Northwest South Carolina -- the area including modern day Anderson, Oconee, and Pickens Counties -- offers a rich variety of experiences to visitors interested in history, recreation, antiques and crafts, and splendid natural vistas.

Table Rock.

If this region were a piece of the fabric produced by local textile mills, each strand would contribute its unique quality to a cloth of strength, beauty, and durability. For that is the area itself: combining the loveliness of wild mountains and rushing waters; a history spanning the last stand of South Carolina Cherokees and new settlers' enduring hopes and dreams; and an economy that began in hard-working family farms, grist mills, and cotton and led to the new South's manufacturing and modern commerce.

In short, this area provides a complex, living tapestry of the South Carolina experience: a deftly woven fabric of mountains, mills, and memories.

Golden Creek Mill.

The Cherokee were a presence in upper South Carolina (or "the Upcountry") until fairly late. As growth in lower South Carolina pushed the Cherokee boundary further north, they made their last stronghold in the Upcountry following the Cherokee War (1759-61).

Increasing Scots-Irish and other migration from the northern U.S. further pressured the Cherokees' holdings. One story says that a canny Scot traded Cherokee Chief Woolenoy a single pony for half of his valley (now Oolenoy) -- along with hunting and fishing rights.

The Cherokees' alliance with the British during the Revolutionary War spelled their end. On August 1, 1776, Andrew Williamson, Andrew Pickens and Robert Anderson led a raid that destroyed the Cherokee town of Essenneca (Seneca), and patriots continued to burn the crops and villages of the British allies. Eleven days later, Pickens participated in the "Ring Fight," so known for the circular defense he designed to hold off Cherokee attackers, until his brother Joseph arrived with patriot reinforcements.

By the Treaty of DeWitt's Corner, in 1777, the Cherokees had ceded their remaining land except for an area largely bounded by Sumter National Forest. Finally, in 1817, they left forever what had become the state of South Carolina. Oconee Station and the neighboring William Richards House stand as reminders of this early period.

Early Economy
With European settlement, farming became the backbone of the economy, supported by small industry such as sawmills, gristmills and other businesses. While a number of larger farmers were slave owners, the area's cotton-based agriculture was shaped more by the yeoman farmer than by the plantation system popular in the lower part of the state. In fact, the Civil War era saw real political differences between the Upcountry and the Lowcountry, based partly on the varying economic dependence on slavery.

But blood runs deep, and links to the Lowcountry remain in nearby antebellum homes such as Ashtabula and Woodburn, built by Charleston-area families seeking relief from the malarial fevers of coastal summers.

John C. Calhoun (1782-1850) was South Carolina's premier nineteenth-century statesman-as well as a farmer. Today, Calhoun's house and 1100-acre farm, Fort Hill, form the spine of Clemson University's campus. There visitors can get a sense of the spirit of the house he loved, and a glimpse of an era evoked by the Calhoun and Clemson families' belongings.

Early African Americans left their mark in the labor they provided to local agriculture; after the Civil War, some freedmen remained in the area to become independent farmers themselves. "Little Liberia," near Pumpkintown in the Oolenoy Valley, is one such freedmen's settlement, though now nearly deserted.

Station Falls.

Industrialization
For decades after the Civil War, cotton continued as the region's primary cash crop. Cotton mills and industrialization fueled a growing cash economy. Just as earlier towns had been named for statesmen and soldiers such as Pickens and Anderson, now places were named for industrialists and business people -- Norris, Easley, Pelzer, Belton, and Williamston.

Today this increasingly diverse region measures its worth in people and its wealth in a broad range of enterprises and industries. Honoring its heritage in memory, and shaping its future in thoughtful action, northwest South Carolina's legacy includes beautiful natural scenery, exciting outdoor activities, history-haunted places, and regionally distinctive food, shops, galleries, and entertainment.

In the words of Ben Robertson, a native son and noted journalist tragically killed in WWII: "Someone is always keeping the home place.... And no matter how seldom or unexpectedly we may come in, we know someone will rise to give us our welcome." In other words, this tapestry of mountains, mills, and memories endures.

Mountains...
"The hills were eternal. Always they gave us strength...."

Thickets of rhododendron and mountain laurel, vistas that recede in blue and purple waves, waterfalls shimmering like angel hair against granite crags, rivers spilling silverly into bottomless lakes, narrow trails opening up to views of time-forgotten valleys... .

William Bartram (1739-1823) was one of the first Europeans to walk the wilderness of this area, and a gracious plenty of natural beauty and recreation remains as a heritage for modern explorers to enjoy. The Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway (SC 11) provides access to lovely views and nearby sites of interest, including two of the highest points in the state: Sassafras Mountain and Table Rock.

Sightseeing, camping, hiking, horseback riding, fishing and other pursuits for all ages and activity levels can be enjoyed in Sumter National Forest and the plentiful state parks. These include: Table Rock, with its National Recreation Trail; Keowee-Toxaway and its Cherokee museum; Oconee (one end of the 85-mile Foothills Hiking Trail); Devil's Fork; Sadler's Creek; and Lake Hartwell.

Waterfalls decorate the landscape, the most notable of them Whitewater, the highest series of falls in the eastern U.S.; and Issaqueena, linked to a Cherokee legend. Boating and fishing enthusiasts can seek out Lakes Hartwell, Jocassee, and Keowee in addition to area rivers. The Chattooga National Wild and Scenic River, with guided raft tours, is famed for its whitewater thrills.

The South Carolina Botanical Garden at Clemson University, a 270-acre cultivated natural wonder, grows thousands of native, rare, and endangered plants, and boasts the only nature-based sculpture collection of its kind in the country. Its Geology Museum features a collection of minerals, fossils and gems from around the world and helps interpret the origin and significance of the region's natural landscape.

Mills...
"[Cotton] fields blossomed like islands in the South Seas...."

Lumber and shingle mills, grist mills, textile mills: Mills of all sorts have driven this region's economy.

Harnessing widely available water power, grist mills ground grain for local farmers, producing staples such as cornmeal, flour, and grits. The miller retained a portion of the product ("the miller's tithe") to use himself or sell. Such mills reflected the region's early economy, which was independent, self-sustaining, and based on the family farm.

A few of these grist mills survive in renovated or reconstructed form. Built c. 1825, Hagood Mill in Pickens boasts many of its original components. Easley's Golden Creek Mill not only still operates but also houses a museum.

The introduction of another kind of mill -- the industrial or textile -- sparked the exodus from the farm and agriculture-based economy. Powered by water-produced electricity, these mills transformed the region's face, peppering the landscape with huge brick and stone buildings and the little mill villages that clustered about them like chicks around a hen.

The town of LaFrance, near Pendleton, is the site of Pendleton Factory, this area's first textile mill and the oldest continuously operating mill in the state.

While textile manufacturing is no longer king, the mill villages that provided housing and other amenities to workers fresh off the farm still remind us of its legacy. These villages have a distinctive architectural heritage, and at least one, Newry, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It and other mill towns such as Pelzer provide snapshots of a life that seems frozen in time, when the mill was the heart of the community, shaping the lives of generations.

Lake Hartwell.

Memories...
"[It is] a country of deep dark pools, of the soaring spirit, of little rooms stored with apples...."

A region's history is an intricate web woven of the lives and memories of the people who lived there. Many vestiges of this area's heritage remain in its historic buildings, churchyards and museums. The diversity of the area's heritage is honored by such sites and activities as Keowee-Toxaway State Park's Cherokee Indian Interpretive Center and Pendleton's African American Heritage Walking Tour.

In an astonishing array of festivals, local people celebrate everything from clogging to pig pickin', from spring flowers to fall apples. There's even a festival that interprets backwoods life and craft during the Revolutionary period. The arts are celebrated and practiced, too, in local theaters, auditoriums, museums, galleries, and special events.

Visitors can become a part of northwest South Carolina's tapestry by making their own lasting memories...of watching water rush over the wheel of a working gristmill... of seeing the mist burn off an emerging mountain vista...of visiting places that bring the past to life.... And, best of all, of experiencing the heart of a region in the smiling faces and welcoming hands of its people.