Table Rock State Park is a park at the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains in northern Pickens County, South Carolina. The park includes Pinnacle Mountain, the tallest mountain totally within the state..

Park Features

The park features a lodge built by the

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government unemployment, work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a ...

(CCC) that includes a kitchen and a 72-seat dining room. There are two park lakes that accommodate seasonal swimming and hiking trails that lead to Mill Creek Falls, the Pinnacle Mountain summit (two routes), and Table Rock summit. A nature center offers educational programs, and there are picnic shelters and a playground.

Trails

The Carrick Creek Nature Trail loops around two creeks with small cascades and waterfalls and displays wildflowers in season. The Table Rock Summit Trail is moderately strenuous, rising above the trailhead and includes a shelter built by the CCC. At approximately , the trail forks, the left fork following a ridge trail to Pinnacle Mountain and the right fork to the summit at . The trail ends at an overlook with a view of Table Rock Reservoir and Caesars Head.. The park is the eastern trailhead of the Foothills Trail through the Blue Ridge Escarpment. WaterFallsTableRockStatePark

History

Prior to the signing of the Hopewell Treaty of 1785, the land now encompassed by Table Rock State Park was part of the Lower

Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, th ...

Nation. The Cherokee called the area, "Sah-ka-na-ga," the Great Blue Hills of God, and they established many hunting camps in the area.Table Rock State Park sign (May 30, 2009). According to folklore, Table Rock Mountain received its name from a Cherokee legend in which the flat-topped mountain served as a table from which the Great Spirit ate his meals. Europeans moved into the

Oolenoy River The Oolenoy River is a minor tributary of the Saluda River sourced near Sassafras Mountain in northern Pickens County, South Carolina. Approximately 37 miles in length, it empties into the South Fork Saluda River near the Pumpkintown, South Carolin ...

Valley soon after the signing of the Hopewell Treaty, settling at Pumpkintown—named for the unusually large pumpkins grown there. William Sutherland and James Keith operated a wayside lodge for visitors and in 1845, they built the twenty-room Table Rock Hotel, which prospered until the Civil War. Visitors increased again after Reconstruction, and Stephen Keith reopened the Table Rock Hotel. In 1899, Keith's family built a new hotel on a new location on the mountain but by 1912 had abandoned it.

Table Rock State Park Historic District

In 1935 approximately of land was donated to the state of South Carolina by Pickens County and the city of Greenville. The park was created in the 1930s, first by two companies of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

veterans employed by the

. The veterans were apparently too old for the strenuous labor necessary to build a dam and otherwise work in mountainous terrain, and in 1936, they were replaced by two junior CCC companies. One of these two companies (5466) constructed a concrete dam and spillway to create the twenty-three acre Pinnacle Lake. The other (5465) built miles of trails, roads, a bathhouse, a concessions building, fish-rearing pools, eight cabins, picnic shelters, and houses for the park superintendent and warden. Most notable was a lodge constructed of logs, an L-shaped building with a great hall on the main level and a dining hall, sun porch, and kitchen on the basement level. The CCC also landscaped the park using natural vegetation from the Pinnacle Lake bed. The park opened to the public with a ceremony on April 4, 1938.Mielnik, 133-35. The Table Rock State Park Historic District is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1989. Also listed in 1989 were the related Civilian Conservation Corps Quarry No. 1 and Truck Trail, Civilian Conservation Corps Quarry No. 2, Roper House Complex and Table Rock Civilian Conservation Corps Camp Site. It is also a South Carolina Heritage Trust Site. TableRockMountain+

References

External links

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Table Rock State Park
- official site {{authority control State parks of South Carolina State parks of the Appalachians Civilian Conservation Corps in South Carolina Protected areas of Pickens County, South Carolina Nature centers in South Carolina National Register of Historic Places in Pickens County, South Carolina Pickens, South Carolina Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina