LEXINGTON WAS ONCE A "DESERT", REALLY!

The area in and around Lexington is rich in many things including history but it was not rich in one important thing, soil.

Big Pond Branch Historical Research Society, www.facebook.com/bpbhrs has many projects underway but none as significant as an ongoing project to understand the land in the area. Lexington rests in the oldest geological part of the state dating back 65,000,000 years (that’s a lot of zeros). The ground that inhabitants walk on today is filled with signs of ancient life forms and civilizations. Understanding the land helps us to understand the earliest Euro-American settlements like Ft. Congaree which was strategically located because of ancient paths that were strategically located because of natural features and resources and proximity to other ancient settlements. Get the picture?

The area in and around Lexington was once known as “Saluda Desert”. Millions of years ago, the receding waters left large sand deposits at these special geographical points. The rivers and streams that formed around this area often had minerals and nutrients that washed down from the mountains and up from the earth’s crust to make lands along the rivers and streams fertile. These rivers and streams carved out their routes, leaving  a vast region of poor “growing”, sandy soil.

The Saluda Desert was a large area stretching in an odd shaped north and west towards  the Cherokees and  towards the Catawbas and south to just below the Orangeburgh scarp and over beyond the rivers to the south and east. Early settlers and plantation owners like Andrew Williamson of Hard Labor (White Hall Plantation) in the Abbeville District became well known for growing peaches and berries while other settlers in the area to the south became known for growing cotton and berries and peaches. These were things that grew in the "desert".

For Native Americans this area held more meaningful significance because the geography of this land created by the  unique geology held meaningful land and water forms like Peachtree Rock, The Indian Head and Healing Springs. There were excellent fresh water sources and large animals like buffalo roamed in and around the scattered ancient pine forests. This land was very different from the rocky and hilly land toward the Cherokees and the flatter more fertile lands toward the coast  Native Americans settled along the creeks and near the forest because there they found small patches of fertile land ideal for planting corn and there were ample fish and deer. With its poor soil the area in and around the Saluda Desert was of less value to most people because it was hard to “grow” in. It also had these low and swampy areas that were less desirable to live in for most people.

The term “desert” seemed to transcend a description of the physical land and become a term to describe a land less desired. This area would play an important role in South Carolina history because of one political family dynasty, The Bull Family of South Carolina. For more on this topic, please email Big Pond Branch Historical Research Society at BPBHRS@gmail.com or visit us at www.facebook.com/bpbhrs .  

LEXINGTON! THIS IS YOUR HISTORY!