The name Keowee reaches far deeper than the modern reservoir. South Carolina DNR's Jocassee Gorges history identifies Keowee Town as an important Lower Cherokee settlement and explains that many place names across the region preserve Cherokee-language roots. The modern lake therefore sits within a landscape whose cultural history predates the dam by centuries.
Duke Power announced the Keowee-Toxaway Project in 1965 and began development in 1967. The project transformed the upper Savannah River headwaters through the creation of Lake Keowee and Lake Jocassee and tied the two reservoirs to a much larger electric-generation system. SCDNR identifies Lake Keowee as an impoundment of the Little and Keowee rivers.
Keowee Hydro Station began generating in April 1971. Duke describes the dam and hydro station as part of the same large development that also included Jocassee pumped storage and Oconee Nuclear Station. Oconee Unit 1 entered commercial operation in 1973, with Units 2 and 3 following in 1974, placing Lake Keowee directly beside one of the region's major power-generation complexes.
The engineering project received national professional recognition in 1975, when the Keowee-Toxaway Project was honored by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Today Lake Keowee remains a working Duke Energy reservoir while also supporting public recreation, state-park access, fishing, boating and shoreline communities in Oconee and Pickens counties.