“D” is for Dutch Fork

“D” is for Dutch Fork. The Dutch Fork lies in a fork between the Broad and Saluda Rivers that includes parts of the modern counties of Newberry, Lexington, and Richland. Although a fertile region, European settlement did not begin until the 1740s. The preponderance of German-speaking settlers gave the area its name—Dutch Fork for deutsch Volk (German people). During the Revolutionary War, Germans in the Dutch Fork were cool toward the patriot cause. The relative isolation of the area allowed German culture and language to survive into the early twentieth century. The creation of Lake Murray during the 1930s inundated the area. In the ensuing decades, suburban sprawl from Columbia encroached upon and converted much of the rural landscape of the Dutch Fork into shopping malls and housing subdivisions.