SOUTH CAROLINA: 26-mile Revolutionary War trail in SC will remember patriot path to Kings Mountain victory
CHEROKEE COUNTY — A 26-mile section of the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail in Cherokee County will be developed with federal funding.
Trails will stretch from Kings Mountain National Military Park through Blacksburg over the Broad River toward Gaffney and then connect to Chesnee.
A contractor will be selected this summer and construction should take about two years. Funding for the project includes a Federal Lands Access Program grant.
“The FLAP grant will take us one step closer to the day when people will be able to traverse across this land as was done in 1780, all the way to the Battle of Kings Mountain, to retrace the path and to experience it as one of the formative events of this nation,” said Jeff Ellison, Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail administrator.
The grant will be used to design and plan the trail in Cherokee County. Parts of the trail will have gravel and natural surfaces used in rural areas. Paul LeFrancois, a Limestone University professor of economics, said the preliminary grant awarded for the project is more than $1 million. Sections of the trail have already been developed in Cherokee County, including at Lake Whelchel.
Another section of the trail from Chesnee to Cowpens National Battlefield is under construction.
LeFrancois is coordinating development through partnerships with the National Park Service, Carolina Thread Trail, Gaffney Board of Public Works, Cherokee County Recreation District, city of Gaffney and the town of Blacksburg.
“This is a long-term project,” LeFrancois said. “We started planning this in the 1990s as a concept. Once we select a contractor, the project could start in the fall of this year.”
The Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail passes through Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and South Carolina for more than 300 miles. It was established in 1980.
The trail commemorates the patriot militia’s pursuit of Maj. Patrick Ferguson and his loyalist militia to Kings Mountain, where the patriots defeated loyalist forces on Oct. 7. 1780.
“The FLAP grant demonstrates how important this trail project is to our nation’s history,” Carolina Thread Trail Director Bret Baronak said. “It will also be meaningful for thousands of residents in the Carolinas, expanding access to nature in one of the most beautiful parts of the Piedmont.”
–postandcourier.com
