"S" is for Spartanburg County

"S" is for Spartanburg County (811 square miles; 2010 population: 284,748). Spartanburg County is located in the northwestern section of South Carolina in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Originally occupied by the Cherokees as a hunting ground, the area was not open to European settlement until 1755. In 1785 Spartanburg was one of six counties established in the interior of the state by the General Assembly. Subsistence agriculture gave way to short-staple cotton in the nineteenth century that, in turn, was replaced by peaches as the county’s cash crop. Between 1870 and 1900, large mills were built throughout the county, making Spartanburg County an important textile center in the state and nation. In the latter years of the twentieth century, the arrival of a number of foreign companies gave Spartanburg County a significant international community.