Campbell's Covered Bridge long served area residents as a treasured local icon and gathering place on Beaverdam Creek, where people cooled off on hot days, met neighbors while corn was ground, courted sweethearts, held family picnics, made engagement proposals, took photographs, sheltered from storms, and even pulled the motor out of a pickup truck. Stella M. Atkins, who as a 12-year-old in 1933 slipped from her mount into the creek and mud while with the Campbell girls at the bridge, became determined to preserve the cherished place and in 1975 bought the bridge, the old Smith house, the grist mill, and surrounding acreage, adding to land the Atkins family had bought in 1968. In 1922, her grandson William Travis Pittman transformed the house and garden with most of the stone masonry that still exists and embedded geological surprises into the steps, walls, and patio spaces, though the house and Travis' antique collection were destroyed by fire in 2001. The bridge remained an attraction even after the road was relocated and it was cut off from vehicle traffic. In 1991, Stella gave part of the property to her daughter, Sylvia A. Pittman, with instructions to save the bridge for the future, and Sylvia worked with Greenville County and interested historic groups to maintain it and welcome visitors. After beginning with a gift of 1.47 acres and then buying another 1.47 acres from her sister, Genell Duncan, along with adjoining land for a total of almost 15 acres, Sylvia A. Pittman sold the bridge and acreage in 2008 to the Greenville County Recreation District with instructions that it be developed as an official public historic site and preserved for future generations.