Hartwell alliance seeks artifacts for historical exhibit

From Independent Mail (Anderson, South Carolina): Hartwell alliance seeks artifacts for historical exhibit
Organizers of an exhibit commemorating Hartwell Lake's 50th anniversary are seeking artifacts.

Gretchen Torrence of the Lake Hartwell Marketing Alliance is leading the effort to collect items for a historic exhibit set to tour the Upstate and northeast Georgia early next year.

The effort has been supported by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with its own historic objects, including photos, documents and early logs of the dam's power plant operation.

In this Anderson Independent clipping from April 19, 1963, dignitaries including current and past governors and United States senators gather to dedicate the Hall Bridge, which crosses Hartwell Lake along Interstate 85, and the Saylors Bridge along S.C. 24. Both bridges remain today along the Seneca River arm of Hartwell.

In an Anderson Independent clipping from April 19, 1963, dignitaries including current and past governors and United States senators gather to dedicate the Hall Bridge, which crosses Hartwell Lake along Interstate 85, and the Saylors Bridge along S.C. 24. Both bridges remain today along the Seneca River arm of Hartwell.

Anyone interested in sharing more photos, newspaper clippings, programs and other documents or materials can take them to the Anderson County Library from 10 a.m. to noon on Jan. 21. Torrence said historian and author David Cauglin, who is writing an account of Hartwell's creation, will be on hand to review materials and scan them into a digital archive.

“Instead of asking people to give us their treasures, we are setting up a time for those things to be scanned in.”

Gretchen Torrence, chairwoman of the Hartwell Project 50th Anniversary Historical Art Exhibit

“Instead of asking people to give us their treasures, we are setting up a time for those things to be scanned in,” Torrence said.

A second scanning event will be a week earlier at the Hart County Library in Hartwell - 10 a.m. to noon on Jan. 14.

Torrence said anyone interested in participating should call her to register at (706) 436-3572.

She said about 250 items ultimately will be chosen for the exhibit, which has been made possible through a grant from the Hart Electric Membership Cooperative. The exhibit will travel next year to venues in the six South Carolina and Georgia counties surrounding Hartwell Lake - Anderson, Oconee, Pickens, Hart, Franklin and Stephens.

The exhibit's steering committee has already gained access to thousands of images from the Corps archives at the dam.

But those images, largely of the project's construction and equipment, don't include the day-to-day experiences of residents around the 55,000-acre body of water.

Torrence said she is interested in materials dating to the dam and reservoir site's preparation on through its construction and the early years of its operation, which started in April 1962.