Camden, SC, is a jumping place

Camden, the first inland city founded (1732) in the state, is my kind of town. Gracious homes, many of them antebellum, sit regally on large, heavily-treed lots, and signs of horse culture are everywhere.

A horse-lover since birth, my nose twitched happily at the familiar aroma  of leather and hay and my eyes spied the signs from horse-fenced pastures to the ones warning riders that horses are not allowed on the sidewalks.

Suzi Sale, tourism development director for Camden, filled us in on some of the city's history. Camden was on the Catawba trade path and King Haigler, whose face we had seen on Catawba pottery, is considered its patron saint for all the help he gave early residents.

The town had a large British presence, including General Cornwallis,  and the Battle of Camden (August 1780) was one of the patriots' biggest losses. The next confrontation a year later, the Battle of Hobkirk's Hill, although a loss for the Patriots, prompted the British to abandon the city.

Bloomsbury House, built between 1849 and 1854 by South Carolina's third-richest man for his daughter, is now the Bloomsbury Inn, a bed and breakfast.

During the Civil War, Sherman's troops didn't go through Camden, sparing its homes for future generations.

Today, the invasion is of equine enthusiasts who swell the town's population by 10,000 February through April for the Carolina Cup steeplechase in March (March 28, 2015) then return for the Marion du Pont Scott Colonial Cup in November (Nov. 15, 2014) at Springdale Race Course.

Between those, the Camden Training Center and the South Carolina Equine Center, Suzi said there's an equine event of some sort every weekend year-round with the season running late September through May.

A life-sized statue of Lonesome Glory, five-time Horse of the Year, fronts The National The Steeplechase Museum .

It made sense to locate The National Steeplechase Museum, the only one in the country, in the Steeplechase Capital of the world so that's where we headed next.

Colors of Mrs. George M. Sensor, owner of 2014 Carolina Cup winner Top Striker.

Colors of Gregory D. Hawkins, owner of 2013 Colonial Cup winner Alajmal.

At the entrance of the Camden cottage-style building  you encounter two lawn jockeys painted in the colors of the most recent winners of the Carolina and Colonial Cups races.

Inside, if you're lucky, you meet Hope Cooper, executive director.

Hope gave us a tour of the museum and information about steeplechasing, which, like all other forms of racing, began when one owner turned to another and said, "Mine is faster than yours."

In Ireland and England during the 17th century, church steeples were the most easily points for starts and finishes. Racers had to negotiate any obstacles - walls, hedges, creeks - in between and the steeplechase was born. When the numbers of proud horsemen grew, courses were laid on which more than two horses at a time could race and the sport as we know it today was formed. By the mid 19th century race meets were being held along America's East coast.

Scene from The Grand National by Paul Brown.

Since 1927, steeplechase racing has been a highlight of life in Camden; the museum is adjacent to Springdale Race Course. Today there are two divisions, steeplechases with wooden rail jumps and those with brush jumps like large hedges. The Carolina Cup falls in the latter category. Races are 2 to 2 1/2 miles in length with 12 to 17 fences and last about 4 minutes.

Steeplechase riders weigh in at around 130 pounds compared to flat race jocks at 112 pounds. Most are from England and Ireland; only one American rider was on last year's card. Unlike Thoroughbreds that race at 2, steeplechasers aren't allowed to race until the age of 3, giving legs an extra year to strengthen for the jumping efforts.

Winners' silks and trophies.

Purses are smaller and oh, in South Carolina there is no pari mutual wagering, putting steeplechasing more on the level of a sport than a business.

Jockey silks surround the second floor cupola.

The museum is spacious and airy with silks of winning owners displayed around the second story cupola. Winners' plates and trophies fill niches, paintings and photographs of influential participants and famous horses on the walls.

Spacious and interesting.

In the library are 19 originals of England's The Grand National, the pinnacle of steeplechase races, by famed equine illustrator Paul Brown.

It wasn't the time for Judy to get in the saddle.

A favorite is the "trainer," a mechanical horse tacked with a race saddle that visitors can mount and see just how strong a jockey has to be.

Hope Cooper shows Debi the proper racing form.

Debi was laughing but admitted it was a lot harder than she expected.

I was dying to try it but with a slippy hip and knee-immobilizing brace, Debi had to do the honors. Yet another "next time".

Springdale Race Course grounds.

Walk out to the patio and you can see the grounds of Springdale Race Course. Makes you want to sit, relax and wait for the next race.

Historic Brattonsville: From the American Revolution to Antebellum South

Historic Brattonsville is a 775-acre, internationally known historical site and living history museum in South Carolina. (Just the kind of place I love.) The number of visitors increased exponentially when the location was chosen for filming The Patriot, starring Mel Gibson. At Brattonsville, you not only step back in time, you leap into the emotional conflicts of war and slavery. Our interpreter, Dontavius Williams, was extraordinary. He guided us through many buildings on the site tracing the history of the Bratton family and the farm workers from the 1760's to the late 19th century. His tales are spell binding.  

Dontavius Williams welcomes visitors to Brattonsville.

First we stopped by the Visitor's Center and saw a movie about Huck's Defeat, a complex series of skirmishes that happened in this area during the Revolutionary War. The British militia had entered South Carolina's backwoods and local tradition states that Martha Bratton sent a trusted African-American slave named Watt to find her husband and warn him of the British. Captain Huck, a loyalist,  interrogated Martha, but she refused to give him any information. Watt's delivery of the message lead to the destruction of Huck’s Loyalist force. The victory helped revive the morale of the people in South Carolina just when British victory seemed inevitable. It served as a rallying point and set into motion a series of significant events which eventually led to the even larger Patriot victories, and finally to the British surrender at Yorktown in October 1781.

Historic Brattonsville includes a working farm and heritage breed animals. We stopped by the milk barn, hog pen, tool shed, smoke house, corn crib and the backwoods cabin. These are the kind of buildings children really love. We entered the original Bratton House, a log house with one room downstairs and one upstairs. The family soon opened a tavern nearby and later added the schoolhouse wing. All of these buildings are now grouped close together for ease of viewing.

Tavern and Schoolhouse

The formal Dining Room

We crossed the street and stepped into the impressive Homestead which was built between 1823-26 The Brattons were a wealthy, influential family and their home reflects their high social standing. One of the rooms was used by Dr. John Bratton for his medical practice. He is noted for treating hundreds of people, both black and white. Three of his sons also pursued medical careers. The grand dining room was set for a banquet and we just had to have our pictures taken there, as this room was shown in the movie.

The main Homestead at Brattonsville

The highlight of our tour came when we visited the slave house. Dontavius disappeared into the dwelling and when he reappeared, he had a new persona; he was Adam, a slave who worked on the property.  Adam told us the impassioned story of his mother and the spirit doll. He presented each of us with a similar doll and I will always cherish mine. We left with a better understanding of the sacrifices made by both slaves and their descendants.   

Dontavius at Adam

We hope you will take the time to watch the YouTube version of Adam's speech. He is moving.

More history plus disc-tossing in Chester County, SC

Once a jail, now a museum.

Another literal "throw you under the jail" jail is now the Chester County Historical Society Museum in Chester, SC. 

Here history goes back far beyond the arrival in 1750 of Scots-Irish settlers from Pennsylvania and Virginia. The Great Warrior Trading Path (aka Catawba Road, Warrior's path) passed over then hill on which Chester was built.

The Haigler pot on the left is one of only two known to exist with holes in the handle .

The Society's museum contains one of the finest collections of Native American projectile points, some dating back to 10,000 BCE, and superb pieces of Catawba pottery. According to our guide, Susannah Owl, a Catawba, married a chief of the Cherokee Nation and is credited with teaching them the Catawba method of firing pots.

The Revolutionary War battles and skirmished fought here were the first in which the Patriots used the Indian fighting methods and the first that were successful against the British forces.

You could spend hours pouring over the treasures here including

Stars and bars battle flags.

• A Confederate battle flag suggested by South Carolinians, the biggest star for South Carolina, of course.

the Burr bench doesn't look very comfortable for sleeping.

• The Aaron Burr bench, where traitor Burr slept when captured at the Lewis Inn.

• The enormous  (250,000 images) collection of photographs by second generation photographer Henry Nichols who documented everything Chester from 1918 to 1990, including the owner of Springs Cotton Mills who hired famed ecdysiast Gypsy Rose Lee as vice president of unveiling.

The building itself is worth a look. Constructed in 1914 of poured concrete a la Frank Lloyd Wright, it was the town's first building with indoor plumbing. The bold might venture down to the basement where prisoners were housed, described as "a veritable hallway of ghost people".

Might look around town, too. This is the last place the Confederate treasury's gold was ever seen.

Eager driver in search of a fire.

The Good Girls took a peek at the Transportation Museum in the old Seaboard Rail Road Depot. A work in progress, it does have the town's first fire engine - with Debi at the wheel during our visit.

Golf, anyone?

We finished the day with a quick look at Chester State Park which is known for its beautiful lake and its 18-hole and 9-hole tournament grade disc golf courses.

Judy

Naturally, we tried our hands at that tournament grade course.

Debi

No one would call us ready for prime time playing.