Tag: Ghost Town

From Kingsbury to Stoneboro – Rambling in Lancaster County

Posted on By Tom 6 Comments on From Kingsbury to Stoneboro – Rambling in Lancaster County
History and Genealogy, Rambling

One of the ghost towns I’ve wanted to explore is Kingsbury, in Lancaster County, South Carolina.  Located on the Catawba River, Kingsbury started out as a ferry town.  It appears on the 1825 Lancaster District Map in Robert Mills’s Atlas of South Carolina. In the late 1700s Andrew McIlwaine chartered a ferry across the Catawba … Read More “From Kingsbury to Stoneboro – Rambling in Lancaster County” »

Carolina Ghost Towns – Kingville

Kingville, or Kingsville, was a major railroad junction in lower Richland County, South Carolina. It served as a support center and hospital for Confederate troops in the Civil War. The town was destroyed by Sherman’s army, but rebuilt by freed slaves. Here are the links to information within the podcast… Original blog post Script for … Read More “Carolina Ghost Towns – Kingville” »

Return to Andersonville Island

Posted on By Tom 3 Comments on Return to Andersonville Island
Geocaching and Maps, History and Genealogy, Paddling, Photography, Rambling

Return to Andersonville Island-109

Just because it’s December doesn’t mean that we stop paddling. Heck, for this particular trip we even went swimming, but that’s getting ahead of things a bit. Fellow explorer, and now fellow paddler Mark Elbrecht proposed a trip out to Andersonville Island to see if we could spot the ruins that everyone says are there. Bennie Waddell had just gotten a new kayak, and I lacked only 6 miles to push me over the 200 mark for the year. Of course, agreed to come along. Turned out to be a great trip with unexpected finds and unexpected excitement. But, I guess the word “unexpected” is redundant. Regardless…

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More on Chappells

Posted on By Tom 5 Comments on More on Chappells
History and Genealogy, Rambling

Chappells Ruins

My how time flies. Hard to believe that it’s been two years since Alan and I first explored the ghost town of Chappells, SC. We made our exploration after a paddling trip on the Saluda River, and I did a follow-up post on the history of the town.

Last year fellow explorer Mark Elbrecht visited the town during winter, and was able to get some clearer photographs of the ruins.

One other item Mark found was a photograph of the old Chappells Depot from an article in the Newberry Observer…

Chappells Depot

As we walked down the old main street and looked at the ruins on our visit, I wondered if any other photographs existed of the town in its heyday. Apart from Mark’s discovery of the depot photo, I had not seen any other photos of the old town. That all changed this past week.

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LCU vs Manchester, Part 3

Posted on By Tom No Comments on LCU vs Manchester, Part 3
Geocaching and Maps, History and Genealogy, Photography

Poinsett Park Millrace 2

So far our crew from Lowcountry Unfiltered had breakfast at Battens in Wedgefield, visited the cemetery of a deranged governor, hiked part of the Palmetto trail and discovered an old railroad junction, and we were just getting started.

Manchester and Melrose

We got back to our vehicles and headed to the location of the ghost town of Manchester. The town died out with the demise of the Wilmington and Manchester railroad. All that remains are a few rural houses. We paused briefly, and left in search of a more interesting section of Manchester.

Nearby is a marking indicating the location of Melrose Plantation. Built in the late 1700s, the plantation was owned by Matthew Singleton, whose cemetery we had visited earlier in the day. We stopped at the marker and took a look around. There were a few foundation stones, and the twisted remains of a metal bed. Unfortunately the bed appeared to be more of modern than pre-Civil War origin.

Melrose Plantation Marker
Melrose Plantation Remains

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Searching for Coopersville

Posted on By Tom 3 Comments on Searching for Coopersville
History and Genealogy, Local, Photography, Rambling

Cherokee Ford on the Broad River

About a month ago SCETV was airing an episode of Palmetto Places on Gaffney, South Carolina. I caught the tail end of a segment about the Coopersville Iron Works. I didn’t catch much of the segment, but heard enough to know that it should be a target for one of my ghost town hunts. It sounded like it would be a perfect rambling trip for this week’s Friday off.

Coopersville was one of a series of Civil War era iron furnace operations in Cherokee County. In addition to this complex, there were furnaces near Cowpens and Thicketty Mountain. Coopersville was the largest, with several factories, a post office and some stores. All of these historic iron works are on private property, and finding information about the actual location proved to be a challenge. The National Register nomination form for Coopersville was severely redacted so that no addresses were visible. Even beyond that, the name “Coopersville” didn’t show up on any GNIS listings, or on any other lists of towns that I had, historic or otherwise.

After several conversations on Google+ with my history exploring friends, Mark Elbrecht pointed me in the direction of an archeological survey done in the 1980s prior to the construction of electrical transmission lines. It contained several maps which were not redacted. I used that map as basis for my ramblings.

Predictive Modeling: An Archeolgical Assessment of Duke Power Company's Proposed Cherokee Transmission Lines

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