Category Archives: News
Six Mile to come alive with annual Issaqueena Festival this Saturday
SIX MILE — The annual Issaqueena Festival is planned for this Saturday in downtown Six Mile.
Main Street will be closed from Liberty Highway to Six Mile Baptist Church during the festival, which will run from 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m.
The festival will feature free inflatables and other activities for children, a car show, plenty of food options, arts and craft vendors, , live music and dancing.
Issaqueena’s Flight for the Fight 10K, 5K and 1/2-mile fun run will kick off the day at Ponderosa Park, with proceeds going to benefit breast cancer prevention and research through Dabo’s All In Foundation. For more information, visit https://runsignup.com/Race/SC/SixMile/FFTF.
The festivities downtown will begin at 9:30 a.m. with welcoming remarks from Six Mile mayor Roy Stoddard.
Six Mile Baptist Church will host the annual car show from 9:30 a.m.-noon. Entry fees for the car show are $20, with all proceeds going to a local food bank. For more information on the car show, call Donny at (864) 569-3401.
Other entertainment scheduled throughout the day include Rob Seel from 10-10:45 a.m., the Hot Foot Cloggers from 11-11:45 a.m., the Sweet Potato Pie Kids from noon-12:45 p.m., car show announcements from 12:45-1 p.m., Christian pop from the Kings of Old from 1-1:45 p.m., Break from 1:45-3 p.m. and Rendition from 3-3:45 p.m.
For more information, call (864) 868-2653, visit sixmilesc.org or find the Six Mile Issaqueena Festival page on Facebook
‘A gratitude crisis’
UN ambassador urges Clemson grads to pay it forward
Haley presented with honorary doctorate
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
CLEMSON — U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley urged a group of Clemson University graduates last week to live lives of “active gratitude.”
The former South Carolina governor spoke to graduates of the College of Business and College of Education Thursday afternoon.
“It’s a great day at Clemson University and it’s a great day in South Carolina,” Haley said, recalling the catchphrase she ordered state government agency employees to use when answering phones during her first term as governor in 2011.
Haley graduated from Clemson in 1994 with a degree in accounting.
“Aside from my parents, Clemson is what has shaped my life the
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Confederate Memorial Day event planned
PICKENS — For the 115th year, the traditional Confederate Memorial Day will be celebrated this Saturday, May 19, on the grounds of the 
historic Hagood-Mauldin House at 104 N. Lewis St. in Pickens.
Sponsored by the Pickens County Historical Society and the Sons of Confederate Veterans camps of Pickens County, the event will begin at 11 a.m. The featured speaker will be historian Rossy Meadows of the Confederate Museum and Library in Greenville.
The public is invited to attend the educational and historical event. The museum house and gardens will be open for tours from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
For more information, call (864) 878-1322 or email pickenscohistory@gmail.com.
Response to new magnet schools called ‘fantastic’
By Greg Oliver
Courtesy The Journal
goliver@upstatetoday.com
COUNTY — School District of Pickens County spokesman John Eby could hardly contain his enthusiasm when describing the response by parents to enrolling children in the district’s first two magnet schools, 
set to open in the fall.
“Response to magnet schools has been fantastic,” Eby said. “The target was to recruit 50 to each one the first year, and we already have more applications for each. We’re at 100 for McKissick Elementary School and 75 at Central. The response has been great and strong. The biggest surprise is we’ve seen kids pulled from all over the county drawn to the theme.”
Last fall, the school district announced that Central Elementary School and McKissick Elementary School were approved by trustees as theme-based magnet
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Central senior center to get new life this year
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
CENTRAL — Officials hope to use the former Seniors Unlimited building in Central for a number of programs benefiting senior
citizens, including Meals on Wheels.
During a May 7 meeting, Pickens County Council members approved the third and final reading of an ordinance turning over the senior center building, located at 120 Commons Way, to the town of Central.
The county had been leasing the building to Central.
Central will pay the county $10 for the building, according to the
purposes, it will revert back to the county.
Central assistant administrator Tom Cloer spoke before county council
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New county museum exhibit a result of journey in friendship
PICKENS — As you travel through life, you never know of the people you meet, which ones will become your lifelong friends. Usually only one or two take that journey with you.
Joy Spirithawk Evans and Rhonda Stanford-Zahn have been supporting and inspiring each other’s creative endeavors for 30 or more years, even though Joy lives in northern Pickens County and Rhonda lives in northern New York.
A new series on exhibition at the Pickens County Museum of Art and History — called “Chrome, Rubber and Rust” — was inspired by a trip Stanford-Zahn took to visit her longtime friend.
During the visit, they went riding around Pickens County taking
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Encounters with Venomous Snakes of Southern Appalachia
By Dr. Thomas Cloer, Jr.
Special to The Courier
There is something about venomous snakes that makes almost everyone shudder. I have never been able to pinpoint what that variable is. Is it because of the Genesis story in the Bible, or the fact that pain and death are possibly so close? I only know that I, personally, still have that feeling, especially when a rattlesnake is involved.
Encounters with Rattlers on Stinking Creek
In 1959, my dad announced that the big steam sawmill that the Cloers 
operated would be leaving the North Georgia mountains, which my brother, Nat, and I had known as home throughout the 1950s. We were moving to the high East Tennessee mountains and a place called Stinking Creek. The creek had been named after a horrifically cold winter in the late 1700s, when the livestock had all died and frozen along the creek. The spring thaw then
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Party for a cause
Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative hosted its 21st annual Blue Ridge Fest at its headquarters in Pickens on Friday, bringing thousands of people 
from around the Upstate together for a night of classic music, classic cars, food and dancing to raise money for charity, headlined by a performance by The Spinners and highlighted by a visit from S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster. McMaster presented former Blue Ridge president and CEO Charles Dalton with the Blue Ridge Fest Founder’s Award, which will in the future be known as the Blue Ridge Fest Charles E. Dalton Founder’s Award. To see more photos, visit Facebook.com/PickensCountyCourier. Photos by Rocky Nimmons and Kerry Gilstrap
PCSO: No sign of crime in fire
By Greg Oliver
Courtesy The Journal
goliver@upstatetoday.com
CENTRAL — The Pickens County Sheriff’s Office investigation into a fire that destroyed a home near Central last week didn’t show any 
evidence of wrongdoing.
Chief deputy Creed Hashe said the sheriff’s office responded to the scene when the fire was first reported around noon May 1 at the house on Merck Road off Maw Bridge Road. Hashe said a request was made for the sheriff’s office to investigate.
“The request was based on the observations made by the first responder from the fire service that observed a man in possession of a
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County council honors state wrestling champ
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
PICKENS — Pickens County Council honored a standout athlete Monday night.
Liberty High School’s Cole Murphy won his fourth straight Class 2A state championship in wrestling this year. The championship was held at the Anderson Civic Center in February.
“You timed this just right, as you could be a part of the 150-year
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