when 2,000 men were employed and 37 saw mills were operating. Approximately 100 million board feet (240,000 m³) of lumber was manufactured. Practically all of the lumber required for construction of the dam was supplied from the clearing operation. With the start of the work on the dam, the necessary field office and camp buildings were built near the site. A village of nine dwellings, a community house, and church were built half a mile (800 m) away for operators. Dotted throughout the area were the camp sites of the contractors. The Arundel Corporation camps accommodated from 1,500 to 1,800 workmen at different times. The Barstow & Company camps provided quarters for 1,000 to 1,500 men. Smaller camps of subcontractors housed about 500. One of the first operations was to build a railroad spur long connecting with the Columbia, Newberry & Laurens Railroad at Irmo. Grading of this transportation link was begun September 12, 1927 and the line was in operation November 25. Prior to the completion of the railroad, construction material and equipment were hauled to the site by truck. 1940s Throughout the 1940s, a number of B-25 Mitchell bombers (flying out of nearby Columbia) crashed into Lake Murray during training exercises for World War II. A few were able to be recovered, but three remained until September 2005, when a B-25C Mitchell bomber that crashed in 1943 was raised from the depths of the lake. Dr. Bob Seigler who spearheaded the project, John Hodge and Dr. Bill Vartorella, formed the Lake Murray B-25 Rescue Project to salvage the aircraft from the bottom of Lake Murray. After recovery the remains of the aircraft were moved to the Southern Museum of Flight in Birmingham, Alabama for conservation and museum display. A video crew, including maritime video experts Nautilus Productions Rick Allen (2nd camera & underwater camera) and Ric Hase (sound), documented the recovery for the Mega Movers series on the History Channel. Geography Lake Murray is located on the Saluda River in Central South Carolina, in Lexington, Richland, Newberry, and Saluda counties. It is nearby to the town of Lexington, which itself is a suburb of the capital of South Carolina, Columbia. It has a max width of 41 miles and length of 14 miles. It has an irregular shape, with several coves branching off it. Several small islands are located in the lake, such as the Jim Spence Islands,