Grantieville, SC

As an avid Cyclist one of my favorite places to ride to is Graniteville because it gives me a good 14-mile round trip workout. Most people know me for making trips on bike to Edgefield or Montmorenci, but before I could do that the challenge was riding as far as Graniteville. When I moved back to Aiken County in 2005 this was actually considered a long trip for me. The first time it did take a toll on me but now days it's nothing for me.

I've carried my camera almost every time I went there and despite the fact that the mill no longer operates there's still several photo opportunities there. I discover something new almost every time.

We all know about the train wreck that happened in 2005. I wasn't living in Aiken County at the time but my dad was hunting in the vicinity of Vaucluse at the time. I also knew several people in this town already and had some family in close vicinity to the accident.

I mentioned I have pictures as old as 2005 and some of these shots can never be repeated again because certain parts of this town have changed that much. The differences in the pictures may be small but if you can't find them I'll point them out in the text below.
This was in September 2005 before the mill closed. Very different scene now as the grass has already started growing through the pavement. This was the Spur line that the train wreck happened on. The place where I'm standing when I took the shot Is just about where the locomotive's made impact. The recent road changes also eliminated the railroad crossing in the background.
How the scene over here hasn't changed much at all. These structures still stand, but the grass isn't maintained. That's expected for an old mill though.

This was the switch that was improperly aligned and caused the train wreck. I always tried to catch it when it had a train on it but never got lucky. I knew at the time that it wouldn't be long before it was closed, but I guess there are some things you just can't accomplish.



These aren't authentic old photographs. I hate to disappoint you if that's what you're looking for. These are from October 2005. I manipulated them into a sepia color. I do have a color photo somewhere but I can't find it. If I eliminated the date and copyright signatures from the photos, I might could pass them off as old photos if printed on a special kind of paper. This building I believe was a rebuild of what the mill used to look like. It was a historical version of the mill if I'm right. This part was torn down and doesn't exist today. I haven't seen any other photos on the internet of it so I figured I'd share what I have.
This shot is from November 2005; the difference here is now the crossing is gated and the tracks are shifted a few feet. Two Months before the Graniteville train wreck somebody driving a small car decided they didn't have to wait for the train. The train hit their car killing all five people inside instantly. Until they installed gates, every I saw a train coming, I kept seeing people run the crossing. I was always worried I'd end up witnessing an accident here.
Here's a little shot I especially framed in June 2006. This was back when the train tracks divided canal street. All Northbound traffic on the left and all Southbound traffic was on the right. If you look at this photo real good it shows just that happening. The Silver car is in the far lane on the Northbound side. You can also see a red wrong way sign. Wrong way drivers were common, because coming back from Vaucluse if you were southbound you'd have to turn and cross the tracks. Otherwise if you just went straight you'd be going the wrong way. It was really easy to make that mistake to. Now the wrong way signs are gone. The road above the wall is both northbound and southbound however the street just in front of my position is still southbound. Also that green sign has been moved, and several railroad crossings pulled up.

The Mill was closed a few days after I took the train shot above. Obviously, the mill closing left several unemployed not only in Grainitville but all over Aiken County. Business as an American Textile mill was already miserable and the train wreck damaged the mill. Despite the money they received from Norfolk Southern for damages, they couldn't stay in business. However Avondale still owns the water in Graniteville. From Vaucluse pond down to the creek they own that. Nobody can swim in it, nobody can hunt or fish on it. In addition Avondale still owns the water system. They won't own it very long and that's a good thing. They unfairly increased the water rates by 700%. This is just sickening seeing that several of these people lost their jobs and already have trouble keeping up the bills. Now the water company dose this because they want more money. It won't be long, Avondale will no longer own the water system by next year but I guess you can consider the water rate increase an unfair parting shot to an already wounded town. I hope the local politicians get their way and get these ridiculous increases axed.

This image was taken on November 11, 2006. This is a memorial to the victims of the train wreck. Something about getting this picture at night is a lot better than in the day. I don't have a close up of the scriptures on the monument so I guess that adds me a "to-do" next time I'm over there.
This is a gamma adjust photo manipulation I did in 2007. The Actual image was taken on October 27, 2007 I thought the water tower made an excellent backdrop with the sunset.
This small spur line was also pulled up. Back in the days of the Southern railway it was more often used for passenger trains. I only saw it used one time and was occasionally for leaving freight cars. I don't have any images of that.This was the fate of the infamous switch, and yes it still stands in the same place. But I figured I'd get a close-up of the tag on it.
Even-though the mill is no longer operational the Graniteville company flag still flies under the American flag. Some of the offices are actually manned as well so there are some people who work on parts of the mill and what their jobs are I don't know.

EST. 1845

Steven's steam plant's steam valves are still intact. Much of the mill is starting to look just like the Clearwater finishing plant. It's only been a few years to but that's all it has taken.Grass is already growing through the bridge on the spur line.This fire hydrant dates back to 1942.

This was actually more recently. This is the gate to the Gregg plant and I was wondering why it was wide open. Looks like an open invitation for any illegal trespasser to just waltz right in and do whatever they want. Many windows are already shattered as well.

I spot these geese out here a lot here. It's a sign nature is taking it back.The Canal hasn't changed much at all.

The access road through the mill is still open to traffic.
Grass growing through the pavement.
Late day always cast a big shadow.
This is a private access road to the mill.
Despite the fact that most roads going into the mill were closed this one road that goes straight to the accident site isn't and these were offices not with boarded windows and nature is already reclaiming it after just more than three years. I'm an urban explorer but whenever I see a sin on certain roads that says no trespassing I don't go down them. I keep it legal and don't go on any property unless I have permission. Many urban explorers trespass and that's illegal. I stick to the road.
This I believe was a drop box of some sort.
I like to call this the super structure of the mill.
This was Steven's steam plant's water tank. It can hold 394,800 gallons of water.
In some places this mill looks still operational with people coming in and out of the offices but in others it beingins to look more and more like the Clearwater finishing plant which you'll see in another blog later. This right here is the very ugly part. To me it looks like an Earthquake happened here.
The cross at the accident is another memorial to the victims. It probably won't be too easy to view before too long because the growth is getting thicker. Hard to believe that five years ago this was all a paved parking lot.
However on the bright side this area of the old mill no matter how trashed it may appear, it is still possible to produce some awesome sunset images. One example was this one above when I saw that the cross on topthe church lined up with the sunset.
As far as the trains this is the section of track that now curves when they shifted it over. It creates an awesome curve shot. If your camera has a 10x or higher zoom you can shoot a train clearing it all the way from Vaucluse highway just like I did here.
This is GVW's prize engine, and boy this is one nice Ford.
I took this during their annual Christmas parade.

Finally we visit the graveyard. This place is even little creepy in the day. Many of the oldest graves date back before the civil war. The above photo is the Grave of "The Unknown boy." Sadly around 1855 this sick boy, believed to be about five, was found on a train at the Warrenville station. Appearntly he was so sick he couldn't talk. How he got separated from his family is unknown. Where he came from is unknown as well as obviously his identity. Back in that day the technology to track missing children wasn't as good so chances are if his parents did contact the authorities the chances of the child being tracked were very slim. The boy succumbed to his sickness and the town donated money to have him buried here. The Grave is located at the Southwest corner of the Graveyard. People leave toys and pennies at the site. In fact when I visited I was looking for this specific grave and while on bike I actually passed by it four times without noticing. Someone had taken most of the toys off the grave and that's the description I was given, so that's what I was looking for. When most of the toys I'd seen in a previous picture and a few changes caused by vandals it really threw me off. The Epitaph was turned around backwards to further my searching problems. I learned from looking at many graveyards that vandals really have no respect. I've seen graveyards where someone literally drove through it and destroyed head stones. It's really upsetting to think oh how disrespectful people can get.

I have one video I posted and a few videos others posted that I'd like to show here. Remember how I said some parts of the mill are still active? Well a week ago I was riding around on bike at night. In the video below you can hear gas churning through the lines in front of the Woodhead division plant. The Woodhead division happens to be the most active remaining part. There are still lights on there so there is some kind of business there but what it is I still don't know. Only problem with this video is you can hear my footsteps loud and clear so you have to listen good to the quite parts. Some rumors say the new owner may turn it into a water park.

In addition to some stuff I also out that someone made a song about Graniteville. It gives me the creeps to be honest. It's a folk song and it dose serve its purpose real good. I'm not the biggest folk fan, but I'll give something a chance. I found it as actually both a creepy but meaningful song.

Also for many old Grantieville videos you can check out this youtube channel.
http://www.youtube.com/user/imokb1

Sorry it took me so long to post this but college has had me busy.

~Joseph W. Johns

The Vaucluse blog is next!