Like Rimini, like Horatio, like Fort Motte, like so many other farming communities in the state, Lone Star owes its existence to the railroad. When the Atlantic Coast Line bridged the mighty Santee River, and came through what later became southeastern Calhoun County in 1893, a community got started. The new town was at first called Auburn but later changed to Lone Star after a local store of the same name. The founding fathers thought they had an arrangement with the railroad that the train would make daily stops at the new town.

Of all the tiny towns and communities I've been to in South Carolina, Lone Star is the closest I've come to that would pass for a ghost town. Some of the stores and old front row buildings have either been moved or torn down. The remaining buildings now standing, all that's left of the town, are separated from one another by big gaps and lots of daylight, giving each building a forlorn and lonely look. The only thing missing is some tumbleweed rolling by and a creaking saloon door swaying on a rusty hinge.

O.K. Zeagler's Store and Post Office, formerly of Lone Star, has found new life as a BBQ Restaurant in the town of Santee. The store still carries its Lone Star zip code, 29077. The history of Lone Star is all too familiar - it grew when the railroads were growing and when small- farm agriculture was the dominant way of life in South Carolina. This era came to an end starting in the 1930s. People vacated the countryside in droves and agriculture became mechanized. Lone Star, like much of Calhoun County, is still major farming country. The railroad, however, quit stopping years ago.

In the not distant past Lone Star was similar to Rimini in being a jumping off point to the Santee for duck hunters, fishermen, and boaters. Outdoorsmen, being generous by nature and always hungry or thirsty, helped support the community by spending a little money. Now duck hunting has fallen on hard times, and there doesn't seem to be as many fishermen at "Santee" as there were 40 years ago. There were a fair number of boaters at Low Falls on a recent hot June afternoon, but now most folks bring their tackle and fill up their coolers before leaving home, and don't spend money in the local community.

Outdoorsmen associate Lone Star with the nearby Low Falls Landing, one of several jumping off points to "Santee." Part of Lone Star up and moved south a few years ago when entrepreneur Pat Williams decided to renovate and move some old country stores from around the community. He used these heirloom buildings for the best possible reason - to serve BBQ. His now famous Lone Star BBQ, just off Highway 6 before you get to Santee, S.C., is worth the drive. Mr. Williams, who like a lot of us has a fondness for old country stores and the way of life they represented, gave new life to Mr. O.K. Zeagler's Store and Post Office, formerly of Lone Star. This store is more than a 100 years old, being built in 1893, the year the town of Lone Star got started.

Next week: Kingville