When this dam was built in 1898, the water it collects was known simply as Reservoir 2. The first reservoir, today called Mountain Lake, had been constructed eight years earlier, but the growing city demanded additional reliable and pure water, so this second reservoir was needed.
Look at the hills above the water. Notice how any precipitation that lands within this bowl-shaped area must drain down into the lake. Therefore, by protecting that land or "watershed" from agricultural, residential or commercial development, we keep the water clean. That is why this park's acreage has been preserved for well over a century.
After forming Reservoir 2, the waters of Mountain Creek were either pumped from the lake into pipes that led to town, or were released over this dam to re-form Mountain Creek and flow onward to the Enoree River.
When this reservoir was added to the Greenville municipal water system, no one envisioned that it too, would be outgrown by 1904.
After Table Rock Reservoir's construction in 1930, Reservoir 2 was drained in preparation for its transformation from a source of drinking water to a source of recreation, called Lake Placid.
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