“A pond was dug and a community sprouted around it.” (History of Berry Shoals Intermediate School) The exact date that a dam was erected across the South Tyger River in northern Spartanburg county to create Berry Shoals Pond has been lost to history. But the placid little lake that rose up on land owned by the Berry family sometime in the late 19th century still remains part of the Upstate landscape. I often drive past the lake on my travels through the backcountry and I have stopped a time or two for photographs. Yesterday I was again in the area and I pulled over to explore. This time I headed downstream of the lake to see what was below the dam as the river continues on its journey south. The view from the road is blocked walked by a thick stand of trees but I spotted a dirt path and after making my way down the hill I came upon this view of the spillway. I realized the stone dam was a surprisingly impressive structure—about 70 feet tall. I suspected it must have been built to host one of the many textile mills that once lined the banks of most Upstate waterways. When I returned home and began to investigate I discovered I was partially correct. Berry Shoals Dam had once been the site of a small hydroelectric facility. The power generated there was sent two and half miles cross country to one of the Upstate’s most famous textile mills—Tucapau Mill (later changed to Startex Mills) which began operation in 1897. On the website of the Startex/Tucapau Historical Society is an excerpt from the diary of Christine Barry that is said to have been “found in the trunk of an old car.” She describes important events in the history of Tucapau Mill (which comes from a Catawba word meaning “strong cloth), including the following: “The mill has been making improvements (now for several years) until Tucapau is indeed one of the best mill towns in the Piedmont section. It now has an electric plant at Berry Shoals that operates part of the mill.” The Berry Shoals facility apparently began operating in 1900 and was shut down in 1963. As you know, I am always fascinated by the connection between the places to which my photograph adventures take me and as my research continued I learned that the Tucapau Mill was also damaged by the Great Pacolet Flood of 1903. After several changes of ownership Tucapau changed its name to Startex in 1936—a popular brand of household textiles including dish towels. Just two years earlier, Tucapau had also been the sight of the bitter (and deadly) textile strikes of 1934 led by the United Textile Workers of America. The Startex/Tucapau Historical Society preserves the oral history of John Wilson who, as a boy of 11, recalls that “You were either a striker and or you were not. There was nothing in between….The thing I remember more vividly about the strike was that that the strikers were called Cabbage Heads and the non-strikers were called Red Apples. Here’s why: With no income, food was in short supply for all. Someone who looked with favor on the strikers brought in a wagonful of cabbage and distributed them to strikers and their families. Not to be outdone, someone who favored the non-strikers came in with a wagonful of red apples and distributed them to non-strikers. Hence, the nicknames.” The Uprising of ’34—as it later became known—was eventually crushed by the private security forces hired mill owners working in cooperation with local police. Those events set the stage for another 50 years of low wages and dangerous working conditions for southern mill workers. Eventually the multinational corporate interests behind the mill industry discovered that workers in foreign countries could be treated even more poorly than non-unionized Americans and Startex ceased operation in 1997. By 1999 the mill had been “dismantled,” which is a kind way of saying bulldozed to the ground. This afternoon I drove to the area where Startex once stood and the only things which remain are a few outbuilding and the great brick smokestacks that rise from the banks of the Middle Tyger River. In a final twist of fate, I learned that, back down stream at Berry Shoals where my adventure began, the dam I had photographed almost had a second life. In 2001
a study was commissioned to look into retrofitting the dam for to meet the needs of future generation for “clean” electrical power. The authors determined that such a project could be economically feasible, but as of yet, the power of the river remains un-harnessed. We'll have to see what the future holds.