The little town in upstate South Carolina, embraced by nearby Paris Mountain and the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, is intriguing by its name alone, Travelers Rest. It sits at the foot of the Appalachian Mountains, yet it is only a half-days journey from the Atlantic Ocean. This village has always been a place where travelers stopped. Situated on a crossroad of Cherokee trade trails, it became a rest stop for drovers moving their livestock over the mountains. Inns and rest camps developed, and the town of Travelers Rest grew around them. Scots-Irish settled the former Cherokee lands, and patriots were ceded land for Revolutionary War service. In 1887, the new railroad afforded access to factories and markets and improved transportation for tourists. Travelers Rest is proud of its history and eagerly looks forward to a thriving future built on a solid foundation of education, commerce, and community activities.
History of Travelers Rest, South Carolina: A Sense of Place is a comprehensive book of 16 chapters detailing the beginnings of the town in 1808 and covering the evolution of health services, postal services, utilities, media, recreation, entertainment, organizations, schools, churches, and businesses to the present day. Appendixes cover names of some of the first residents, participants in various wars, those recognized on historic lamp plaques around town, and those involved in city government over the years. The volume is well-referenced at the end of each chapter so that the reader may go to the citation to discover more information about various topics. Travelers Rest is nestled at the foot of Paris Mountain about ten miles north of Greenville, South Carolina and is embraced by the Blue Ridge Mountains and foothills nearby. People are immediately curious about a town called Travelers Rest when they see it on the map. It was built on an old Cherokee trading trail and represented a convenient stopping place for travelers from ancient times to stop and camp for the night before traversing the mountains or from having just crossed the mountains traveling south. Later, inns and stage stops evolved near this spot during pioneer days. Coastal families summered here to escape heat and malaria of southern plantations. From the days of stagecoach and train stops to the present, the town has welcomed travelers. Now, more than ever, Travelers Rest is becoming a bustling place that attracts people who desire to live in a small but vibrant town. With the Greenville Health System Swamp Rabbit Multi-Use Greenway Trail weaving through the city, Furman University within the city limits, and the development of exciting new restaurants, shops, festivals, and attractions, the city is becoming a destination spot for tourists, while maintaining its small town charm. The book relates 200 years of city growth, some characters and famous sons and daughters, while including heartwarming human interest stories and humorous tales that add spice to the narrative.
A chilling fable about a family marooned in a snowbound town whose grievous history intrudes on the dreamlike present. The Addisons -- Julia and Tonio, ten-year-old Dewey, and derelict Uncle Robbie -- are driving home, cross-country, after collecting Robbie from yet another trip to rehab. When a terrifying blizzard strikes outside the town of Good Night, Idaho, they seek refuge in the town at the Travelers Rest, a formerly opulent but now crumbling and eerie hotel where the physical laws of the universe are bent. Once inside the hotel, the family is separated. As Julia and Tonio drift through the maze of the hotel's spectral interiors, struggling to make sense of the building's alluring powers, Dewey ventures outward to a secret-filled diner across the street. Meanwhile, a desperate Robbie quickly succumbs to his old vices, drifting ever further from the ones who love him most. With each passing hour, dreams and memories blur, tearing a hole in the fabric of our perceived reality and leaving the Addisons in a ceaseless search for one another. At each turn a mysterious force prevents them from reuniting, until at last Julia is faced with an impossible choice. Can this mother save her family from the fate of becoming Souvenirs -- those citizens trapped forever in magnetic Good Night -- or, worse, from disappearing entirely? With the fearsome intensity of a ghost story, the magical spark of a fairy tale, and the emotional depth of the finest family sagas, Keith Lee Morris takes us on a journey beyond the realm of the known. Featuring prose as dizzyingly beautiful as the mystical world Morris creates, Travelers Rest is both a mind-altering meditation on the nature of consciousness and a heartbreaking story of a family on the brink of survival.
The little town in upstate South Carolina, embraced by nearby Paris Mountain and the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, is intriguing by its name alone, "Travelers Rest." It sits at the foot of the Appalachian Mountains, yet it is only a half-day's journey from the Atlantic Ocean. This village has always been a place where travelers stopped. Situated on a crossroad of Cherokee trade trails, it became a rest stop for drovers moving their livestock over the mountains. Inns and rest camps developed, and the town of Travelers Rest grew around them. Scots-Irish settled the former Cherokee lands, and patriots were ceded land for Revolutionary War service. In 1887, the new railroad afforded access to factories and markets and improved transportation for tourists. Travelers Rest is proud of its history and eagerly looks forward to a thriving future built on a solid foundation of education, commerce, and community activities.
Traveling US 25 through the Carolinas today is a much more pleasant experience than it was in the 1700s. Then, the road from the Tennessee Cherokee Towns to Augusta, Georgia, was a Cherokee trading path that followed a bison trace to the navigable port on the Savannah River. Drovers came from as far as Kentucky herding hogs, turkeys and mules. Lowcountry South Carolinians traveled by stagecoach and wagon to the foothills and mountains, staying for months. The Augusta Road, Saluda Gap and Buncombe Turnpike became the Dixie Highway Carolina Division and then US Route 25 by 1931. Authors Anne Peden and Jim Scott travel the trading path and concrete highway to explore this fascinating history.
