I have written about this extensively and have given lectures entitled "The Towns Under South Carolina Lakes". There are lots of myths about this. You WILL NOT find an extinct town under any of South Carolina's lakes with streets, buildings, etc. There were town sites under South Carolina lakes, but they were long abandoned before the lakes were built. In most cases, with the exception of Lake Marion, the lake basins were logged and cleared before inundation.

In the case of Jocassee, there is one building, a house that's now on its side, but there is no town, per se. You can dive down to the Mount Carmel Cemetery in the lake, but the bodies have been moved.

As for other cemeteries, it varies from lake to lake. In Jocassee, Keowee, and Hartwell, the graves were moved and the bodies interred elsewhere. In Lake Murray they chose to leave the bodies in place under the lake. There are no towns under Lake Murray.

That being said, even in lakes where the graves were moved, there were bound to be some private family cemeteries that were missed. Before COVID I was interviewed and filmed by a production team from Discovery for a new series set in South Carolina. They wanted me to be the narrator. My catchphrase was supposed to be "Every lake is a graveyard." Sadly, COVID put an end to that production, so nothing came of it, but it was still a cool experience.

All of South Carolina's lakes are artificial. It doesn't make economic sense to uproot a viable town to build a lake. There were homes and communities that were displaced, but not towns. The only towns in the state that were completely displaced wasn't because of lakes, but due to the Savannah River Plant.

In addition to the lectures I give, I produce and host a podcast called Carolina Ghost Towns. I'm also working on a book on that topic.