Author: Tom

Chasing a THIRD Swamp Rabbit – Part 3 Blacksburg to Cherokee Falls

Posted on By Tom 6 Comments on Chasing a THIRD Swamp Rabbit – Part 3 Blacksburg to Cherokee Falls
Geocaching and Maps, History and Genealogy, Photography, Rambling

Railroad at Blacksburg, SC

I had been tracking down the history of the Swamp Rabbit Railroad that ran from Blacksburg to Gaffney by way of Cherokee Falls. So far I’d discovered the history of the railroad and its relatively short commercial life, and I had discovered how the railroad briefly found new life as a scenic railroad in the 1970s. It was time to get out into the field and do some ground-truthing. I wanted to see if there were any remnants of the old line.

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Chasing a THIRD Swamp Rabbit – Part 2, J. V. Cannon and the Scenic Railway

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Geocaching and Maps, History and Genealogy, Photography, Rambling

Cherokee County Swamp Rabbit Railroad-5

As it turns out the Swamp Rabbit that ran on the Greenville and Northern track, and the Swamp Rabbit that ran through Cherokee County have histories that have become entwined. I actually found this link right under my own nose on this very website. William Cannon left a comment on my post about “What Happened to the Swamp Rabbit?” in which he mentioned his father, J. V. Cannon. Jean Vaughan Cannon turned out to be a fascinating individual with what can only be described as an obsession with trains. His obsession gave new life to both the Greenville Swamp Rabbit and the Cherokee Swamp Rabbit.

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Chasing a THIRD Swamp Rabbit – Part 1, the History

Posted on By Tom 4 Comments on Chasing a THIRD Swamp Rabbit – Part 1, the History
Geocaching and Maps, History and Genealogy, Photography, Rambling

Swamp Rabbit Railroad Switch 2

That’s right, there’s not one, not two, but three railroads in South Carolina that bore the name “The Swamp Rabbit.” There’s the one that follows former Greenville and Northern Railroad, now the very popular Swamp Rabbit Trail. There’s the one in the lower part of the state that crosses Barnwell, Aiken, and Lexington Counties. I explored and wrote about that one last week. Then, there is the Swamp Rabbit that crosses part of Cherokee County from Blacksburg through Cherokee Falls and then on to Gaffney. I explored this third Swamp Rabbit today, and discovered that it has some unexpected ties to our own Swamp Rabbit Railroad here in Greenville.

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Chasing the Swamp Rabbit – Part 4, Lost in Lexington

Posted on By Tom 8 Comments on Chasing the Swamp Rabbit – Part 4, Lost in Lexington
Geocaching and Maps, History and Genealogy, Photography, Rambling

Samaria Store

I was on a quest to find traces of the old Swamp Rabbit Railroad. This isn’t the one that runs through Northern Greenville with which most are familiar, but was a train that ran across Barnwell, Aiken, and Lexington Counties. So far I already traveled the original route from Blackville to Sievern. Now I was going to deeper into the swamps of the Edisto, and losing my way in the process.

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Chasing the Swamp Rabbit – Part 3, Sievern and Edisto Academy

Posted on By Tom 10 Comments on Chasing the Swamp Rabbit – Part 3, Sievern and Edisto Academy
Geocaching and Maps, History and Genealogy, Photography, Rambling

Swamp Rabbit RR

I was on a quest to find traces of the “other” Swamp Rabbit Railroad, a passenger service on the Blackville, Alston & Newberry (BA&N) line that ran from Blackville in Barnwell County to Seivern in Lexington County. So far the task had been easy. There were clear tracks and right-of-ways between and through the towns of Blackville, Springfield, Salley, Perry, and Wagener. The last four towns came into existence because of the BA&N, and these towns celebrated their railroad heritage. The Swamp Rabbit was about to get more elusive, though, as its route traversed the environment for which it was named – the swamps of the Edisto River.

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Chasing the Swamp Rabbit – Part 2, From Salley to Wagener

Posted on By Tom 8 Comments on Chasing the Swamp Rabbit – Part 2, From Salley to Wagener
Geocaching and Maps, History and Genealogy, Photography, Rambling

Salley Cargo Depot

I had been on an excursion to track down the Swamp Rabbit Railroad – not the well-known one in Greenville County, but a lesser-known railroad that ran from Blackville in Barnwell County to the ghost town of Sievern in Lexington County. I was following a map developed by Mitch Bailey of Lexington, with data points form the map loaded into my GPS. So far I’d traced the railroad from Blackville to Springfield, but I still had a ways to go.

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Chasing the Swamp Rabbit (No, Not That One)

Posted on By Tom 2 Comments on Chasing the Swamp Rabbit (No, Not That One)
Geocaching and Maps, History and Genealogy, Photography, Rambling

Springfield Caboose

When folks in this area hear the phrase “Swamp Rabbit Railroad”, they probably think of the Swamp Rabbit Trail, which has garnered so many accolades. Use of the name has been growing as the moniker “Swamp Rabbit” has been taken by many new businesses, usually those located along the trail on the old railway. The trail has gotten so popular that even the local pro hockey team changed their name from Road Warriors to the Greenville Swamp Rabbits.

As most Greenvillians know, the trail was named for the former Greenville and Northern Railroad, nicknamed the Swamp Rabbit because its route took it through the wetlands of the upper Reedy River. However, the lowly sylvilagus aquaticus lent its name to not one, but two railroads in South Carolina. The former Blackville, Alston, and Newberry line was also known as the Swamp Rabbit, and ran through the wetlands of the North Edisto River from Blackville in Barnwell County to the ghost town of Seivern in Lexington County. The first Sunday in May I set out to see what I could find of this other Swamp Rabbit Railroad.

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