Why Is It Called Ninety Six?

The origin of Ninety Six’s unusual numeric name remains a mystery, though one plausible explanation is that English traders traveling through here in the 1700s estimated the location to be 96 miles from the Cherokee village of Keowee to the northwest near present-day Clemson. The first known historical reference to Ninety Six appears on a 1730 map created by George Hunter, surveyor general of South Carolina. Long before Europeans arrived in the 1700s, as early as 900 B.C., bands of hunter-gatherers roamed this heavily forested land, and over time native groups cleared fields for farming, wove cloth from natural fibers, and made pottery from the area’s red clay soil. Of the many Indian groups in the backcountry near Ninety Six, the Cherokee predominated and used the area as hunting grounds. Positioned at the crossroads of critical trade routes linking Cherokee territory to Charleston on the coast, Ninety Six became a seat of power in the British colony of South Carolina, offering settlers a safe haven, fertile fields, and ample wildlife. Captain George Chicken of the colonial militia recorded that he “killed a boflow” while camping here with his men in 1716. Steady population growth around Ninety Six eventually led to hostilities between European settlers and Indians, and a fort built on this site withstood Indian attacks in 1760.

Ninety Six, South Carolina · United States