Rose Hill Plantation

2019 Hiking Week 32

There are only three state parks that are former plantation homes. One that I posted about before is Redcliffe Plantation, outside of North Augusta. Another is Rose Hill Plantation, in the upstate region. The closest town to Rose Hill is either Whitmire or Cross Anchor. Neither is very large. So if you plan to visit, be sure to have good directions! There are good signs to the site but it is back in the Sumter National Forest area, off of I-26.

Rose Hill Plantation is named for the rose garden that it has, but it was the Gist family that built the home. William Henry Gist was governor of South Carolina just before the state seceded in the 1800's. The house was unoccupied after a couple of generations until the early 1900's when a man bought the property and worked on restoring it as a museum. The state bought it in 1960 for a state park. It has a nice, long driveway, quite a few buildings on the grounds, and some trails and picnic areas for visitors. We had a short period of time to stop there but the ranger was nice enough to give us a quick tour of the house and some interesting information about the Gist family. Since we were the only ones on the property at the time, we got to have a private tour. We even got to see an old family Bible in the house that has records of births, deaths, and marriages of the family. It would have been nice to have the complete tour but it was fun hitting the highlights and asking the ranger questions.

View from the rose garden
Visiting Rose Hill is a neat, off-the-beaten-path trip and it is interesting to see a plantation that isn't in the Lowcountry. I believe the main crop of this area was cotton. It was very peaceful and quiet out there. If you go, know that it was difficult for us to get much of a signal in the area. When we were driving back the way we came, we got a little turned around, missing our turns. I recommend printing off directions so you know which roads to take. Also, nearby is the Musgrove Mill State Historic Site that we visited before. It's about 30 minutes away.

Have fun out there!

Location: Cross Anchor, SC 29335, USA

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