South Carolina National Heritage Corridor
Discovery Route

The Discovery Route begins in Charleston, which traces its origins back to 1670. As the route progresses west and north, it moves forward through time, visiting plantations and slave quarters where rice, indigo, and cotton cultivation led to a unique and vanished lifestyle. The trail follows where the Best Friend of Charleston once ran on the nation's first passenger railroad and where those early rail lines led to the creation of small market towns among the expansive cotton fields.

Still further west and north, the route begins to wind through mill towns, with their distinctive neighborhoods, town squares, and factories. It was water power that made most of these mill towns thrive, and as the route begins to wind into the mountain foothills, these waterways add much to the area's special beauty and recreational opportunities. In the upper part of the route and western end of the state, towns like Pendleton, Westminster, and Walhalla take the visitor to the very edge of Appalachian culture.