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South Carolina A to Z
South Carolina from A to Z

“S” is for Stumphouse Mountain Tunnel

By Walter Edgar
Published October 19, 2026 at 5:30 AM EDT

“S” is for Stumphouse Mountain Tunnel. The Stumphouse Mountain Tunnel is an unfinished nineteenth-century railroad tunnel located near Walhalla. In the 1850s Stumphouse Mountain played a key role in South Carolina's attempt to participate in antebellum America's commercial revolution. Planners contemplated cutting a one-and-one-half mile railroad tunnel through the mountain to link the state's rail lines with the Blue Ridge Railroad coming from Knoxville, Tennessee. This enterprise, if successful, would have linked Charleston with the commercial heartland of the young nation. Unfortunately, the price of tunneling through Stumphouse Mountain proved prohibitive and the project was abandoned. In 1951 Clemson College purchased the tunnel and for several years experimented with curing blue cheese in its cool, damp environment. Clemson leased the tunnel to the Pendleton Historic District in 1970, and the Stumphouse Mountain Tunnel was open to the public

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South Carolina from A to Z SCETV Apphistorysc historynatural historyrailroadsSouth Carolina from A-ZClemson University
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Walter Edgar
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.
See stories by Walter Edgar