Carolina Ghost Towns
Carolina Ghost Towns is an exploration of the lost towns and communities in South Carolina, North Carolina, and occasionally Georgia
Episodes
Jewish workers in the Socialist Commune of Happyville, Aiken, SC
Happyville was a short-lived agricultural commune near Montmorceni in Aiken County, South Carolina. The community was based on socialist concepts, and was sponsored by the South Carolina Department of Agriculture, which wanted to bring in Eastern European Jewish immigrants to work the farmland. The project ...
Kingdom of the Happy Land by Gary Carden. Acrylic on canvas, 36”x24”. Source
The Kingdom of Happy Land was a settlement of freed slaves on the North Carolina/South Carolina border near Tuxedo, North Carolina. The Kingdom had a King and Queen, and was operated as a socialistic society with all sharing equally.
Resources:
Mitchelville on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, was the first town in the United States governed by freed slaves. It was part of the Port Royal Experiment.
Partial list of links:
- Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park
- Archeology at Mitchelville
- Mitchelville: Experiment in Freedom
- The archaeological manifestations of the "Port Royal Experiment" at Mitchelville, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
Instead of towns that disappeared, today we look at towns that never existed. Through my research I’ve found four categories of these so-called Paper Towns
- A town planned out on paper that never really took off.
- A town that was never meant to exist, but was advertised simply as a scam for investors.
- An area incorporated for political reason...
The colonial town of Dorchester is located on the Ashley River, just north of Charleston. Settled by Congregetionalists, it was once the third largest town in South Carolina.
Now only the old bell tower of the St. George's Church and the tabby fortifications remain. Old Dorchester is now a historic site and part of the South Carolina Parks System.
Here are some of the resources used in this episode:
Merrittsville was a community in norther Greenville County in what has become known as The Dark Corner. Once a stopover for travelers, the region was notorious for moonshining and other illegal activities. Now. The town lies under the Greenville Watershed Reservois.
Resources:
This week we look at three ghost towns. These towns featured academies that played a large part of the town. When the academies closed down, the towns went into decline. This episode looks at the towns of Minervaville in Richland County, South Carolina, which had the Minerva Academy, Slabtown in Anderson County, which had the Thalian Academy, then the Slabtown Academy, and Sievern in Aiken County, which had the Edisto Academy.
...
Ellenton, Dunbarton, Meyers Mills, and Leigh were small towns in Aiken and Barnwell Counties that were uprooted to make way for the Savannah River Plant to make atomic and hydrogen bombs.
I used lots of references and audio clips in this episode. Here are the clips that I used in putting together this story.
- Blog post - Hamburg and the Atomic Towns
- "I Don't Live there Anymore" - Lawrence Holofcener
- Dr. Walter Edgar, South C...
Manchester is a ghost town in Sumter County, on the east side of the Poinsett Electronic Warfare Range. It was settled in the 1700s, but disappeared in the mid-1800s.
Resources:
Willtown Black Mingo was on Black Mingo Creek in Williamsburg County. The terms "Willtown" and "Black Mingo" were used interchangeably. It was also the site of an important battle in the Revolutionary War.
Resources:
Willtown on the Edisto River was first known as New London. It was the second planned town in South Carolina, after Charleston. The remaining buildings are now on the National Register of Historic Places.
Here are the resources I used in this episode...
The ghost town of Shelton is located in northwest Fairfield County, South Carolina, along the banks of the Broad River. The early settlement featured a ferry, but grew into a town with the coming of the railroad. The major industries were shipping for the surrounding and the Shivar Springs Bottling Company, located just south of the town. Resources used in this episode...
Henry Martyn Robert - author of Robert's Rules of Order
Robertville is a small farming community in South Carolina, named for a family of French Huguenots that settled in the region. The community was the birthplace of Henry Martyn Robert, author of Robert's Rules of Order, and Alexander Robert Lawton, Confederate General and one of the founders of the American Bar Association.
Robertville Baptist Church is on the National Regis...
Ellenberg Homesite
The modern town of Ninety Six hold close connections to my family. It's where my grandparents lived, as well as some other, more notorious relatives. Before modern Ninety Six came the college town of Cambridge, named with aspirations of reaching the lofty status of its namesakes in Massachusetts and England.
Resources for this episode:
Merry Christmas from Carolina Ghost Towns! The new season starts January 14, 2025, with new episodes every other Tuesday. Be sure to tune in!
This bonus episode is a lecture I gave for the Mauldin Branch of the Greenville County Library. The lecture was on Monday, November 11, 2024, and featured several of the towns that have appeared on previous episodes.
The community of Cashville is located in southwestern Spartanburg County. It is home to Hurricane Tavern, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. It's also home to Antioch Presbyterian Church. Earlier this month Debbie Weekes invited me to join her and Len Strozier for a survey of the Antioch Cemetery using ground penetrating radar, or GPR. Len then gave a presentation to the general public about the technology.
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Pinckneyville was a town in Union County, South Carolina. The town was established in the 1790s as the seat of Pinckneyville District. It was envisioned as the "Charleston of the Upstate." When Pinckney District was divided into smaller districts, the courthouse was moved to Union. Pinckneyville started to die out.
The Cataloochee Valley is a remote area in Western North Carolina, now part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It was never really a town, but is included on most lists of Ghost Towns in North Carolina.
- Cataloochee: Center of the World - National Park Service Video
- NPS Cataloochee Basin
- Cataloochee Reunion
- Serena, by Ron Rash
- Research Pinboard
AI Voices by Eleven Labs
Hurricane Helene has not been kind to us. Here's a quick update on what to expect over the next few weeks.
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