This slice of Upcountry South Carolina that became Newberry County came into existence along with the new nation following the American Revolution in the 1780s.
For over a century, cotton thrived in the area, but by the 1930s, the land was tired and eroded. President Franklin Roosevelt created the Sumter National Forest, named for Gamecock Revolutionary War hero Thomas Sumter, to revive it. Roosevelt’s “tree army” in the Civilian Conservation Corps set about planting pine saplings in the old fields, and those trees still stand today.
Planning a visit? Stay at Magnolia RV Park and Campground.
The unincorporated crossroads town of Kinards lies on the western edge of the Enoree Ranger District of the national forest. This is a gateway to hiking, canoeing on the Broad and Sandy rivers and riding horses, mountain bikes and off-road vehicles. The forest service also set about restocking the emerging Piedmont woodlands with turkey and deer. Don’t be surprised to see archaeologists during explorations of the forest. There’s an ongoing effort to uncover traces of the Woodland Indian civilizations that lived here 12,000 years.
Quiet is the watchword for Kinards, which was founded by brothers John and Martin Kinard, who emigrated here from Germany in the 1740s. Kinards thrived with the agricultural good times and withered with the loss of productivity in the fields. The Sharon United Methodist Church that was organized in 1854 still holds services in its meetinghouse. The beacon of the community is its brick post office that orchestrates 93 miles of rural route service.
The big city life of Columbia and Greenville awaits less than an hour away in either direction on Interstate 26. Closer by is the old cotton market town of Newberry, anchored by its splendid Italian Renaissance opera house on the Public Square. Erected in 1881 at the cost of $30,000, the Opera House was known far and wide as “the entertainment center of the Midlands.” More than a century later, the price tag for its restoration was $5.5 million.