Vital Signs

Visitors from around the world will soon be able to peer into the indigenous past at the Hagood Creek Petroglyph Site in Pickens County, South Carolina, which opened in September.

Those searching for physical clues about the lives of previous generations find plenty of evidence at the Hagood Mill, a campus that houses a cabin built in 1791 and a still-functioning gristmill erected in 1845—an early addition to the selective National Register of Historic Places. Yet, the most ancient features at Hagood are estimated to be hundreds of years older, even, than these early American structures.

In 2003, several faint figures presented themselves to two researchers in the midst of a ten-year survey of South Carolina for ancient rock carvings. Two hundred feet upstream from the old mill, the survey’s most significant find emerged on a 30-foot-long boulder as it glistened in a January rain. In total, then state archaeologist Tommy Charles and his team discovered 40 Native American petroglyphs, including 17 human stick figures. Obscured by hundreds or possibly even thousands of years of natural erosive forces, some of the figures are visible from a short distance, while others require lighting from an angle to be coaxed into view. The relics are thought to be between 1,000 and 2,000 years old. 

According to Charles, the human figures represent all but two that have been recorded in South Carolina. Hagood Mill is the only petroglyph site in South Carolina located on publicly owned property and accessible to all citizens.

The Hagood Creek Petroglyph Site is a two-room, barn-like structure constructed directly over the mill site’s petroglyphs for their permanent protection and display. One room houses the rock and viewing platform, with artifacts, photographs, and displays from the South Carolina Rock Art Survey in the other. Now retired, Charles serves as the narrator of a recorded program that all visitors will hear, offering descriptions and stories to accompany the figures. Around the petroglyph center, the county has planted a garden of plants that the Cherokee and other early settlers used for medicines, dyes, cooking, and to make baskets.

The Hagood Mill Historic Site & Folklife Center is much more than a history museum. The campus and its varied activities offer something for everyone, earning the site a reputation as a true     recreation destination and community gathering place. The centerpiece, naturally, is the 1845 gristmill, which continues to operate once a month during the mill’s third Saturday festivals, producing cornmeal, grits, rice flour, and other staples available for purchase. Once the mill’s aging water wheel is repaired, Hagood Mill hopes to operate more often.

“There was a time when there were over 60 gristmills here in Pickens County, which just shows how important that was,” says Helen Hockwalt, tourism and marketing director for Pickens County. “Today, there are only three of those mills left in Pickens County, and only one still makes cornmeal and grits.” The Hagood Mill operated commercially until 1966. Visitors can go inside the mill and observe the entire process.

The campus also features two restored log cabins, a blacksmith shop, cotton gin, moonshine still, a gift shop, and nature trails. Classes and other special events take place, including the third Saturday festivals featuring musical performances and demonstrations of hearth cooking, metalworking, quilting, pottery, and other heritage traditions and arts. 

Anyone is encouraged to bring an instrument and jam with musicians. Others come to exercise on the trails or enjoy a picnic under the trees. “We want people to feel welcome when they come to Hagood Mill—to step back in time and relax,” says Hockwalt. “It’s been a special place throughout history, and it continues to be so.”

The Hagood Mill is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and is located at 138 Hagood Mill Road in Pickens, S.C. The Petroglyph Site is open three days a week, on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Parking costs $5 per vehicle. Guided tours are available by appointment. For more information, call 864.898.2936 or 864.898.5963 or visit www.co.pickens.sc.us/culturalcommission/hagoodmill/default.aspx.