A collection of photography and exploration focusing on Upstate South Carolina and beyond.
The “small world syndrome” always catches me off-guard. At the Bellingham Folk Festival I met musicians that live in Asheville and frequently play in Greenville. Even just meeting someone who has visited South Carolina, much less my home town, makes me feel a connection. As I’ve found out, though, the Southern connections with the Pacific Northwest are even deeper than I had thought.
Read More “PNW Southern Connections – Part 1, The Lost Cause” »
Samish Island has a very active community. There are events year-round at the small community center on the northeast side of the island. This past Sunday Laura and I headed to the center to hear stories about the history of the island in the first session of Samish Island Stories.
I recently acquired a map from my Aunt Grace’s estate. While she was in Paris she found an old map of South Carolina in an antique store. The map had lots of interesting information, including the slave population for each county. The information and history intrigued her, and since it was from her home state, she bought it. Aunt Grace knew that I was a map geek and was especially interested in the history of the state. Before she died she expressed her desire that I get the map. I won’t go into the long and sordid details of how it did eventually end up in my possession, but rather delve into the history of the map itself and the cartographers that created this work of art.
I was out and about exploring the Pee Dee region of the state, searching for ghost towns. I’d already found a couple of potentials – Ella’s Grove, Centenary, and Eulonia – and I’d stopped by the Marion County Museum and had lunch on Main Street in Marion. Now it was on to a couple more remote locations, and eventually find my way back home.
Read More “Ghost Towns of the Pee Dee – Part 4, Jordanville to Dalcho” »
I had one day to explore the ghost towns of the Pee Dee region of South Carolina. So far I’d visited several potential locations, including Ella’s Grove, Centenary, and Eulonia. On these trips I always like to stop in at the local museum or historical society to see what additional information they might have. With that goal in mind, I set off for the Marion County Museum in downtown Marion.
Read More “Ghost Towns of the Pee Dee – Part 3, Marion Museum” »
I was on a quest to visit potential ghost towns in the Pee Dee area of the state. So far I had visited Ella’s Grove and the Palmer School and Cemetery. I still had quite a bit of exploring to do. Next up was the town of Centenary and the community of Eulonia.
Read More “Ghost Towns of the Pee Dee – Part 2, Centenary” »
Yes, I’m still working on my ghost towns list. However, I have some serious gaps in the places I’ve visited. The eastern part of the state toward Myrtle Beach is uncharted territory to me. I decided that before I move out west and seriously start on this book I needed to make at least one visit to this area.
Read More “Ghost Towns of the Pee Dee – Part 1, Ella’s Grove and Palmer” »
I was at the Henderson County Library doing some research on The Kingdom of Happy Land. As I was leaving I passed by the library’s auditorium and noticed folks gathering for some sort of presentation. Having just given a talk at a library myself, I was curious. As I glanced at one of the flyers a man at the door said that it was a meeting about photo identification. I decided to check it out.
A few weeks ago I gave my talk on the Hidden Towns Under South Carolina Lakes at the Taylors Branch of the Greenville County Library. After the talk someone came up to me and asked if I’d ever heard of the “Kingdom of Happy Land.” I had not. After chatting for a bit I decided I needed to see if I could find this kingdom. Last Thursday things had finally settled down from all our traveling and the Fourth holiday, so it was a perfect time for an expedition. I went to see if I could find the Kingdom of Happy Land.
It was time to plan another Second Saturday trip with Lowcountry Unfiltered. We’ve been trying to expand our trips, visiting places that we haven’t done multiple times. There are lots of waterways in this state, so I don’t think we’ll exhaust our opportunities, but it’s fun to see new stretches of water. This time we decided to paddle part of the Little River Blueway, specifically, a section of Long Cane Creek. Our route would take us through a very remote, historical section of South Carolina, but there would be many, many obstacles before we reached the end of our paddle.