#ThrowbackThursday

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  • The Hartwell Dam as it was under construction in 1959.
    The Hartwell Dam as it was under construction in 1959.
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Aug. 23, 1979 — Radiation levels in the Lake Hartwell area were above those elsewhere in Georgia at the time.
Though, officials with the Environmental Protection Division said there was no cause for concern because the unusually high levels weren’t high enough to cause issues. Readings around the lake ranged from 92 millirems to 117 millirems a year, but federal guidelines allow for 500 millirems.
The spike in radiation levels was attributed to naturally occurring radiation in geological formations of granite in the area. Officials originally thought it was due to the Duke Power plant in Oconee County, S.C., but no man-made radiation was found in the study.

Aug. 27, 1959 — Water began to flow through the newly minted Hartwell Dam for the first time as it neared completion.
The $100 million dam saw its first water flow through it, maintaining a water level of 16 feet as the Savannah River passed through the lowest of three sluice ways.
The Hartwell Sun reported the workers for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers  dropped “tremendous” steel beams into prepared slots to stop the river flow while workmen poured concrete completely across the river bed for the first time.
At the time, officials said the 16-foot water level would be maintained until the dam was complete enough for major impounding of water to begin.
The dam’s concrete work was about 78 percent complete at this point.

Aug. 26, 1938 — The fame of Hart County pecans crossed the ocean and received praise from a man in London, England.
A man named H.S. Carter, of Kensington Lane, London, purchased pecans grown in Hart County and was quite pleased with the pecans sold by Howard Page of Hartwell.
“I remember your name from the roadside signs,” wrote Carter to Page in a letter at the time.
The British man reportedly also inquired about prices for the pecans.
The Hartwell Sun reported that Page has “built up quite a large patronage on pecans as a side-line in connection with the well known auto service station.”