Tumblin' Shoals is located in Laurens County on the Reddy River upstream from Boyds Mill Pond 1909 and downstream from Ware Shoals 1906 [id=347219612]. The construction date is 1912, although more modern sources have 1907. The transmission lines link with Boyd's Mill Pond, built in 1909, then run to Laurens about 5 miles East, making me believe it was built shortly after Boyd's Mill Pond. Another unknown is what power company built Tumblin' Shoals. The Reedy River Power Company owned Boyd's Mill Pond and may have constructed Tumblin' Shoals but the Sullivan Power Company most likely constructed Tumblin' Shoals and was under control of the Reedy River Power Co.

Tumblin' Shoals was a very small hydroelectric plant and dam, most likely one or two generators. A stone dam was built across the Reedy River with the powerhouse on the West side of the river. The powerhouse was built of wood, the lines exited above the doorway and were stepped-up in the transformer house uphill. From the transformer house the lines ran to Boyd's Mill Pond and then 5 miles East to Laurens, where the electricity drove several large cotton mills and powered street lighting. The Reedy River Power Company sold Tumblin' Shoals to the Duke Power Company in 1935, who updated the plants and transmission lines.

In 1970, the small worn out Tumblin' Shoals plant cost too much to operate and was shut down. In that same year, the silt and back-up behind the dam was a growing problem. The mills and agriculture upstream contaminated the silt behind the dam. Duke decided to demolished the dam and power plant, reviving the river and draining the filled-up pond. Explosives were set and collapsed the dam in 1970, freeing the silt stuck behind for years.

Today Duke runs a 44 kV line from Boyd's Mill Pond to a modern substation attop the hill above Tumblin' Shoals. A sandy shore line is where the water once filled the pond behind the dam. Three chunks of the dam remain, one to the sides of the river and one in the center with trees now growing from it, hiding it from anyone looking from the current bridge toward the shoals. The land where the powerhouse and transformer house were is now turned over and left over chunks of foundation is left from the demolishion.

In the center of the river is the only remains of Tumblin' Shoals Power Plant.

The Hydroelectric Power Plants of South Carolina Collection:

High Shoals 1894 [id=332186800]

Pelzer Lower Dam 1895 [id=360186922]

Portman Shoals 1897 [id=340212432]

Berry Shoals 1903 [id=330110326]

Holiday Shoals 1905 [id=332438399]

Ware Shoals 1906 [id=347219612]

Saluda Dam 1907 [id=268330246]

Gaston Shoals 1908 [id=346266588]

Rocky Creek 1908 [id=429285050]

Boyd's Mill Pond 1909 [id=429197935]

Ninety-Nine Islands 1909 [id=358895213]

Fork Shoals -1910 [id=366408583]

Tumblin' Shoals 1912 [you are here]

Coneross 1912 [id=361466115]