Clarks Hill Lake: Georgia's Big Water Up the Savannah
Up the Savannah River from Augusta, Clarks Hill Lake — also called Lake Strom Thurmond — spreads along the Georgia–South Carolina line as the region's reservoir for water, power and weekends.
Ask Augusta-area families where the lake is, and they will point up the Savannah River. Clarks Hill Lake, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir also known as Lake Strom Thurmond, backs up the Savannah along the Georgia–South Carolina border, within an easy drive of Augusta, Evans and Martinez.
The lake does several jobs at once. Its dam generates hydroelectric power, the reservoir manages river flow on the Savannah, and its shoreline — much of it public land with parks, campgrounds and boat ramps — carries a large share of the region's outdoor life: fishing, boating, hunting and lakeside camping in Columbia and Lincoln counties and across the state line.
For Georgia, Clarks Hill is part of a bigger Savannah River system that ties the state together: the river forms Georgia's eastern border from the mountains' outflow to the Atlantic at Savannah, and the reservoirs along it link Augusta's story to the coast's.
November changes the lake's mood. Summer boat traffic thins, the shoreline hardwoods turn, and the lake becomes a quieter place — favored by anglers and by residents who treat a cold, clear morning on big water as its own season.
Water levels and recreation conditions on Corps lakes change with rainfall and river management, so regulars check conditions before hauling a boat. But the lake's role in the region does not change: it is Augusta's big water, and Georgia's front porch on the upper Savannah.
