Category: Local

I’ve written about this before (In Search of Phantom Stairs, August 24, 2008.) There is something intriguing about old masonry.  This is especially true of recognizable structures such as stairs, columns, and walls.  While it’s cool to find a pile of rubble or old road bed or foundation in a field, a standing remnant goes beyond that.  You can tell that something was here – something with intent and purpose.  It’s the discovery of those ruins, as well as the exploration of what had been there that keeps me going on these photo treks For this particular photo trek I headed out across Spartanburg County, and found a wealth of such masonic hints of the past.

I was partly inspired by fellow explorer Mark Elbrecht’s recent trek to the Whitestone community and his explorations of the old Whitestone Springs Resort (Part 1, Part 2.) Mark had done an excellent job covering that area, so I didn’t want to repeat his trip (although I may check those spots out later.) My trek would take me across Spartanburg with a dip into Union and Cherokee Counties. Truth be told, I only had a vague idea where I was headed, and that was a problem. By omitting some additional preliminary research I just missed out on some very cool spots. More on that later, but for now, here’s what I found…

Read More “The Allure of Old Masonry” »

In Part One of this trek we visited the site of the Logue-Timmerman Feud in Northern Edgefield County. In Part Two we explored Edgefield itself, and found the site of the ghost town of Pottersville and an abandoned church. In this final installment we migrate to Saluda County, and visit a town with an unusual church, and find a ghost town with a heavenly name.

Johnston , Ward, and Spann Methodist Church

We left Horn Creek Baptist Church, retracing our steps along the dirt Old Stage Coach Road. I had plugged the coordinates for our next stop into the GPS, but it kept wanting us to turn onto some even dicier dirt roads. I stayed the course until we reached pavement, then turned onto Gary Hill Road. Here we passed a MASSIVE federal penitentiary. We didn’t think it would be kosher to stop and photograph a prison, but here’s an image of it from Google Earth:

Read More “A Feud, a Mule, a Senator, a Potter, and a Ghost Town or Two – Part Three” »

In the previous post I described how a mule kick killed eight people, and we explored the Little Stevens Creek area. In this post fellow singer and explorer Tommy Thompson and I ventured further into Edgefield County seeking out pottery and abandoned churches.

Edgefield has long been known for its amazing pottery. ETV’s History Detectives even did a segment on one of the “face jugs” from the area. Of course, I was not as interested in the pottery itself as in the town that grew up around the industry. Landrumville, aka Pottersville was located just north of Edgefield. Robert Mills’ 1825 Atlas shows its location.

I wanted to see if I could find it. The site is on the National Register of Historic Places. However, since it is still an active archeological dig, all of the location information has been redacted. There are lots of scholarly articles on the site. But, just like the NRHP listing, any article I could find said that the kilns were on private property, and that the address was restricted.

As a workaround, I took the Mills map and tried to overlay it onto Google Earth. Matching the roads and landmarks from 170 years ago was not an easy task, but in the end I came up with an approximate set of coordinates. Even if I couldn’t reach Pottersville exactly, at least I would be able to take a photo of the area.

Read More “A Feud, a Mule, a Senator, a Potter, and a Ghost Town or Two – Part Two” »

I decided this is going to have to be a multi-part post. Otherwise, dear readers, you will be scrolling for an uncomfortable amount of time. We saw an amazing amount of stuff on Tuesday’s photo trek, and it all has an equally amazing amount of back-story.

Fellow Chorale member Tommy Thompson sent me an interesting story entitled “How A Mule Kick Killed Eight People.” The story was about a feud in Edgefield County, and we decided that we absolutely had to head down that way for a photo trek.

Of course, as interesting as the story of the feud was, a single location just doesn’t work for a photo trek. So, the night before I loaded up my GPS with several possible targets in the Edgefield area. The next morning I rendezvoused with Tommy down on Augusta Road, and we headed south.

There is always so much along this road that is of interest, and it’s tempting to stop and take photos of every rustic barn and old house. I’ve long found that if I allow myself to get distracted like this, I never reach my destination. Sometimes that’s a good thing, but sometimes not. We drove straight on through Greenwood and turned onto Highway 178. This route took us to the community of Epworth. There are some interesting old buildings there, and my great-great grandparents are buried only a couple of miles north of there. There is also the old Epworth Camp Meeting site. The only distraction I allowed was a brief turn onto the Epworth property so Tommy could see the old tabernacle and cabins. I had photographed and explored it before, so we kept going.

Read More “A Feud, a Mule, a Senator, a Potter, and a Ghost Town or Two – Part One” »