Reedy River Falls

The Reedy River, named for the reeds that once grew along its banks, flows from Travelers Rest southward for almost sixty miles, dropping in the center of Greenville into steep, narrow falls before winding toward Conestee and joining the Saluda River at Lake Greenwood. Greenville's Main Street stands at its shallow ford, and the river's shoals and falls long provided power, growth, recreation, inspiration, and romance. According to legend, a Cherokee brave threw himself over the falls because of unrequited love. The falls inspired at least five published poems and several noted paintings, became a favorite meeting place for young lovers, and served as a resort for visitors and families. Dams above and below the falls formed pools where children swam in summer and skated in winter, ministers conducted baptisms, and entrepreneurs opened bath houses with separate entrances for ladies and gents, supplying towels and soap for twenty-five cents. Beginning in the late 1700's, water-powered enterprises gathered along the Reedy River, including trading posts, grist and corn mills, a sawmill, an ironworks, the Gower, Cox and Markley Coach Factory, a paper-making factory, and an armory. A century later, textile and apparel mills lined its banks. After suffering from the effects of progress, the Reedy drew renewed attention in the late 1960's after years of neglect, as Greenville reclaimed twenty-six acres around the falls and made plans for a historic park, and the falls again became the cradle of Greenville.

Greenville, South Carolina · United States