South Carolina Museums to Explore

Oconee County, South Carolina, museums take you from the earliest human habitation at the Museum of the Cherokee to the most modern innovations in the world of energy, where Duke Power showcases the many ways energy is created from wind and solar to nuclear.

Museum of the Cherokee

Each exhibit in the Museum of the Cherokee tells the history of a different period. Our tour began with a Paleo Period exhibit. The first people in South Carolina, they were skilled toolmakers and hunted large animals like woolly mammoths with spears. Their culture disappeared about 8000 BC at the same time the large animals they hunted died off.

The next group of people, the Archaic, were also hunters but hunted small animals like we know today. They were not as skilled in crafting the fine spear points. But they developed the atlatls—a type of spear thrown with a lever giving it a range of about 100 yards.

The Woodland People developed bows and arrows. They begin to develop agriculture and form cities. Some artifacts we saw show skilled weaving, basket-making, stoneware, and metallurgy. It’s at this point they have the first contact with Spanish explorers. The Spanish are hunting for gold and didn’t find any, but they left behind one of their diseases, Smallpox. It decimated the native people.

Cherokee Exhibit Photo: Kathleen Walls

The Cherokee Tribes

In the Mississippian Period the native people formed the tribes we know today. The Cherokee faced the return of the Europeans who founded Charlestown in 1670. From then on, a permanent English settlement existed on the coast. French settlers established New Orleans.

The Cherokee traded with both French and Spanish. They didn’t tell either about the other Europeans. The Cherokee became dependent on trade items they could not produce themselves, such as axes, knives, cast-iron cooking pots, scissors, and sewing needles. Anything made of iron is a big deal.

There were once 27 tribes in Oconee County, located in what was known as Lower Town. It was called Lower Town because the elevation was lower than that of many of the Cherokee who lived in NC. The largest of the seven Cherokee Lower Towns in the colonial period settlement was called Keowee Town. It was on the bank of the Keowee River. This was the main trading area between the British and the Cherokee, but Lower Town was abandoned in 1752 because of conflicts with the Creek.

The Consequences of Choices

In the French and Indian War of 1760, the Cherokee sided with the French. So, when the English defeated the French and drove them out of America, the Cherokee tried to renew their friendship with the English.

When the Revolution began, the English decided to launch a major initiative in the summer of 1776 against South Carolina. The King challenged the Cherokee nations, asking them to prove their loyalty by slaughtering as many English-speaking people in South Carolina as they could. A series of Cherokee raids on American settlers began in June 1776.

Next, the British launched a major invasion of the port of Charleston. The Americans pushed the British fleet back into the ocean in one day—June 28, 1776. The South Carolina leaders sent a message north to Philadelphia, where the Continental Congress was meeting. It arrived on July 4th, 1776—the day the Declaration of Independence was signed.

Once again, the Cherokee picked the wrong side to pair with. Between the treaties, first with the British and later with the United States, no tribal land remained after 1816; however, many of Oconee’s citizens are proud of their Cherokee heritage.

Despite its small size, the museum tells a tremendous story.

Energy from Sun to Coal Photo: Kathleen Walls

World of Energy

The first thing I saw on driving into the museum’s parking area is the beautiful Keowee Lake. Connecting my two experiences, Keowee is a Cherokee word meaning “place of the mulberries.”

A visit to Duke Energy’s World of Energy is a step into the future. Oconee Nuclear Station has three nuclear reactors, making it one of the nation’s largest nuclear plants. If the thought of all that radioactive material makes you nervous, remember that since the plant opened in 1973, it has safely generated over 500 million megawatt-hours of electricity with no harmful results.

The museum tells the Story of Energy. On my self-guided tour, I learned how energy is made from water, coal and uranium, and now renewable energy from the wind and sun. The first exhibit I saw showed how water was used. There is an exhibit with a waterwheel and a room-sized picture of the water flowing into the lakes. In 1904, Duke Energy began creating energy to turn rope powered generators from the water of the Catawba River at their first station. In 1971, Duke Energy created Lake Keowee by building a hydro dam on Keowee and Little Rivers.

Life Before Humans Walked the Earth

Exhibits showcase stories of life before humans walked the earth. The sun poured energy into plants. The leaves fell to the ground and over millions of years compressed into coal. Other stories delve into natural gas.

The era of nuclear power exhibit shares another story. Shortly after WWII when President Eisenhower proposed Atoms for Peace, the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 opened the door for Duke Energy and other companies to begin using the government’s nuclear technology to generate electricity. The exhibit goes into detail about the use of uranium 235 which was held in a concrete and steel container deep in the earth to split the atoms and create energy.

Other exhibits feature solar and wind energy. There’s a model of an electric car. There are videos at almost every stop in the museum.

Relaxation after Exploration

Outside, guests can enjoy a picnic lunch while relaxing in the garden. The garden displays several Lightbulb art pieces. My favorite, Geobulb by Sharon Passmore, displays a deep blue background with some dark green bubbles.

There’s a lot more to see in Oconee County but these two museums take you from our prehistoric past to a world of the future.

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