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| History |
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SALUDA
COUNTY was formed from the Northern and Eastern
part of Edgefield County in the Constitutional Convention
of September 14, 1895. The County was initially given
the name, “Butler County”, but on Monday, the 16th,
it was changed to “Saluda County”. The name is from
the Saluda River, the name the Cherokee Indians gave
the major river in the area. The name means a “river
of corn.”
The Saluda Old Town Treaty was signed July 2, 1755,
with the Cherokees. This treaty may be the most important
political event ever to occur in Saluda County, from
a National standpoint. There is a tablet on the West
Side of the Court House about the Treaty. Also, there
is a beautiful mural depicting the Saluda Old Town Treaty
on Church Street.
The Saluda area had been in the National picture long
before the County was formed. It was the night of May
21, 1791, that George Washington spent the night in
a home near Ridge Spring. Two great heroes of the Battle
of the Alamo in Texas, William Barret Travis and James
Butler Bonham, were from Saluda County. There is a monument
on the Court House grounds in their memory.
The County of Saluda has a total land area of 288,877
acres, covering 451 square miles. It ranks 39th in size
among the counties in South Carolina. Saluda County
is conveniently located 43 miles from Columbia, 40 miles
from Augusta, 76 miles from Greenville, 145 from Charleston.
The Town of Saluda sits squarely in the center of the
County at the crossroads of South Carolina Highway 121
and US Highway 378.
The Town of Saluda is the county seat. There are two
smaller towns located to the South, Ridge Spring and
Ward, both of which are quaint villages. And, interestingly,
a small portion of the Town of Batesburg-Leesville which
sits primarily in Lexington County, is also in Saluda
County.
 MAP
SHOWING CROSS ROADS, RS & WARD |
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