Upcountry History Museum — Greenville, South Carolina

3 Comments about Upcountry History Museum

I have prepared a deep history of the railroad that ran north from Greenville to the River Falls area (at one time) with details on the 21 varieties of the company from origin to the final rail-trail. This includes an appendix dealing with Jones Gap and the Jones toll road, the associated Greenville Land & Lumber Company which held much of the upper county area through deeds, the Three C’s railroad that tried to buy in, Drake’s Inn, and a complete legal description of the tracts held by GL&L in 1926, and much much more. You may be familiar with my Piedmont & Northern book, or The Logging Railroads of South Carolina.

This Upper Greenville County manuscript may be harder to market to a publisher. It runs about 78 pages (1888-1926) and 56 pages (1926-2007) plus 14 pages of Appendix. Much of it is taken directly from the pages of The Greenville News and other South Carolina newspapers of the time.

As an aside, I have a similar work on the Pickens Railroad that began as an Easley to Pickens line, then expanded to within a mile of the North Carolina State Line in the Rosman area, and operates today as a small railroad from Belton to Anderson with an extension over the tracks of the Palmetto Railways to the Michelin factory southwest of Anderson served by the Pickens Railroad.

While at Clemson College, I rode in the cab of the Southern Railway’s Carolina Special from Spartanburg to Asheville over Saluda Grade, (a line now out of service); the Pickens from Pickens to Easley and back, The Greenville & Northern (Pinsly) from Greenville to Marietta and back, The Piedmont & Northern from Spartanburg to Greenwood and back as well as the line in Charlotte, and several others.

I rode in the cab of an electric motor through the Hudson River Tunnels to New York City from Elizabeth, NJ, and explored the forgotten tunnel under the streets of Brooklyn that were part of an early canal-railroad, sailing ship network connecting Washington to Boston. Ship to Havre de Grace, rail to Delaware, canal to Delaware River, ship to Trenton, rail to New York Harbor, ship across to Brooklyn, rail tunnel to outer Long Island, Ship to Connecticut, rail to Boston.
The only access to the Brooklyn tunnel is via a manhole in Atlantic Avenue and descent down a sandy slope to the tunnel floor. This is sealed off at both ends and was abandoned before the War Between the States.

If your group has any contemporary photos of the railroad out of Greenville up to Travelers Rest, or Renfrew, or Marietta or Cleveland or River Falls (Drakes) I would like to see a copy.

Tom Fetters, Chemical Engineer, Director of Research, Retired

Hello Joan, according to their website, the cost is $65 to join for individual membership. We are unaware if discounts are offered so we do recommend contacting the museum directly, their phone number is 864.467.3100. Thanks!

What is the cost to join the museum? I’m a senior citizen and Furman OLLI member.