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.

Nation's first gold strike - in North Carolina?

Little Meadow Creek. Photo by Judy Wells.

We've heard of Sutter's Mill in California, but Little Meadow Creek in Midland, ten miles or so from Charlotte, N.C.?

Probably not, but it was the site of America's first gold strike.

On a spring Sunday in 1799, while their parents were at church, the three children of John Reed and his wife were down at the creek bow and arrow fishing.  Conrad, 12, found a 17-pound shiny rock and brought it home. No one knew what it was so it became a door stop until John took it to a Fayetteville jeweler. He asked $3.50 for the 17-pound gold nugget worth about $3,500, the first ever found in the new country.

The trickle, not yet a rush. that came with the discovery of a 28-pound nugget, was on.

Fruit and chocolate crepe at Irene Cafe. YUMMM.

Having already struck edible gold at the tiny, chummy Irene Cafe, where charming Chef Kidane Sayfou turns out superb Brittany-style crepes, we headed out to Reed Gold Mine.

Reed Gold Mine museum. Photo by Judy Wells.

Today there it is a state historic site with a free museum, mine tour and gold panning (at $3 a pan). Kids love the panning - it takes about 20 minutes to go through a pan - and they will probably be thrilled with the tiny flakes usually found.

When it's about gold even kids will pay attention. Photo by Judy Wells.

No one knows how much gold was actually panned and mined here and in the more than 12 NC counties where gold was found. Much of it disappeared into jewelry and private transactions, but there was enough to establish a federal mint in Charlotte where more than $4 million in gold was deposited over the next 20 years.

The last large nugget - nearly 23 pounds worth- was found in 1896 but by 1912 the last mine closed.

The Good Girls, Debi and Judy, at it again.

As usual, we had fun with hats before heading on to Lexington, barbecue capital of the country, for #swinewinedine tour.