Part 13: Horatio, Home of LeNoir's Store

It's a hot early June afternoon. The corn is chest high and orange day lilies in the roadside ditches are stirring in what passes for a breeze. I'm driving through one of my favorite areas within the COWASEE Basin, a big piece of pastoral landscape in western Sumter/ Kershaw County. It's bounded on the west by the Wateree River, east by Highway 261, south by Highway 378 and north by I- 20.

As I pass by the fertile fields and green woodlands I feel as if I've moved back in time, back to the South Carolina of two generations ago. I half expect to see a mule- drawn wagon coming down the road, or some tow- headed, barefooted kids with cane poles slung over their shoulders, heading for their favorite fishing hole.

Thousands of cars and trucks pass by this area every day, going to and from work. Few are aware that this much undeveloped country lies on the doorsteps of Columbia and Sumter.

The highway map indicates two small communities in the area, Horatio and Hagood. They're really just crossroads. The biggest landowner in the area is the State of South Carolina with its 7,000- acre Wateree River Correctional Institute, a self- supporting, medium- security prison that provides grits and other food products for all of the Department of Correction's inmate facilities.

LeNoir's Store 2: the only grocery/dry goods store on the National Register of Historic Places. Everything you need from produce to soft drinks. Horatio is the home of the best- known landmark in this green countryside, LeNoir's Store. It's the only grocery/dry goods store I'm aware of that is on the National Register of Historic Places. Of course, LeNoir's Store is not just any country store. It has a long history that dates back more than 200 years, and is currently the longest running commercial enterprise in Sumter County.

It seems fitting that LeNoir's Store is located where it is. When you step through the front doors, wide open even on a hot summer day, the year could be 1951, '41, or '31. The interior lighting is suitably dim. Shelves are lined with everything you could possibly need, from soft drinks to produce. Like all good country stores, LeNoir's serves double duty as the local post office. The nearest one is a few miles away in Rembert.

LeNoir's Store: The year could be 1951, '41, or '31 at LeNoir's Store in Horatio. Mrs. Carrie LeNoir is the family matriarch. She and her late husband, S.G. LeNoir, ran the store together for more than 50 years. Mrs. LeNoir also served as postmaster.

Her daughter Beverly helps run the store now and son Steve in the current postmaster. At one time Steve was also president of the National League of Postmasters.

In April of 2006, LeNoir's Store had the singular honor of being the first post office, nationwide, to issue the commemorative Benjamin Franklin stamp honoring his 300th birthday. The store opened early that day and received coverage from national media.

LeNoir's has gotten use to media coverage over the years, having been featured on the

Today Show as well as being written up in

Southern Living and other magazines and newspapers.

LeNoir's Store opens every morning at 7 and closes at 6, Monday- Friday, and at 1 pm in the afternoon on Saturday. They are closed Sunday for a well- deserved day of rest.

LeNoir's Store, going strong since 1808. Pastoral countryside and all that goes with it — the churches and cemeteries, farms and fields, woodlands, country stores and rural homes — is much more than a pretty picture to admire from the roadside. The food and fiber produced from this countryside is what helps sustain and nourish us. The COWASEE Basin Focus Area is just as much about the conservation and stewardship of rural countryside as it is a wildlife sanctuary or a public park.

(Next week: Rimini, Mallard

Capital of SC)