Issaqueena Bombing Range

During World War II, the U.S. Army Air Force used Lake Issaqueena and surrounding land as a bombing range. The lake had been built in 1938 as part of the New Deal-era Clemson Land Use Project, and the War Department acquired most of the range property from the college in 1942. It was used primarily by B-25 Mitchell bomber crews from Greenville Army Air Base, later Donaldson Air Force Base, which dropped thousands of 100-pound practice bombs on two target areas. Lake Issaqueena served for skip-bombing runs, in which pilots skipped bombs across the water to the target, while a land range northwest of the lake was used for medium-altitude bombing. Practice missions continued until the war's end in 1945, after which Clemson resumed control of the lake and returned it to recreational use.

South Carolina · United States