Former Towns
On November 28, 1950, an announcement was made by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) to the press and radio stations that officially unveiled plans to build a massive, state-of-the-art nuclear facility in Aiken and Barnwell counties. This came immediately after months of surveying across the U.S. by DuPont and the U.S. Corps of Engineers (COE), who decided that the Savannah River would be the prime location for the plant. In an instant, life turned upside-down for those living in the area, with whatever plans they had for the future coming to a screeching halt. Through the photographs taken for government documentation and news coverage, much of what the residents experienced during this life-changing event can still be observed.
The initial reaction from locals was that of excitement, but also concern. They knew this plant would bring opportunity to Aiken and Barnwell counties like they had never seen before, but this project would also attract thousands of new residents to the area and cause major shifts to the culture. However, this would quickly be pushed from their minds, for the biggest shock was yet to come, as on December 6, 1950, the COE held a meeting in Ellenton that would eliminate any hopes of maintaining normalcy. Here, it was revealed to over 500 attendees that to create the space needed for the new plant, certain communities, including their own, would be absorbed by the project. Dunbarton, Meyers Mill, and Leigh also fell within the construction boundary and while Jackson and Snelling were originally included in the acquisition plans, they were spared the fate of their neighbors as construction parameters changed over-time.
By early 1951, members of the AEC, COE, and DuPont had already begun to acquire property in Ellenton and Dunbarton to better manage the appraisals, acquisitions, and the beginnings of construction. The COE made a point to hire local appraisers with a minimum of 2 years’ experience, with some appraisers having over 20 years’ experience. This decision worked double duty for the COE, as the local appraisers had a much better grasp of the land values and would have a much easier time convincing the landowners of the fair market value since they had a working knowledge of comparative prices in South Carolina. To help streamline appraisals, the COE divided the land into numbered priority areas from 1 to 6.
Areas 1 and 2, containing Ellenton and Dunbarton, respectively, were the first, and largest, towns to feel the full force of the appraisal teams. In April of 1951, the COE and their local appraisal teams moved en masse to survey, appraise, purchase, and remove the properties in Ellenton and Dunbarton; they gave the residents of Ellenton a deadline of March 1, 1952, and Dunbarton until April 1, 1952, to be fully evacuated. While some people would take the first offer and opt to move their house to outside the construction boundary, there were still over 1000 residents between the two towns that would need to have all their property appraised. The residents of these towns worked hard to ensure that their land was in the best possible shape to hopefully get a return worthy of losing one’s home, though many came away dissatisfied with the estimated fair market value as sentiment was not considered. Ellenton resident Louise Cassels went so far as to state that her town resembled a “well-groomed corpse.”
While the people and their homes were the primary concern for the appraisal teams, there was so much more to the towns that unfortunately also needed to be cleared. Generations of farms were lost; community centers, churches, mills, schools, and shops all had to be condemned to make room for the future. What made this easier to stomach was the fact that higher paying jobs and greater development were right around the corner, however, there were still things that could never be replaced and had to be handled with the greatest of care. The local cemeteries, for example, were a major concern. After the COE identified 161 cemeteries within the construction boundary, they worked diligently with the next-of-kin to move 126 of the cemeteries (5,984 graves) to new locations while the AEC paid for the entire process. Despite this effort, 35 cemeteries were not moved either due to a lack of family contacts, or because they did not interfere with the planned construction. They remain on-site today.
When all was said and done, 6000 people had been relocated and an estimated $19,000,000 had been paid by the COE for the acquisition of all properties, land, and utilities in the area that would soon become the Savannah River Plant, now Savannah River Site. Change came hard and fast for the residents of these communities. Generations of progress and pride were removed in less than two years, but they are by no means forgotten. What was once a series of small, but growing communities now only exist in the memories of those who lived there, and these photos. This area is special; the people who lived here knew it, and though they had to move on, many added themselves to the ballooning workforce to help build a new future; a future that could not have happened without their sacrifice.
