Twin Lakes Bathing Resort, Twin Lakes Road: 1940s (?) 5 comments
Although I've never been to the area, there is still a Twin Lakes Park associated with Fort Jackson (the Google link to the left brings up some maps, this is a more official link), as well as the titular pair of lakes (though a google review notes one of them has been drained, presumably since the Great Flood of 2015). These write-ups lead me to believe that facilities like the ones on the postcard no longer exist there.
Indeed, growing up in the 1960s, I never heard anything about a Twin Lakes swimming area. Of course as a USC family, we had access to Bell Camp for lake swimming, so we never would have gone there. Still, I would have expected to hear about other people going if it were still around. One key may be the notation on the post card that the site is near Camp Jackson. As far as I can tell, Camp Jackson was renamed Fort Jackson during the build up to World War II. (This site gives 1940 as the date for the name change). That being the case, the resort could have been long closed by the 1960s.
Does anyone have any more information about this place?
5 Responses to 'Twin Lakes Bathing Resort, Twin Lakes Road: 1940s (?)'
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Del
18 Oct 19 at 1:57 am
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The postcard is more from the 1920's era, or maybe the early 30's.
Del
18 Oct 19 at 1:59 am
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Ask and ye shall receive:
Between the two world wars, Columbia promoted itself as
"The Largest Inland bathing Resort in the Country." In the northeast part of Richland county there were numerous swim clubs built up around both natural and man made lakes and ponds.
Twin Lakes was one of them. It was originally known as Huffman's Pond and opened in 1926 billed as "Columbia's Most Beautiful Resort." and was in business as early as 1928. It offered swimming and diving, baseball fields, bowling, a dance pavilion, miniature golf and skating.
(The biggest was Boyden Arbor, which is the large pond at the intersection of Decker and Percival Rd.)
When WWII started, the army took possession of many of these clubs Boyden Arbor became the officer's club and Twin Lakes became the NCO club. Both are still owned by the US Army.Tom
18 Oct 19 at 12:41 pm
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Ooops! Sorry for the typo. 1926 is the correct date.
Tom
18 Oct 19 at 12:42 pm
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@Tom -- Very interesting! I had never heard that we were "The Largest Inland bathing Resort in the Country."
It certainly makes some sense given the misery of Columbia summers before air conditioning.
ted
22 Oct 19 at 12:17 am
I think it became a more privately owned area and you could become a member there or something like that back in the late 60's. I had some family members ( cousins, aunt and uncle) that joined the club ( could have been Ft. Jackson associated) but I went there only a few times. I think the larger building in the postcard was there, but not sure since it's been around 50 years ago or a little over now. Last time I drove by that area, it didnt look anything like I remember it being. That entire area up that way has really changed and things dont even look remotely the same now.