

这些城镇的遗迹之一是一座建于19世纪的石屋，如上图所示。尽管大部分建筑仍然屹立不倒，但默里湖浑浊的湖水很难找到，即使是像贝克和富兰克林这样有经验的潜水员也很难找到。

"When we found it, we swam through the front door and hit our heads on the back walls. but that was neat to find that and see how it's still kind of preserved," Baker said. "You've got four walls and the roof still there."

“当我们找到它时，我们游过前门，头撞在后面的墙上。但能找到它，看看它是如何保存下来的，真是太棒了。”贝克说。“有四面墙，还有屋顶。”

This is what Wyse's Ferry Bridge looked like in 1919. It's now under 160 feet of water in Lake Murray. (Photo: Greygh0st [public domain]/Wikimedia Commons)