Capital City and Lake Murray Country

Capital City and Lake Murray Country covers the central interior of South Carolina, the rolling Piedmont country built around Columbia (the state capital) and Lake Murray. The terrain is gently rolling — pine-and-hardwood forest, the broad floodplain of the Saluda, Broad, and Congaree rivers (which converge at Columbia to form the Santee), and Lake Murray’s 50,000 acres of impounded water in the western counties. Three counties cover the region. Richland holds Columbia (the state capital, the home of the University of South Carolina, and the largest city); Lexington holds Lexington and most of Lake Murray’s eastern shore; Newberry holds Newberry. The South Carolina State Museum, the Riverbanks Zoo and Garden, the South Carolina State House, and Congaree National Park (one of the country’s largest old-growth bottomland hardwood forests) anchor the major attractions. Most trips here center on Columbia and the lake. Columbia handles the urban-cultural itinerary — the State House, the Riverbanks Zoo, USC football at Williams-Brice Stadium, the Five Points and Vista entertainment districts; Lake Murray pulls boaters, anglers, and the famous Purple Martin migration roost on Bomb Island; Congaree National Park draws hikers and canoeists to its boardwalk and old-growth swamp.