Category Archives: Lifestyles
‘Your community supports you’
Farm hosts appreciation dinner for local law enforcement officers
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
SUNSET — Pickens County law enforcement officers enjoyed a night out Saturday, thanks to local business Arabella Farm and corporate and community support.
Arabella Farm owner Ken Smith, his family and staff began planning a way to thank area law enforcement around four
months ago, he said.
Saturday evening, the wedding and event venue in Sunset hosted law enforcement members and their spouses for an appreciation dinner.
The idea for the dinner came after Smith and his wife, Sharon, were watching the news one day and saw how law enforcement were mischaracterized, he said.
Welcoming their guests to the venue, Smith shared a story from his childhood, when after buying candy for a friend, he realized he no longer
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Teamwork turns the corner on an insect invasion in South Carolina Lowcountry
Courtesy Clemson University
news@thepccourier.com
CHARLESTON — An aptly named invasive pest, the Asian longhorned beetle (ALB) snuck into South Carolina for the first time in 2020 and established a toehold in Lowcountry hardwood trees.
A toehold will be all the insect gets if a coalition of federal and state officials, local property owners and Clemson researchers has its way. The team has organized one of the Palmetto State’s largest and most coordinated responses to an invasive species, leading to a recently expanded quarantine of 76.4 square miles in Charleston County and a sliver of Dorchester.
“We feel pretty confident that the ALB is contained within the area,” said Steven Long, assistant director of Clemson
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SC banning sales of invasive Bradford pear, 3 other species
Courtesy Clemson University
news@thepccourier.com
CLEMSON — South Carolina will become only the second state in the United States — and the first in the Southeast — to 
ban the nursery sale of Bradford pear trees and any other pear trees grown on the
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Serving & learning
PICKENS — From June 14-18, 23 cadets from the Pickens High School JROTC program participated in the Junior Cadet Leadership Challenge.
Consistent with the JROTC mission to “motivate young people to be better citizens,” the cadets spent an intensive week
serving the community, improving their physical
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By Dr. Thomas Cloer, Jr. Special to The Courier
By Dr. Thomas Cloer, Jr.
Special to The Courier
Last week, we took a glimpse at the Keowee Valley in the early 1700s through the journal of Col. George Chicken. He was sent by British authorities to make sure the Cherokees of Keowee gave their allegiance to England. The French were trying to sway the Cherokees toward them. Both King Crow of the Cherokees and Col. Chicken spoke hyperbolically about the “beloved men of the English.” Col. Chicken wrote to his boss, Royal Governor Arthur Middleton, that the Cherokees were as glad to see him “as if I had come from above.” As with most foreign affairs, things can change.
In 1758, tensions grew between the Cherokees and Britain. The Cherokees took horses in Virginia that they allegedly
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Reflecting on the Keowee Valley area’s Native American heritage
Reflecting on the Keowee Valley area’s Native American heritage
By Dr. Thomas Cloer, Jr.
Special to The Courier
My mother’s name was Grace Moody Cloer. My maternal Moody ancestors came early to the Keowee, “Place of the
Mulberries.” My great-great-great-great-grandfather, Daniel Moody (Papa Daniel), and his son, Martin, bought land on the Toxaway River, Devils Fork, Crow Creek, Little River and along the Keowee River.
My Cherokee bloodline is through my great-grandmother Anna Laura Cloer. She was a namesake of her grandmother
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A day to celebrate
After the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the 2020 events, the long-awaited 2021 versions of the Pickens Azalea Festival and Issaqueena Festival in Six Mile went off without a hitch on Saturday, as beautiful weather made for large crowds at both annual spring celebrations. The festivals featured food, music, rides, arts and craft vendors and more fun for the whole family. Photos by Rocky Nimmons and Kerry Gilstrap
The pioneers of Pickens County
By Dr. Thomas Cloer, Jr.
Special to The Courier
For the last two weeks, we have focused on the battle for civil rights nationally in the USA. Now we want to focus more on Pickens County. We obviously can’t focus on all the civil rights leaders. Again, I will focus on some of the pioneers whom I remember.
I entered Clemson University in the 1960s, beginning my work on a masters degree. There had been a young African-American, Harvey Gantt, who had been admitted after suing Clemson, and after having become the first African-American enrolled at a previously all-white institution in South Carolina.
Harvey Gantt: Activist, Pioneer, Architect, Mayor
Harvey Gantt was born in Charleston, where his father was employed at a shipyard. Harvey’s father was active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the 
family discussed discrimination and civil rights openly
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Seeds of Change
By Dr. Thomas Cloer, Jr.
Special to The Courier
For celebrating Black History Month, I would like to focus nationally and locally on some pioneers who pushed forward in the nation and in Pickens County when we all were broadening our understanding. Firrst, I need to set the stage by presenting some of the most critical happenings in America that brought on such incredible change.
Brown v. Board of Education, 1954
I remember vividly the presidency of Gen. Dwight Eisenhower from 1953-1961. Eisenhower drew
large support from patriotic Americans, my parents included. My parents and grandparents were Roosevelt Democrats. They, and others in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, lived through the Great Depression, where a breakfast often consisted of unsweetened pumpkin. They saw benefits of the New Deal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. However, most of the mountain people
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Old Six Mile fire station to be transformed into coffee shop
By Lauren Pierce
Courtesy The Journal
lpierce@upstatetoday.com
SIX MILE — Coffee lovers around the Six Mile community may soon be able to enjoy their favorite 
beverage from an unusual drive-thru location — an old fire station.
Town council approved a lease at its meeting earlier this month with Jarred and Jenni Brink, who plan to convert the old station at 106 S. Main St. in Six Mile
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