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LANDRUM— Join Conserving Carolina and the Landrum Library for a free lecture entitled, “Historic Native American Paths and a Revolutionary Battle Site in the Landrum Area,” presented by naturalist, historian, and outdoor writer, Dennis Chastain. The program will be held on Tuesday, April 16 at 6 p.m. at the Landrum Library located at 111 East Asbury Drive Landrum, SC. 

Dennis Chastain says, “This is the story of how the City of Landrum was first established as a railroad town, but also the history of the larger Landrum area one hundred years before Landrum existed.” 

Two ancient Native American Paths, later improved to wagon standards, once intersected very near downtown Landrum. The Tugaloo Path, which originated at the Cherokee town, Tugalloo, on the border between South Carolina and Georgia, ran all the way to Virginia. The route took the path through the Town of Landrum and forded the North Pacolet River just beyond I-26. At this ford on the North Pacolet River (Earle’s Ford), a predawn raid on a Patriot camp by the notorious British commander, James Dunlap, resulted in a Patriot victory, but it was a brutal assault and a story that should be heard by all so that it can be preserved and recalled for generations.

The historic Blackstock Road, which ran all the way to Charleston, SC, intersected with the Tugaloo Path about half a mile south of downtown Landrum, and then on to Tryon, NC, and then to Hendersonville and beyond. Widely recognized as the oldest road in Spartanburg County, the Blackstock Road was developed in the 1800’s into a drovers road where thousands of cattle, horses, hogs, turkeys, and wagon loads of produce trudged through on their way to markets in Charleston. Chastain says, “The stories of these two ancient Native American paths and the battle of Earle’s Ford are largely untold stories. The way to preserve the legacy of these old stories is for folks to learn them and pass them along to the next generation.”

This lecture is part of Conserving Carolina’s monthly Speaker Series at the Landrum Library, and it is made possible thanks to the Landrum Library. The next program at the Landrum Library will be held on May 14th, when Ashley Morris, Professor and Curator of the Herbarium in the Department of Biology at Furman University, will present “Using genetics to aid recovery of the federally endangered Bunched Arrowhead (a wildflower).” 

For more information, contact Pam Torlina at pam@conservingcarolina.org, or contact the Landrum Library at 864-457-2218.

 

Conserving Carolina, your local land trust, is dedicated to protecting and stewarding land and water resources vital to our natural heritage and quality of life and to fostering appreciation and understanding of the natural world. For more info visit www.conservingcarolina.org.