Photo by Warner M. Montgomery Pat Bright makes her way through the many felled trees in Congaree Creek. Members of the Greater Piedmont Chapter of the Explorers Club, led by Stuart Greeter of SCDNR, paddled the historic Congaree Creek from 12th Street to Old State Road August 4, 2007.

Congaree Creek Heritage Preserve, a 627- acre preserve managed by SCDNR, borders the Congaree River and Cayce. There are over 12,000 years of history along the creek.

The Old Cherokee Trail from the Appalachian Mountains to the coast crossed the creek on what is now Old State Road. Nearby was a Congaree Indian village known as Congarees by the early European explorers.

The first Anglo- Saxon settlement on the Congaree River was at Fort Congaree in 1718. The community of Saxe Gotha Township was founded in 1731 with Granby as its town on the Congaree. Fort Granby was one of the last British forts to fall during the American Revolution.

Granby was abandoned after Columbia was established in 1786. However, during the Civil War, the Confederates built an earthworks fort in a feeble attempt to stop Sherman's advance up the Old State Road.

Photo by Warner M. Montgomery Zadok Ekimwere and Mary Crockett set out in the group's only canoe. Beginning in the early 1900s, clay was dug from pits along Congaree Creek for the Guignard Brickworks with peak production in WWI. The clay pits now form several ponds, home to all kinds of wildlife.

The Guignard Brickworks Trail, a Community Millennium Trail, has been developed along the creek. It is an easy 2.5- mile loop where ponds of duckweed and lily pads flourish and teem with wildlife such as alligators, snakes, turtles, bobcats, deer, hogs, hawks, water fowl, and other birds. The parking area is on Old State Road just before the pavement ends.

For information on the Congaree Creek, contact Brian Long 803-609- 7057.

Photo by Stuart Greeter Preparing to paddle the Congaree Creek are (l-r) Barry and Arann O'Reilly (front), Warner Montgomery, Gordon Murphy, Jerry and Pat Bright, Scott Powell, Jan Ciegler, Chris Kuny (behind), Nena (front) and Marion Rice, Zadok Ekimwere, Bill Stanley, and Mary Crockett.