A Little History: A Personal Account of the August 1916 Lake Toxaway Dam Failure

Many thanks to Nancy Fisher of Seneca, South Carolina, who wrote to us about the Lake Toxaway (North Carolina) dam failure of August 13, 1916.
"My Grandmother as a young girl, had just walked over it on her way home from Church (must have been a Sunday?) and heard it go. She used to tell us about it. How it devastated the area and washed out so much property." Nancy's parents, Suzanne and Haskett Whitmire, provided the following personal account of the dam failure and its aftermath.
As told to me (Suzanne Bascom Stringham Whitmire) by my husband, Haskell Whitmire: (b. 11/23/1928). Regarding the dam break at Lake Toxaway in 1916:
"I was told by my Mother that the dam had been leaking for a long time and they had had a lot of rain that summer. When the dam gave way, it was Sunday, August 13, 1916.

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