Santee Cooper Country

Santee Cooper Country covers the central South Carolina coastal-plain country built around the Santee Cooper lake system — Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie, the largest reservoirs in the state. The region runs from the Charleston-area edge west through Orangeburg to the Savannah River drainage. The terrain is flat to gently rolling — pine flatwoods, the broad floodplains of the Santee, Edisto, and Cooper rivers, and the engineered lakes that gave the region its name. Six counties cover the region. Sumter holds Sumter (the largest city, with Shaw Air Force Base) and the Swan Lake Iris Gardens; Orangeburg holds Orangeburg and South Carolina State University; Berkeley holds Moncks Corner, Goose Creek, and Cypress Gardens; Clarendon holds Manning and most of Lake Marion; Calhoun holds St. Matthews; Bamberg holds Bamberg. Lake Marion (110,000 acres), Lake Moultrie, the Santee National Wildlife Refuge, and the Francis Marion National Forest’s western edge anchor the major outdoor scenery. Most trips here run lake-and-bird focused. Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie pull serious bass and crappie anglers — the Santee Cooper lakes are some of the most-fished waters in the country; Cypress Gardens (with its swamp-boat tours and walk-through butterfly house) draws garden visitors; the Sumter County Swan Lake Iris Gardens (the only public garden in the country with all eight species of swans) anchors the cultural side.