Before Sassafras Mountain became a place to drive up for a view, investors sought a paying route through its gaps. Newspaper notices and South Carolina laws preserve the story of the Sassafras Gap turnpike: a mountain-road enterprise with stockholders, a charter, and tolls measured by the animals pulling a traveler’s vehicle.
An appeal for action in 1859
A small notice in the October 1, 1859, Keowee Courier called the stockholders and friends of the Sassafras Gap Turnpike to meet at the courthouse at Pickens on October’s sale day. Its closing sentence was unusually direct: “The success of the measure demands ACTION.”
That brief appeal makes the undertaking tangible. People organized around it, it had a recognized enterprise name, and it asked for the project to move forward. It also establishes that the turnpike effort existed before the Civil War. The notice does not give an opening date or say that a completed road was already collecting money.
The route written into South Carolina law
An act approved February 26, 1870 authorized the Sassafras Turnpike Company to build from Holly Spring Church in Pickens County to the North Carolina line, crossing the intervening mountains at or near Sassafras Gap. It named incorporators from Anderson and Pickens counties, including James L. Orr, J. E. Hagood, and Jackson Gillespie.
The geographic description specifies a gap crossing, rather than a road over the exact summit where today’s observation tower stands.
A gap is the useful distinction when reading this landscape. Looking at the mountain from an overlook draws attention to its highest ridges; planning a crossing draws attention to the lower passages between them. For a broader introduction to the summit and its setting, read our Sassafras Mountain visitor guide.
What travelers could be charged?
Section 3 of the 1870 act authorized these selected tolls:
| Traveler, animal, or vehicle | Authorized toll |
|---|---|
| Person on horseback | 10¢ |
| Horse or mule led separately or in a drove | 5¢ per animal |
| Cattle in a drove | 3¢ per head |
| Hog, sheep, or goat | 2¢ per animal |
| Cart drawn by one or two animals | 25¢ |
| Passenger or peddler’s vehicle drawn by one animal | 25¢ |
| Passenger or peddler’s vehicle drawn by two animals | 50¢ |
| Passenger or peddler’s vehicle drawn by four animals | 75¢ |
Trips to or from church, a public election, or the mill were exempt. These selected rates show the traffic lawmakers anticipated, from riders and livestock to commercial travelers.
A renewal in 1883
The legislature returned to the road in an act approved December 21, 1883, rechartering the Sassafras Gap Turnpike Road in Pickens County for twenty-one years. The act continued its previous powers, privileges, and toll rates rather than printing another rate table.
The named holders included J. E. Hagood and Jackson Gillespie, who also appeared in the 1870 act, along with Joab Mauldin, W. A. Lesley, John L. Thornly, Thomas R. Price, W. B. Allgood, and W. T. McFall. The renewal shows that the turnpike remained a legislative concern well into the 1880s. It does not establish uninterrupted use for every year of the new charter or a precise date when toll collection ended.
Three firm points in the record: the Sassafras Gap Turnpike had stockholders by 1859; the 1870 act specified its proposed southern endpoint and toll schedule; and the state renewed the road’s charter in 1883. The surviving documents support a substantial history without requiring an invented opening ceremony, tollhouse location, or abandonment date.
Where the Emory Gap Toll Road enters the story
The Emory Gap Toll Road name survives in modern hiking writing. In the Fall/Winter 2011 Jocassee Journal, published by SCDNR, Odell Suttle recalled a Foothills Trail hike from Sassafras Mountain to Table Rock State Park. He described going through Hickorynut Mountain Gap and crossing Emory Gap Toll Road.
Suttle’s account is a useful, attributed reference to an old-road crossing. It is not a surveyed map showing that the present hiking trail follows the toll road throughout. His article also repeated a claim that it was the first road out of Pickens to cross the mountains, explicitly qualifying it as “supposedly.” That recollection does not establish a first-road distinction.
For visitors, the important point is to keep the historical road and the modern trail system separate. A reference to crossing an old road does not turn the old road itself into a maintained public hiking route. Nor does a nineteenth-century charter identify every surviving track in today’s woods.
How to explore the mountain setting today
For a straightforward introduction to the landscape, visit the public summit rather than trying to follow an unverified historic alignment. South Carolina’s tourism guide gives the road approach as U.S. 178 to Rocky Bottom, then F. Van Clayton Memorial Highway for approximately 4.7 miles to the top. It identifies the mountain’s elevation as 3,553 feet and the tower as standing eleven feet above the high point. This is a modern summit visit, not a drive along a reconstructed toll route.
For a longer walk in the surrounding region, the Blue Ridge Electric Co-op Passage’s official page describes a 12.6-mile, moderate passage through rugged and remote country. It lists parking only at Table Rock State Park, even though it identifies another trailhead on U.S. 178. The passage is hiking only: no mountain biking or motorized vehicles, including where it follows existing roads. Use the current map and alerts, and check park access before you go.
Plan a mountain visit, not an off-trail search. Stay on designated public routes, respect gates and property boundaries, and leave historic objects where they lie. The Palmetto Trail manager prohibits metal detectors on this passage and advises checking hunting seasons and wearing blaze orange in fall. An old road name does not grant present-day vehicle access.
More foothills history along the way
The Sassafras story belongs beside the historic highway behind Poinsett Bridge, another opportunity to explore how mountain crossings shaped the Upstate. They are separate roads and should not be folded into a single turnpike story. Our account of the lost Table Rock Hotel explores a different side of travel in the foothills: the destinations people traveled to reach.
For a present-day outing, use the Highway 11 guide to plan the drive through the foothills. Hikers looking farther west can explore our Sloan Bridge guide as a separate Foothills Trail starting point. These modern routes make the mountains easier to approach; the turnpike records remind us how much organization once went into securing a passage through them.
Sources and further reading
- Keowee Courier, October 1, 1859, page 3: Sassafras Gap Turnpike meeting notice.
- South Carolina acts, 1869–1870, printed pages 354–355: company authorization, route, and tolls.
- South Carolina acts, 1883, printed page 301: twenty-one-year recharter.
- SCDNR Jocassee Journal, Fall/Winter 2011, page 11: Odell Suttle’s hiking account.
- Palmetto Trails: Blue Ridge Electric Co-op Passage map, rules, and alerts.
- Discover South Carolina: Sassafras Mountain observation tower and approach.
