Gray Court, South Carolina – Dianne Culbertson, Artist Jorge Perez Rubio and Sarah Jane Armstrong celebrate last week’s kiosk opening at Culbertson Backcountry Settlement, 7270 Georgia Rd. in Gray Court. Photo-LC Chamber of Commerce.
A celebration in Gray Court on Friday morning was a boon both to the Gray Court-Owings Historical Society and the Laurene County 250th Revolutionary War Committee with the unveiling of signage that explains the buildings in the settlement.
The signage is important for explaining the history of the Culbertson Backcountry Settlement and its buildings, but also because it’s the first of 14 kiosks planned by the Laurens County 250th Revolutionary War Committee.
Laurens County provided funding for the committee to prepare the interactive informational signs ahead of the nation’s 250th Anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, said Dianne Culbertson, a member of the SC 250 Anniversary American Revolution Commission and of the local Gray Court-Owings Historical Committee.
“We are planning 14 of them, and this is our first one completed. It has a QR code that takes you to a video that explains even more,” Culbertson said.
Piedmont artist Jorge Perez Rubio was hired to do the artistic representation of a settlement, and it includes each of the eight actual historic buildings at the site.
Located at 7072 Georgia Road in Gray Court, the settlement includes a block house moved from Oconee County, but all the other historic structures were moved from within five miles away.
“We have a church, a one-room African American school, two log cabins, the blockhouse, a blacksmith shop,an outhouse and a chicken coop,” Culbertson said. “The only new structure was a small shed built to display several of the original massive logs from the blockhouse.”
The settlement represents the way many people lived during and before that time.
“We want the story told of the loyalists, the patriots, slaves, women, Native Americans and even children who were instrumental in the Revolution,” Culbertson said.
Many history textbooks have left out the important part our state and county played in the lead up to and the battles during the Revolutionary War, she added, and the LC 250th Committee is working through these 14 kiosks to remedy that.
For an in-depth video about the Laurens County Revolutionary War Trail and the Backcountry Settlement use QR code above or go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNbL0AGqTjE.
Comments