Very cool urban "archaeological" find...nobody but locals "in the know" seem to be aware it's even…read morethere! Found out about it from the very nice & informative bartender at Dust Off Brewing (check out doing to the YoCo Brew Trail; check into 6 breweries on the app & get a t-shirt). He couldn't quite remember how to get to it, but after some intensive research, found the geo coordinates. That was honestly the only way to find this place, plus a little guts & guesswork. You can quasi see some portion of the rockwork of the ruinous remains from the paved Riverwalk trail. The "easiest" way to get to the ruins is to follow the Riverwalk Piedmont Medical Center Trail to just before mile marker 1.25; you will see this steep wooden thing with awkwardly placed planks. You basically have to rock-wall climb your way up. From there you are on a mountain biking trail. Follow the arrows for just over a quarter mile and you will see some indicators of the ruins before they open up in front of you. You will most likely have the place to yourself. Really cool to wander around and take it all in. Just be careful with holes and don't walk on or within the actual ruins as they are pretty sketch & unsteady. There are spiders, snakes, and flying insects galore, so put on repellent and stay vigilant cuz it is deep woods! You can either get back down the way you came; I found this gray rock slope that I found easier to navigate than sliding down the wood thing I climbed up. Either way, really neat find and I'm so glad I explored to find it! The paved walkway along the Catawba is also a nice walk to and from!

This is a great group of people to be affiliated with, the group is completely dedicated to…read morepreserving history and keeping the memory of our ancestors alive.

With much anticipation I attempted to join since I value my confederate ancestry. I contacted the…read morelocal chapter with no response, so I sent my initiation check and application form to the national headquarters months ago. No response. I did get help with my ancestor's lineage and war record. This info was worth the $35.00.

While on my small Yelping tour today I decided to visit this cemetery. I had received information…read morefrom a good source that a person I knew from the past was interned here. There are 216 documented gravesites at this location. I spent a considerable amount of time trying to locate this person to no avail. At any rate this cemetery is in near perfect condition and has been well maintained.

Murray's Mill is easy to find from I-40. The gristmill was built in 1913 and the Murray & Minges…read morestore from the 1890s is also open. When you arrive, find a spot to park on either side of the street. Then go into the Murray & Minges General Store to pay for your self-guided tour. You will receive a binder to read through of the history and photos of the equipment and what it does. You can tour all three levels of the mill as there are stairs to the top floor and stairs to the basement. The mill used the barter system to grind wheat and corn. The water wheel is 28 foot high and 4 foot wide. the buckets on it have rusted so they are raising money for the needed repairs. The water wheel is attached by a shaft to a gear on the wall and powers everything in the mill except the lights. The mill is still operational and grinds on the 3rd Sunday of the month when it is warm enough. The stones weigh 2400 pounds and were used to cut corn and wheat. Leather belts were used and were pieced together to make them long enough. They could make 300 pounds of flour an hour which was much less than what modern mills could produce. 10 sets of pins are needed to make flour and roller mills are used to crush the wheat. Each screen has an elevator and each set basically sifts the flour to get it to where it needs to be. Making flour creates a white dust and that dust is explosive. If you are looking for a historic mill to visit this one is a great one to visit and learn how the mill operated.

A fun historical site, preserved so well & well worth the $7. Remarkable how industrious & sharp…read morethis family was. From a time when attention to detail was valued, all the chutes are made of wood with beveled edges & beadwork because...some of it is furniture quality. Pay your way & get the 3-ring binder of pics/info & step back in time. This is the heartbeat of America. "1965-1966 - Lloyd & brother Ernest run the milling operation by themselves to cut cost. In 1966 Lloyd let Ernest go & ran the whole mill on his own. Ernest went to work for Southern Furniture. 1967 - The mill closes due to government taxing. In 1964, the federal government levied a grain tariff that heavily taxed corn & wheat. Small mills were put out of business by larger industrial mills. Lloyd Murray had been working by himself for the last year, he locked up the mill & went home for the last time. He goes to work for Pinnacle Furniture Company. 1980/81 - With help from NC Preservation Fund & Stewart Family, the Catawba County Historical Assoc. purchases Murray's Mill, the General Store, & the Wheathouse for $68,000. 1982 - John Murray dies one month shy of his 105* birthday. At the time he had 10 children, 20 grandchildren, 28 great-grandchildren, & 3 great-great-grandchildren. 1986 - Murray & Minges General Store reopens to the public. 1988, April 30 - Murray's Mill reopens to the public after a $2M restoration". That's just a taste of the recent info, go get a history lesson...wheel is still in the process of being replaced

The Peachoid is a water tower in Gaffney, South Carolina. It's 135 feet high and has one million…read moreU.S. gallons of water! People call if "The Peach." It's around exits 90 and 92 off I-85.

I was clued in somewhat wryly by a Gaffney native that this is the thing to see in the area. It is…read moreindeed a water tower that looks like a peach. Given the way it's angled, the leaf at the top is hard to see, and from the angles you'd likely be looking at it from, you might think it looks like something other than a peach. There is a restaurant next door which as of this writing is defunct. There's not much else nearby, but the couple of parking spots and small park set up around the peachoid make it clear that it's here to be visited. There are a few fruit trees, including some peaches, though the fruit appeared to have a high rate of getting hit by various blights. Natural part of a tropical climate I guess, but not an inspiring sight.

We took a tour of the Moore Plantation today and loved it. Our guide, Kevin, was very informative…read more The house isn't big and some parts you can't go into due to safety issues, but it was well worth the time and money to see it. Not all out buildings are original, but they are reproductions to what the originals were. This is a pleasant hidden gem and a part of American history. We would go back and bring friends and family with us so they can see what people went through back in the late 1700's.

A National Treasure and a South Carolina gem, this 1765 plantation is set in an idyllic location…read moreminutes from Spartanburg. I planned my visit there, but most of the visitors seemed to have stopped in spur-of-the-moment while traveling through the area. Most plantations available for tours are mid-1800s and grand, but this modest home dates back to 1765, its inhabitants playing key roles in the Revolutionary War. The guided tour takes close to an hour, and the guide went in depth and detail describing the implements used on a daily basis during colonial times on the plantation. Most of the outbuildings on the property are replicas, but at least two of them are vintage. The furniture and decor in the house is made up of a combination of period pieces and very well-made replicas. The up-close detail you can view on the home reveals just how amazing it is that the structure is still there! A nice trail takes you to the family cemetery about a quarter mile from the house. The grounds are picturesque and the outbuildings are in close proximity to the house.

Great venue, organizers did a fantastic job reenactor did a great job portraying local militia and…read morethe burning of the baggage shows how desperate the British were.

Revolutionary War battle site featuring original cabins, a mass grave and a beautiful .3 mile loop…read morewalking trail. Very peaceful and educational.

Being born and raised in SoCal this was a cool place to stop. My friend who recently moved nearby…read morefrom California had seen the sign to this place but hadn't had the chance to visit yet. So off to the bridge we go. It was not far from the freeway. We were the only ones in the park on this overcast, hot and humid day. We weren't sure how far we had to hike to the bridge and the map at the kiosk was a bit faded so it made it difficult to figure out. After doing one loop we looked at the map and went the opposite direction. Thankfully there wasn't much bug activity going on. Not sure if it's because put on bug repellent on before our trek. Anyway, we found it! It wasn't even a mile to the bridge. We were glad we didn't give up and made it to this cool bridge. It's historic and also one of the last covered bridges in NC. It's beautiful here, plenty of lush trees. The have signs and info along the path. My friend said that schools plan field trips to visit here. The bridge is sadly covered with graffiti but if you can look past that you will see the beauty of the bridge and imagine yourself in the time it was built. There is quite a few parking spaces and a covered seating area. It's worth stopping to check out.

Has to make a trek out to Bunker Hills Covered Bridge one afternoon recently, to enjoy the fall day…read moreand see on of the last and few remaining covered truss bridges left. Built in 1894 and covered in 1900, this one hundred plus year old landmark sits quietly off in the distance on an off beaten path. There is paved parking close but you must walk in a short distance to see the actual structure. Its covered in graffiti now but still standing, strong timbers and heavy wood beams with a heavy wooden two runner lane path. Its not in service any longer but is still walkable. We stopped and admired this century plus old bridge and then took a slow stroll across it, thinking about all the people from eras long ago that had walked before where we were walking. A Solid 4 Stars - Worth the effort and journey, if you like history, old bridges or unique structures and architecture 01171

This is a fairly remote site, and the roads were not in good condition when I arrived, with a…read morebridge out to the north that would require a major detour. The site itself had a history that wasn't quite what I expected; after its days as a working plantation, it was rented to sharecroppers for many years before the area was bought by the National Forest Service and a large number of trees were planted with the intent to create a new forest (a success, by the looks of things), and the site of this mansion was later made into a park. Wandering around the site was free; a guided tour of the mansion itself did cost some money. The site was the home of a governor shortly before the Civil War, so the focus is on Civil War history. I had the run of the place given the frigid weather, and I found the historical context interesting, though there seemed to be a lot of gaps in recorded history and a lot of speculation in the responses I got. Nonetheless, you'd still get an interesting and nuanced picture even with the uncertainty. There were some small trails, but I didn't quite make it to the river. Without the tour, there wasn't really enough to be worth driving an hour or more to get here (and I was puzzled that some people apparently left without seeing the mansion). It wasn't the best SC park I've been to, but they've all been interesting.

Got a tour of the mansion from Nate - he was a great guide. Very knowledgeable, eager to answer my…read morequestions. This site is on the smaller side of other plantations I've visited. With the tour, you could walk and see the whole of the grounds within 1.5, 2hrs. I've never been disappointed with a SC Parks employee-led tour. It's worth buying the state parks annual pass if you're into history, want to support the parks, and take advantage of all the tours included in the annual pass.

The employee who did our tour was very knowledgeable. And it was only $4. So just do it. I love…read morevisiting different historical places and learning about the times before. It's not a huge place but held a great deal of information. Definitely worth stopping in if you're in the area.

Being from the west coast, I don't get to see many historic places. So I look forward to my annual…read morevisit to the Chartlotte area where I can go a bit further back into US history. On my latest visit, I made my way to the James K. Polk State Historic Site. The site on which it is believed that President Polk was born. There is a museum inside and recreations of period cabins outside. Also a garden and interpretive signs telling a bit about the plants that can be seen around the museum grounds. This is a free site for the most part though you can opt for a guided tour that takes you into the buildings if you are so inclined. I was there late in the day and not long before closing so the tour was no longer being offered. It was still cool to walk around and see the grounds. History doesn't quite come alive here but it becomes more tangible.