Lake Wylie, explained: 120-odd years of dams, doctors, bridges and the occasional alligator

By the Lake Wylie Now History Desk

Every lake has a story. Ours starts with a New York surgeon, includes a cigarette tycoon and a biplane, and features at least one alligator that definitely did not RSVP.

Grab a koozie. Here’s how a stretch of the Catawba River became the lake you launch from on Saturdays.

Reading with kids? The same story, in three short comics: Lake Wylie comics.

Before the lake: a river with opinions

Long before anyone said “meet you at the sandbar,” this was the Catawba River, named for the Catawba people who lived along it. The river flooded often and hard. Farmers along the banks learned to plant with one eye on the sky.

Two of today’s landmarks are under the lake now. The spot where the South Fork River meets the Catawba sits beneath the water near the NC/SC line. Tega Cay’s peninsula was once known as India Hook Hills, named for a red-clay spur that curved into the river like a fishhook.

1899–1904: a doctor builds a dam

The man behind the lake wasn’t an engineer, at least not on paper. Dr. Walker Gill Wylie was born in Chester, SC. He became a prominent New York gynecologist and surgeon, and he’s credited with founding the first nurses’ training school in America, at Bellevue Hospital.

As a side project, he got interested in turning falling water into electricity. Most doctors take up golf.

• 1899: Dr. Wylie and his brother, Dr. Robert H. Wylie, form the Catawba Power Company to generate power at India Hook Shoals, near Rock Hill.
• 1901: A flood wrecks the half-built dam. The river, as noted, had opinions.
• 1904: Enter one of Dr. Wylie’s patients, tobacco millionaire James Buchanan “Buck” Duke, who put money into the venture. The dam was finished in April 1904, the first major hydroelectric dam on the Catawba. The water behind it was called Catawba Lake (also written Lake Catawba).
• 1905: Wylie’s company becomes part of the new Southern Power Company, with Wylie as its first president. Southern Power later became Duke Power, now Duke Energy.

Desk note: The biggest power company in the Carolinas exists, in part, because a doctor mentioned his hydro project to a patient. Bring up your side hustle at your next checkup. You never know.

1916: the Great Flood

In July 1916, two tropical storms hit the Carolinas within days of each other. The Catawba rose to levels nobody had seen. It took out bridges, mills and rail lines up and down the river, and every highway bridge across the Catawba in North Carolina.

The India Hook dam cracked, and the whole eastern section washed away. The young lake was effectively gone.

1923: a bridge, a celebration and a biplane

Meanwhile, Mecklenburg County politician William Monroe “Buster” Boyd of Steele Creek pushed for a paved road from Charlotte to the lake and a bridge across it. He also donated the land on the North Carolina side.

The first Buster Boyd Bridge opened with a big celebration on August 17, 1923. During it, a biplane flew under the bridge. Please do not recreate this with your drone, your jet ski or your brother-in-law’s pontoon.

The bridge cost $120,000. Mecklenburg paid two-thirds and York County paid one-third.

1924–25: the lake you know

After the flood, the dam was rebuilt about four times taller, and a new Catawba Hydroelectric Station replaced the old one. That turned a modest river lake into roughly 13,400 acres of water with about 325 miles of shoreline. That’s more shoreline than the drive from Charlotte to Atlanta, and every mile of it has a dock that needs pressure-washing.

The average depth is just over 20 feet. Your depth finder will disagree when you need it most.

Dr. Wylie didn’t see it finished. He died in New York City in March 1923.

1960: Catawba Lake becomes Lake Wylie

In October 1960, Duke Power renamed both the power station and the lake in Dr. Wylie’s honor. Catawba Lake became Lake Wylie, and the station became the Wylie Hydroelectric Station.

That makes the lake older than its name by more than half a century. Anyone who was around in 1959 can say they swam in Catawba Lake, which sounds far more mysterious.

The bridge saga continues

• September 1961: A truck hit the original Buster Boyd Bridge and damaged it badly enough to close it, just one month before its replacement was due to open. The timing was impressive.
• October 1961: Bridge No. 2 opens. Cost: $700,000.
• June 16, 2001: Bridge No. 3, today’s four-lane span, opens to traffic, two years behind schedule. Final cost: over $12 million. It has about five feet more clearance for boats than the old one, so tall-tower wake boats can thank the early 2000s.
• Geography quirk: Because of the way the state line bends, this bridge has North Carolina at its southern end and South Carolina at its northern end. If you’ve ever felt turned around on Hwy 49, it isn’t you. It’s the map.

1970–1982: Tega Cay gets a name and a birthday

In 1970, Duke Power sold about 1,600 acres of the old India Hook Hills to Charlotte’s Ervin Company, which developed Tega Cay.

The name supposedly comes from a Polynesian language and means “beautiful peninsula.” Nobody has ever confirmed which language. We’re choosing to believe it anyway, because it’s a great name.

Tega Cay was incorporated on July 4, 1982, so the city’s birthday and Independence Day are the same day. The fireworks are partly for Tega Cay. Probably.

Traditions that stuck

• July 4th fireworks at the Buster Boyd Bridge have long been funded by community donations, launched from the Camp Thunderbird shoreline. Organizers said back in 2012 that it took about $25,000 a year. Every “ooh” is crowdfunded.
• The holiday boat parade was in its 35th year in 2024, so it dates to roughly 1990. Early on, boats lined up at T-Bones on the Lake. Today the parade starts at Papa Doc’s Shore Club, which sits at the same address, 3990 Charlotte Hwy. The restaurant changed its name; the parade stayed put.
• In 2018, two Charlotte swimmers swam the entire 28-mile length of the lake, from Mountain Island Dam to just above the Wylie dam, in about 13 hours. Most of us get tired swimming out to the raft.

The alligator question

Yes, alligators have been seen in Lake Wylie. No, they don’t live here.

The Catawba Riverkeeper has said sightings come along every few years. Gators aren’t native this far inland, and wildlife officials say the Lake Wylie ones were most likely illegally released pets. Our winters are hard on them.

Notable cameos:

• 1999: Workers at Catawba Nuclear Station spotted a 5- to 7-foot gator in a nearby lagoon.
• 2009: Three 4-foot gators near Elks Park Campground in Rock Hill, near the dam.
• 2015: Fishermen filmed a baby gator. It became the most-watched local reptile video until the next one.

If you see one: don’t approach it. In NC, call N.C. Wildlife at 919-707-0010. In SC, call SCDNR at 800-922-5431.

Lake Wylie by the numbers

Pop quiz: are you a real Lake Wylie local?

1. What was Lake Wylie called before 1960? → Catawba Lake
2. What was Dr. Wylie’s day job? → Surgeon and gynecologist in New York
3. Which famous patient helped fund the dam? → James B. “Buck” Duke
4. What flew under the Buster Boyd Bridge on opening day in 1923? → A biplane
5. On the Buster Boyd Bridge, which state is at the southern end? → North Carolina
6. What does “Tega Cay” supposedly mean? → Beautiful peninsula (unconfirmed)
7. What’s the lake’s full pond number on Duke’s gauge? → 100.0 feet
8. How long did the 2018 end-to-end swim take? → About 13 hours
9. What did the original Buster Boyd Bridge cost? → $120,000
10. What day is Tega Cay’s birthday? → July 4

Score 8 or more and you’re officially Full Pond. Score 3 or fewer and you’re Low Water Club.

Sources

Wikipedia (Lake Wylie; Buster Boyd Bridge; Tega Cay, SC) · South Carolina Encyclopedia (“Wylie, Walker Gill”; “Tega Cay”) · South Carolina Hall of Fame · NCpedia (Duke Power Company) · Davidson College Archives (“The Flood of 1916”) · NC DNCR historical marker O-83 · SCDNR · WBTV and WSOC (alligator sightings) · WFAE (2018 swim) · Catawba RiverViews (2012) · South Carolina Public Radio (“T is for Tega Cay”)