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"M" is for Mount Dearborn Arsenal

South Carolina From A to Z
SC Public Radio

"M" is for Mount Dearborn Arsenal. Situated on an island in the Catawba River in Chester County, Mount Dearborn was initially conceived and selected by President George Washington to be one of the nation’s three national arsenal-armories. In 1802 Secretary of War Henry Dearborn purchased 523 acres and employed Eli Whitney to consult with the state’s engineer on the best location to build the facility. In 1804 construction began on the magazine and arsenal, but the armory was never constructed. By 1807 the army refocused its defensive priorities on Charleston and construction at Dearborn slowed. Briefly in 1816 Congress proposed Mount Dearborn as the site for one of three regional military academies before settling on one: West Point. By 1825, the site of Mount Dearborn Arsenal was abandoned and the land returned to the state.

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.