How Well Do You Know SC?

By Tom Poland

 

Time For A Little Reader Interaction

 

South Carolina possesses its share of interesting places, colorful towns, historical tidbits, natural wonders, and fascinating facts. While a bit of status comes with saying you’ve traveled to Venice, Paris, and other fashionable venues, South Carolina holds its own as a destination.

Many cool places are close by. In fact, it’s surprising how little people know about places a pleasant drive away. In the course of writing seven books about South Carolina, I’ve been to spots and secret places with appeal all their own, and I’ve learned something: you don’t have to go abroad to experience marvelous places nor do you need to flock to the clichéd “must see” venues. Rustic beauty, history, and interesting sights and places surround the Midlands. Maybe you’ve been to most of these places. Then again, maybe not. How well do you know the Palmetto State? Answers at the end.

 

 

1. What famous pilot flew into Anderson, SC promoting Beech-Nut products?

2. What’s South Carolina’s connection to the term “maverick?”

3. What beach gets its name from the old English word for a “cluster of trees?”

4. What’s the tallest mountain totally within SC?

5. Which SC junction is one of the country’s most photographed intersections?

6. Which SC town is rumored to have more millionaires per capita than any other town?

7. What SC town took its name after a famous inventor?

8. What SC town has a swamp that is the headwaters for a river?

9. What SC spring has been deeded to God?

10. Why do Saluda County people say Saluda is where Texas began?

 

 

 

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Answers:

1. Amelia Earhart

2. Pendleton’s Samuel Augustus Maverick moved on to become an ornery Texas rancher, a “maverick” who signed the Texas Declaration of Independence.

3. Folly

4. Pinnacle Mountain (Sassafras Mountain is the tallest but it is not completely in SC.)

5. Aiken’s Whiskey Road and Easy Street.

6. Hartsville

7. McCormick: named after Cyrus McCormick, inventor of the mechanical reaper.

8. Walterboro. The Walterboro Wildlife Sanctuary is the headwaters for the Ashepoo River.

9. Blackville’s Healing Springs

10. Because Native sons William Barrett Travis and James Butler Bonham fought at the Alamo and died in the Texas Revolution.

 

 

Author’s Note: The information in this column comes from my book, Classic Carolina Road Trips From Columbia, which lays out sixty-three road trips to some of the state’s more interesting places and sights.

Visit Tom Poland’s website at www.tompoland.net
Email Tom about most anything. [email protected]

Tom Poland is the author of eight books and more than 700 magazine features. A Southern writer, his work has appeared in magazines throughout the South. The University of South Carolina Press has released his and Robert Clark’s book, Reflections Of South Carolina, Vol. II. The History Press of Charleston just released his book, Classic Carolina Road Trips From Columbia. He writes a weekly column for newspapers in Georgia and South Carolina about the South, its people, traditions, lifestyle, and changing culture.

 

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