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“D” is for Dark Corner

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“D” is for Dark Corner. Since early in the nineteenth century, extreme northeastern Greenville County, especially the remote, rugged environs of Glassy and Hogback Mountains, has been known as the “Dark Corner.” Although opened to settlement following the Revolutionary War, the area remained sparsely populated well into the twentieth century. Its antebellum inhabitants were subsistence farmers who gained a reputation for being fiercely independent. They were Unionists during the nullification and secession crises and slow to support the Confederacy. The isolated hills and hollows were a haven for Confederate deserters during the war and in succeeding decades for countless illicit whiskey distillers. Improved roads after World War II made the Dark Corner more accessible to outsiders. By the 1990s, a stream of affluent new residents had discovered the spectacular mountain vistas of the Dark Corner.

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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.