Local history almost always guarantees a great turnout.

More than 160 people attended the special tour at the 12,000 Year History Park Saturday. Everyone I spoke with had positive comments about what they saw and heard.

Quite a few of them asked about the next regularly scheduled tours.

Saturday’s tour was the first of a kind to show off a major feature of the park, Fort Congaree.

It also gave visitors a glimpse of what life was like along the Congaree Creek at the time of the American Revolutionary War.

Fort Congaree was originally built as one of 3 “factories” or trading posts to regulate the deerskin trade with native Americans.

The area at the confluence of the Saluda, Broad and Congaree rivers was critically important for trade and commerce with merchants on the coast and traders in northwestern South Carolina.

The “trading post” would later be rebuilt as a Revolutionary War fort and home for the Cayce family for whom the area would be named. The village of Granby and the British Fort Granby were also near present-day City of Cayce.

The “Walk to Fort Congaree” event featured 10 stations where visitors could see people in period attire. They also could hear about colonial era life and see demonstrations of cannon and musket fire and English dancing.

Actors, naturalists and experts told about the Indian wars, the types of settlements, trade and transportation and leather work.

Emily Geiger talked about women spies in the Revolutionary War, and Sue Kelly showed visitors the approximate site of Fort Congaree and gave them some of its history. A group from Camden provided most of the people at the stops. And there were plenty of others walking around in colonial attire.

John Jameson, from the 12000 Year History Park and The River Alliance, said it was truly a group effort. The participants came from The Colonial Dames of the Midlands, Historic Columbia and Historic Camden Societies, The Archeological Society of SC, the Cayce Museum, Confederate Relic Room, USC, and the State Museum.

Jameson also thanked the Cayce Public Safety and Maintenance Departments.

A tour about the Civil War Battle of Congaree Creek, Native American and nature tours, encampments and lantern tours are planned.

The Chronicle and Lake Murray Fish Wrapper list the tours on our Go Page.

I am in my third year as a tour guide for the Civil War Battle of Congaree Creek and have occasionally done the Fort Congaree tour too. Before becoming involved, I had no idea that there was so much history in the Cayce area. The tours are done almost every Saturday from Mid-February to May and late September to early December.

For a complete list of dates and times, check out the 12,000 Year History Park online or on Face-book.