Some History in South Carolina's Northeast Corner

Story and photos
by Tom Straka

A few South Carolina counties have a little bit of the Blue Ridge Mountains, jutting against North Carolina. The extreme northeastern one is Oconee County and that jut gives it an excellent flavor of Appalachian culture. It is an interesting county, bisected by the Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway (SC Highway 11), with the area north of the highway being distinctively flavored. The Foothills Highway is a panoramic way to get off Interstate 85 with light traffic and connecting back to the interstate at both ends of the state. There are numerous short excursions to sample Oconee County; a couple have been noted in this story: Oconee Station, part of the state's frontier history, and a road trip to an unfinished railroad tunnel near the river used to film the Movie Deliverance. The Oconee History Museum offers additional insights into the area's fascinating history. The museum has two locations, the main museum and a general store museum nearby, plus additional museums almost adjacent centered on Native American and military history, together providing the perfect places for a side trip off of the Foothills Highway.

History Museum

The Oconee History Museum is located just off of Main Street in Walhalla, South Carolina in a historic Tobacco Warehouse (c. 1892). It has both Appalachian and Piedmont history, as the county includes both regions. Early history includes Native Americans, frontier exhibits, and even dugout canoes rescued from the bottom of local rivers. Other detailed exhibits highlight that unfinished railroad tunnel (which is only six miles away for anyone interested in the real thing) and a Depression-era tenant farmer's house. The museum is designed to cover the historic eras which shaped the county, from prehistory (mainly Native American history), to pre-Civil War (like John C. Calhoun and the railroad tunnel), to the Civil War and Reconstruction, to modern eras (like dam construction and a nuclear power plant). 

Two remnant canoes, retrieved by archaeologists from local river bottoms, are preserved in the museum. One canoe dates to 1760, plus or minus 40 years. It was over 30 feet long, nearly two feet wide, and just over a foot in height. It is uncertain whether it was built by Native Americans or white settlers. It was made of southern yellow pine. The 30 foot boat is under preservatives and a glass screen that does not allow good photographs, so the shorter canoe is shown above.   

Some of the simple things of earlier life were very interesting. An early kitchen with appliances and tools is interesting to compare to the modern version.

 An old-time icebox from a local hotel is probably something most visitors have never seen. The ice was produced by nature in winter and harvested from lakes and rivers, preserved in insulated icehouses. A block of ice was held in a tray or compartment at the top of the box. Cold air would circulate down and around the compartments below. Melted water would enter a tube which passed through the bottom of the icebox to a pan underneath to catch the water.

Oconee County was cotton country and, as you'd expect, there are cotton-related machines in the museum, including a cotton gin. A cotton gin separated the sticky seeds from the fibers in short-staple cotton, which was easy to grow in the Deep South. This improved efficiency, but cotton still needed to be picked by hand.

A Cotton Seed Cleaner. "King Cotton" is well represented in the museum.  The Cotton Seed Cleaner removed dirt and trash while continuing the drying process. Crushed cotton seeds could be used for oil and meal used in food products and in livestock and poultry feed.

Also, part of the cotton economy was the automatic loom. This one is automatic bobbin changing loom, making it unnecessary to stop the loom to change the bobbin.

An older industry is represented by a model of a corn mill, used to shell and grind corn into new forms that are more digestible to both humans and animals.

An apple sorter represents an industry that is still strong in Oconee County (in season, there are nearby apple orchards).   

A tenant farmer's house is one of the major exhibits (c. 1935). Tenant farming once supported agriculture in the county. Unlike sharecroppers, who could only contribute their labor, but had no legal claim to the land or crops they farmed, tenant farmers frequently owned plow animals, equipment, and supplies.  

There is much military history in parts of the museum, including maps and equipment, like musket balls. Oconee County was once the frontier and had forts for protection from the Native Americans.

Cabinets contains much written history, like letters written by local Confederate soldiers during the Civil War.

 

Of course, there is some Confederate material in the museum, including an impressive Confederate uniform.

Clemson University is close-by and there is also a Clemson College dress uniform (C, 1893-1894).

An assortment of material from one of the old hotels in town includes a chamber pot seat (to the left).

There is a general store exhibit in the main museum to supplement the separate general store museum. This exhibit gives a broad picture of the general store, while the separate general store museum highlights the great variety of merchandise in a general store. 

Furniture owned by historical figures from the county is included, with related background information. 

A wooden telephone booth, once a high class item, might surprise some of the younger visitors.  

Modern Oconee County is included with materials and displays from the Oconee Nuclear Plant. Duke Energy's "World of Energy" is close-by and offers tours to the public of the nuclear plant.

Other Nearby Museums

The  Oconee History Museum's General Store Museum is eight miles from the main museum on Main Street in Westminster, South Carolina. It displays a vast collection of historic artifacts from the original England's General Merchandise Store, which was located nearby. The idea of a general store was to carry everything a customer might need, so the variety of goods in the museum includes a lot of unusual things (like a "Flymo" hovering lawnmower or Blue Horse notebook paper). In the late 1980s England's General Store ceased operation and the owner used the unsold inventory to develop a display of the contents of a general store. It is like a trip through time, and for an old-timer, a quiz on how items they can remember.

A broad view of the General Store, showing the layout and huge variety of merchandise. 

The breadth and range of merchandise filling the shelves provides a trip back in time.

The immediate area near the Oconee History Museum might be called "museum row." Two other interesting, but smaller, museums are walking distances away. The Museum of the Cherokee in South Carolina "provides a preserve for a deeper and more meaningful understanding of the Cherokee." There were 27 Cherokee villages in the area that is now Oconee County. "Aequonee" in Cherokee, pronounced by white men as "Oconee," translates to "beside the water," referring to the many rivers, creeks, and waterfalls in the region. Native American artifacts are on display, providing an insight into the Cherokee way of life and their culture.

There is a wide range of artifacts in the museum. Some are elegant, like above, but full deer-skin clothing is nearby.

Native American handywork and artwork, like baskets, line the display cases.  

The Oconee Military Museum is just across the street from the Cherokee Museum. It is in a small building, but both floors of the museum are filled with displays, from the Revolutionary War to modern conflicts in the Middle East. The walls are full of military artifacts, documents, photographs, and artwork. 

Rooms of the museum center on specific wars, with uniforms, arms, military equipment, and ample descriptions.   

The Vietman display with equipment many of the older visitors will recognize.

 

 

      

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