On a cool blue day, I headed for Lynch's Wood at Newberry only to find it closed for repair of bridges. A Police Department employee told me that there was a good trail down SC 76 at the small town of Little Mountain. I followed the Georgia Pacific Railway East through Prosperity, past fields of green, of blue and of yellow wild flowers and stopped at the Little Mountain Unlimited Antique Mall for directions. The clerk there knew nothing of a trail, but a handsome man with a lisp appeared and told me to continue on 76 (Main St), pass the Citgo Station on the right and then the big church (Lutheran) and turn right on Mountain St. Shortly, AME Zion church is on the left and then a turn to the left and the park is on the left. (There is a sign at Main and Mountain).
There in the woods is a picnic shelter with table, restrooms and a memorial to Roxie Koon Derrick "In Appreciation for her loving and generous spirit whose desire is to share this wonderful place with present and future generations. The town of Little Mountain and its Citizens." November 2012.
The trail is a dirt road down the hill (it may be the little mountain of the town's name) and then up a hill again.
Down to the left, the gleaming pewter surface of a pool of the branch is visible. Butterflies and dragonflies flitter around me. The path is a loop with benches here and there and two wooden porches built into the side of the little mountain where you can sit and look down into the forest below. The trail eventually loops back to the picnic shelter.
Again I visited the Antique store and the same man told me that "Roxanne" of the trail is still alive and owns a gas station in town. This is the biggest antique store I have ever visited. It is full of pink depression glass, china, pottery, Citadel and Boy Scourt uniforms, Barbie dolls, linens, wreaths made from cotton plants, bird houses, iron skillets, portraits of generals A.P. Hill and George Meade who met at Gettysburg, a sign says "Fresh Eggs" and another boasts a cafe in the basement. Also down below are beautifully restored antique cars, a truck and even a tractor. Beside the cafe is a set up for a live band with keyboard, drums, guitars.
The clerk tells me that this building was once a mercantile store, but was turned into the antique store about seven years ago.
In old Irish stories and in most of the world's mythology, dragonflies and butterflies are considered a glimpse of the ephemeral and transient, a fire like presence of the spirit or soul with the ability to cross into the other world.
Little Mountain can be reached from I-26 or from SC 76. It is 8 miles East of Newberry and just West of Chapin.
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