Abandoned Towns
Aerial view of Lake Hartwell at the old river fork, open water between wooded shores lined with houses, the south end of Andersonville Island at top

River and lake town

Andersonville

A river port founded in 1801 where the Tugaloo and Seneca meet to form the Savannah. Floods and the railroad emptied it in the 1800s, and Lake Hartwell covered it by 1962. A long wooded island, part of the old ridge, is all that shows.

34°26′50″N 82°51′19″W · ≈660 ft

Aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).

Under the lake · island by boat

The townsite is under Lake Hartwell. The newest dated report, from May 4 and 5, 2026, is of a wildfire that burned about 65 acres of Andersonville Island; officials asked people to stay away from the island and the water around it while it burned. A 2007 geocache listing said the island could be reached only by boat and had building ruins. We could not open the Corps of Engineers' Hartwell Lake pages, so the rules for landing on the island are not verified here.

Overview

A river town at the head of the Savannah

Andersonville stood at the fork where the Tugaloo and Seneca rivers join to become the Savannah. The South Carolina General Assembly created the town in 1801 and named it for Robert Anderson, a Revolutionary War officer who helped lay it out. The Earle family owned the land; Roots and Recall names Col. Elias Earle, and a 2026 Clemson student newspaper article names Samuel Earle. Colonel Anderson later lent his name to Anderson District and the city of Anderson too.

The river made the town. Barges carried cotton, skins and other goods down to Augusta, and a branch of the old Post Road brought settlers through. In its best years, Roots and Recall says, Andersonville was bigger than Pendleton or Anderson. It had grist and saw mills, a wool factory, a clock factory and a gun factory, a tanyard, shops, warehouses and livery stables, a 40-room hotel, two ferries and, by 1812, a female academy.

The river also ruined it. A flood in 1840 carried off the cotton and wool mills; they were rebuilt and washed away again in 1850 or 1852, by different accounts. By then the Greenville and Columbia Railroad had come into the district, and trade followed the rails. A push for a branch line to the old town failed. The post office closed in 1893, and by World War II Andersonville was a ghost town. Hartwell Dam, finished in 1962, put the townsite under the lake. Most of the graves were moved to Andersonville Baptist Church on the eastern shore, and only the top of a high ridge stayed above water, as Andersonville Island.

Timeline

Ferries, mills, floods and a lake

  1. Settlers gather at the fork where the Tugaloo and Seneca rivers join to form the Savannah.
  2. The General Assembly creates the town of Andersonville, named for Revolutionary War veteran Robert Anderson, one of its commissioners. Sources differ on whose land it was: Col. Elias Earle's, or Samuel Earle's.
  3. In its best years the town has mills, a clock factory, a gun factory, a tanyard, warehouses, a 40-room hotel and two ferries, and barges carry cotton and skins down to Augusta. By 1812 a female academy is running.
  4. A flood sweeps away the cotton and wool mills and the gin. They are rebuilt.
  5. Another flood destroys the rebuilt mills; sources give both years. They are not rebuilt.
  6. The Greenville and Columbia Railroad reaches Anderson District and passes the river town by. A push for a branch line to Andersonville fails.
  7. The Anderson Intelligencer recalls the town as "quite an important place, as a great many boats were loaded here for Hamburg, and afterwards Augusta."
  8. The post office closes. A small Baptist church serves the few families left.
  9. Andersonville is a ghost town.
  10. The Corps of Engineers builds Hartwell Dam. Graves are moved, most to Andersonville Baptist Church on the eastern shore, and by 1962 the lake covers the site, leaving a high ridge as an island.
  11. A wildfire burns about 65 acres on Andersonville Island before forestry crews contain it.

What's left

Andersonville Island

The townsite itself is open water where the old river channels meet. North of it, Andersonville Island runs up the lake, a narrow wooded ridge with coves along its shore. Wikipedia and Roots and Recall call it about two miles long; OpenStreetMap's outline measures nearly three miles tip to tip. A geocache listing from October 2007 says the island "still has ruins of the buildings that once stood there" and that a boat is needed. Photos on Roots and Recall from 2012 and 2013 show the island and a cove on its eastern shore; one, of an old north-south roadbed, notes that most of the road "is impassible due to fallen trees." We found no newer description of ruins on the island.

On the night of May 4, 2026, a wildfire burned on the island. The South Carolina Forestry Commission contained it at about 65 acres, using controlled back burning to keep it from spreading across the whole island, and Anderson County Emergency Management asked people to stay away from the island and the water around it while it burned out. The same island burned in 2011, according to Roots and Recall.

The 1893 Elberton sheet below prints Andersonville on the east bank at the fork, with Harrison Ferry just across the water and Hatton Ford upstream on the Tugaloo. The 1959 Hartwell NE sheet shows the narrow tongue of land between the two rivers at the townsite. By 1979 the Abbeville sheet shows only the lake, with the old channels drawn through it.

  • The townsite, under Lake Hartwell at the old river fork
  • Andersonville Island, two to three miles long
  • Building ruins on the island (2007 report)
  • An old roadbed on the island, mostly blocked by fallen trees (2012 photo)
  • Graves moved to Andersonville Baptist Church on the eastern shore
USGS topographic map of open lake water where the Tugaloo and Seneca river channels meet
USGS The National Map, topo. The townsite, at the centre of the map, is open water just north of where the drowned Tugaloo and Seneca channels meet. The south tip of Andersonville Island is at top right, and Holly Knoll Drive reaches the shore to the southeast.
Aerial view of open lake water with small wooded islands at the edges
Aerial imagery, same area. Open water over the townsite, with wooded islands at the edges of the frame and a boat to the south.

Historic maps

Andersonville on USGS maps, 1893–1979

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Andersonville, 1893
Elberton sheet, 1893, 1:125,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

There is no road to Andersonville. Both routes end on Holly Knoll Drive, a residential street on the east shore about half a mile from the drowned townsite; we know of no public landing there. The island is reached by boat. A 2007 geocache listing recommended launching at Double Springs; we could not confirm that landing, its fees or its hours with the Corps of Engineers.

USGS map of Anderson and the Seneca arm of Lake Hartwell, with the routes to the east shore

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From downtown Anderson13.9 miabout 30 min
  1. From downtown Anderson, follow East Whitner Street, then turn left on the SC 28 Bypass.2.2 mi
  2. Turn right on Dobbins Bridge Road.6.2 mi
  3. Turn left on Huitt Road, then left on SC 187 south.1.2 mi
  4. Bear right on Providence Church Road, then right on James Hare Road and right on Holly Knoll Drive to the end of the route.4.3 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Directions go to the end of Holly Knoll Drive, a residential street on the east shore, where the drive ends, not to the townsite.

Road and safety notes

  • Holly Knoll Drive is lined with homes. Do not use private lots or docks to reach the water.
  • The townsite is open water. The south tip of Andersonville Island is just under half a mile north of it.
  • During the May 2026 wildfire, people were asked to stay away from the island and the water around it. Check for fire or closure news before going.

Photos

Have photos of Andersonville?

We haven’t added photographs of Andersonville yet. If you’ve visited, share your photos and a field report below.

Roots and Recall has photos of Andersonville Island from 2012 and 2013, an 1852 map of the area and a sketch of the Andersonville ferry.

Visitor reports

Been to Andersonville?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Andersonville

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our South Carolina index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. ghosttowns.com, Andersonville: fact sheet (Anderson County, 2WD, climate, under water, no remains).
  2. Wikipedia, "Andersonville, South Carolina" (revision of October 6, 2026): the fork of the Seneca and Tugaloo, the 1801 act, Robert Anderson, the clock company and mills, the 1840 and 1852 floods, the railroad, the 1893 post office closing, the graves moved, the two-mile island.
  3. Roots and Recall, "Andersonville (Andersonville Island)", read October 24, 2026: Elias Earle, the Earles and Anderson as founders, the barge trade, the Post Road, the industries, hotel, ferries and academy, the 1840 and 1850 floods, the failed rail spur, the ghost town by World War II, the 1962 lake and ridge, the graves, photos of 2012 and 2013, the 2011 island fire (quoting Anderson County Tricentennial Commission, 1969, and Hurley Badders, 2006).
  4. The Tiger (Clemson University), "Flooded by design: Law, losses and the making of Lake Hartwell", January 29, 2026: Samuel Earle, the town commissioners, Elias Earle's gun contract, the 1885 Anderson Intelligencer quotation, the floods, Hartwell Dam in 1962.
  5. FOX Carolina, "Crews contain wildfire on island in Lake Hartwell", published May 4 and updated May 5, 2026: the fire on Andersonville Island, about 65 acres, back burning, the request to stay away from the island and the water.
  6. Geocaching.com, "Andersonville Island" (GC16ZD6), hidden October 26, 2007: boat access, ruins on the island, the Double Springs launch.
  7. South Carolina Encyclopedia, "Anderson County" (modified July 14, 2022): Robert Anderson and the places named for him, the Greenville and Columbia Railroad in the mid-1850s.
  8. USGS GNIS, "Andersonville (historical)", feature 1234013: coordinates. OpenStreetMap, "Andersonville Island": the island's outline and length.
  9. Historic maps: USGS Elberton 1893, Hartwell NE 1959 and Abbeville 1979 sheets. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 24, 2026.

Photo and map credits