The Richard B. Russell Dam and Lake lie on the upper Savannah River near Elberton, Georgia, and Calhoun Falls, South Carolina. Authorized by the Flood Control Act of 1966 for hydropower generation, recreation, and flood control, the project was originally known as Trotters Shoals and was placed about midway between the J. Strom Thurmond and Hartwell dam and lake projects of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Savannah District. Construction by the Corps' Savannah District began in 1976, lake filling started in October 1983, and the lake reached its full power pool elevation of 475 feet above mean sea level in the winter of 1984, covering 26,650 acres, while about 52,000 acres in all were needed for inundation, the dam, relocated roads and railroads, operations, and recreation. The dam includes a 1,884-foot-long gravity structure of about 1.1 million cubic yards of concrete, with a maximum height of 195 feet, flanked by earth embankments totaling about 2.9 million cubic yards; the Georgia embankment is 2,180 feet long and the South Carolina embankment is 460 feet long. Its spillway has 10 Tainter gates, each 50 feet wide and 45 feet high, and five sluice gates measuring 5 feet 8 inches wide and 10 feet high. The powerhouse contains four 75-megawatt conventional turbine-generating units and four 75-megawatt pumped storage units, giving the peaking plant an installed capacity of 600 megawatts, the largest Corps hydroelectric project in the Southeast; its pumped storage system returns water to the lake after generation for reuse. The project also inundated places such as Millwood, a large plantation on the Savannah River about 5 miles west of Calhoun Falls built in 1833 by James E. Calhoun, brother-in-law and cousin of John C. Calhoun. Millwood was a concentrated village where overseers controlled 200 slaves, livestock, storage facilities, and workshops, and one of its first structures was a gristmill and millrace completed in 1834, powered by a 14-foot water drop. Excavation later uncovered remains and debris from about 45 structures occupied until 1889. The plantation covered about 10,000 acres and raised mainly cotton and corn. After the cotton economy declined following the Civil War, James E. Calhoun suffered heavy losses, the concentrated settlement of tenants, overseers, and slaves was dispersed to roughly one house per 30 to 40 acres, smaller fields replaced large plantation fields, and roads were built to maintain contact. He retained much of the property by renting to tenants and leasing water power and a gold mining operation. After his death in 1889, trustees continued managing the estate, the main village became a locally popular resort in the 20th century, and Duke Power Company bought the property in the 1940s for hydroelectric development but later used the land for pulpwood cultivation after plans emerged for the Richard B. Russell Dam and Lake project.