Cultural History

The Foothills Trail is truly a walk through history. From the Marion Castles Rock House, reportedly a hideout for Civil War draft dodgers, to the Emory Gap toll road, the area’s first over-mountain road, to home sites of former pioneers, and not-so-long-abandoned liquor stills, the pioneering settlers have left their heritage on the land. Yet Native Americans were here long before, and the Lower Cherokee Nation’s hub was just south of Lake Jocassee. The influence of Native Americans can be felt in the names that dot the region, like Eastatoee, Keowee, Oconee and Jocassee.

There were at least 17 Lower Cherokee towns located in the Keowee River drainage upstream from the present location of the city of Clemson when Bartram explored the area in 1775-76. Four of those were above the current SC Highway 11. In his journal, Bartram described the valley of the Keowee River as having previously been one of continuous Indian settlements with the bottomland cultivated and remnants of their habitations still visible on the side slopes.

The Southern Appalachian landscape of the late 1700s supported a wide diversity of wildlife, including deer, turkey, bear, elk, bison, wolves, mountain lions, and a wide variety of small mammals. Non-migratory and migratory birds, including the Carolina parakeet and passenger pigeon, were abundant although the latter two would gradually decline to extinction. The Eastatoee Valley was the site of the last scientific sighting of the Carolina parakeet in South Carolina. The last woods bison and elk were killed in western South Carolina in the late 1770s.

Recommended Reading
Our region has inspired many works of fiction and non-fiction. For a taste of the area the FTC suggests the following:

• One Foot In Eden by Ron Rash
• Deliverance by James Dickey
• Jocassee Valley by Claudia Hembree
• Whipperwill Farewell: Jocassee Remebered by Debbie Fletcher
• King of the Moonshiners by Bruce E. Stewart

You may also enjoy:

• A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
• Last Child In the Woods by Richard Louv