Once Williams came to Murray to make his proposal in 1923, Murray and his partner, Henry Flood, Jr., pored over topographic maps of the region and worked on estimates. It looked as if they might be able to generate enormous power at very low cost. It was said that here, as Murray looked over a topographic map of the Saluda River Valley, his eyes glanced at the contour line. He followed the line as it meandered through the valley and noticed that the contour did not touch a railroad, and its highest elevation was never less than 40 feet (12 m) below the divide separating the Saluda Valley from the neighboring Broad River Valley. After winding around the valley of the Saluda for nearly 300 miles (500 km), about 10 miles (15 km) west of Columbia its position the north side of the valley approached within 8,000 feet (2.4 km) of its position on the south side. Murray realized that a dam across such an expanse would be ideal for power development. He visited South Carolina to investigate.