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Immersed in history
Third Saturdays at Hagood Mill in Pickens are festival days—a great time to watch the historic grist mill in action and learn from costumed interpreters how Upcountry South Carolinians lived in the 1800s.
Photo by Keith Phillips
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Mysterious figures
Some of the petroglyph figures at Hagood Mill appear to be placed inside structures or dwellings. The mystery behind the meaning of these structures is part of the appeal of this historic find.
Photo by Keith Phillips
A hundred and fifty years ago, this place was the community’s gathering spot, where you’d catch up on news of the day with neighbors while the local gristmill ground your corn or wheat into grits, meal or flour.
Today, it still is.
Every month, on the third Saturday, thousands of visitors gather for mini festivals at Hagood Mill Historic Site and Folk Center in Pickens, enjoying food, entertainment and a trip through Upstate history. Always, the centerpiece of activity is the water-powered, wooden gristmill, still churning out grits, meal and flour just as it has since 1845—the oldest such mill still operating in the state.
“When that thing was built, it was high technology at the time—you couldn’t get a more sophisticated mill than that,” says Billy Crawford, director of Hagood Mill Historic Site and Folk Center in Pickens County.
Visitors recognize the treasure in their midst—not just watching the giant waterwheel spin, but taking advantage of its output, be it cornmeal, buckwheat flour, smoked grits, or whatever the miller is grinding. “People line up—they treat the third Saturday as their day to stock up on mill products,” Crawford says.
Music—especially traditional old-time and bluegrass—is another big draw on Third Saturdays, when visitors bring blankets and lawn chairs to sit outside and listen to live performers. A new shelter will soon be built to keep the audience out of rain and hot sun, and new music genres sometimes share the stage with old favorites.
News is still being made at this historic site, whose primary function is preserving and telling the story of the settlers and Native Americans who carved out lives in the Upstate wilderness.
One of its newest features, the petroglyph site, is dedicated to the 2003 discovery of prehistoric carvings on a creek-side outcropping of rock. An air-conditioned building, opened in 2015, was built over the rock carvings to showcase and protect the remarkable find. Inside, ancient meets modern in an audiovisual tour of the petroglyphs, with multicolored lights highlighting the carvings of sticklike people and abstract figures, all defying attempts to explain their meaning. Most familiar is the one nicknamed “Refrigerator Man”—a rectangular body with head and legs sticking out—who serves as the site’s symbol.
Keep exploring the 18-acre historic site to discover hand-hewn log cabins dating back to 1791 and 1820. Here, volunteer living-history artisans demonstrate spinning, weaving, hearth cooking, chair caning, broom-making and other traditional homesteading skills on Third Saturdays. In the pottery shed and the blacksmith shop, which also houses an 1896 cotton gin and a moonshine still, skilled volunteers perform the tasks of providing your own tools and household needs in the 19th century.
“That’s the tradition we honor today, showing folks how people were living back then,” Crawford says.
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Get More
Hagood Mill Historic Site and Folk Center is located at 138 Hagood Mill Road, Pickens.
HOURS: The mill site and historic buildings are open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The petroglyph site is open Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Third Saturday festivals are held rain or shine.
FEES: No admission fee, but there is a $5 parking fee for Third Saturdays.
DETAILS: Visit visitpickenscounty.com or call (864) 898‑2936.
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Related story
Hagood Mill: Crafting a legacy – Watch the 2016 renovation of Hagood Mill’s historic waterwheel in this Pickens County Tourism video.