“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. Many of the early settlers were German speakers, although others came from northern colonies to the Dutch Fork via the Great Wagon Road. The preponderance of German speaking settlers however gave the area its name Dutch fork for Deutsche volk (German people). During the Revolutionary War, Germans and the Dutch Fork were cool toward the patriot cause, believing that they owed their land and therefore their loyalty to King George III who was of German descent. 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 part of the Dutch Fork.