On this day in North Carolina History,

“With a roar heard for miles, the earthen dam on Transylvania County’s Lake Toxaway gives way during a storm. Water from the 540-acre man-made lake rushes south. Fortunately, residents have already fled to safety, and the 20 miles of near-wilderness en route to Walhalla, South Carolina, allows the flow to dissipate itself into a vast expanse of mud. 

The dam will be rebuilt in 1961, creating a 900-acre lake – the state’s largest under private ownership.” (1916)

Source: Powell, L. (1996). On This Day in North Carolina History.Winston-Salem, North Carolina: John F. Blair, Publisher.

Scene at edge of former Lake Toxaway basin.

Photo provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library; LMW L-51.