Tales from the South Carolina Upstate: Where the Cotton and Peaches Grow

Far from the sweltering heat of South Carolina’s storied Lowcountry—setting of author Nancy Rhyne’s best-selling 2006 novel Edisto Island—lies the rugged Upstate region. It is a classic setting, replete with enchanted forests, natural waterfalls, mineral springs, fresh air, farm stands, caves, illicit stills and lakes that make fishing as much fun as catching. Sprinkled in the less mountainous zones are towers of inspiration, such as the Shriners Hospital for Children in Greenville, Spartanburg’s institutions of learning, Walhalla’s cloggers and Gaffney’s Peachoid. Using oral history excerpts compiled by the Depression-era Federal Writers’ Project, Nancy Rhyne chronicles the natural and human history of this spectacular area.