Image by Brian Scott, via hmdb.org
In honor of Halloween here is a marker for Pumpkintown, a crossroads in old Pendleton District (now Pickens County), nestled in the Oolenoy River Valley. Valley lore holds that cattle traders on the road to the old river port of Hamburg (near present-day North Augusta on the Savannah River) named the crossroads after the fields of yellow pumpkins that grew large in the fertile river bottoms. If you look at the map from the Mills Atlas (1825) you will notice that “Pumpkintown” was located right next to “Potatoe Hill” so somebody clearly had food on the brain.
South Carolina Historical Markers 