On a Lonely Road

I went down to Fort Mill to be interviewed for an article in a local magazine. I ended up arriving there about an hour and a half earlier than I was supposed to, so I went for a drive in the rural areas around the town. I had my GPS device hooked up on the dash, but I just cleared it and drove aimlessly.

Somehow, I ended up on a very lonely stretch of a (to me) nameless road that went through forest and farmland. It stretched between a weird little industrial/warehouse district and the downtown of Fort Mill. I encountered not one single other vehicle while I was driving on it.

As I drove leisurely along I noticed an historical marker on the opposite side of the road so I turned around and went back to it. Sometimes I like to stop and read these markers and find out what they are and why they are there. In this case, it was to mark again and honor the Catawba Indian Nation. I've read that there are something around 2500 self-identified Catawba natives remaining on Earth, and that less than 200 of them actually live on the Catawba Indian Reservation in South Carolina. The plaque there claims that in return for the friendship and loyalty of the Catawbas, the whites would give them a 15-square-mile reservation. I don't bloody think so.


The lonely stretch of country road where I found the little monument.

For some reason the locals felt the need to erect two monuments. One is the classic cast iron sign and then there was this little carved granite stone.

Yep. The road was so lonely that I could walk out into the middle of it and take photos. I kept thinking about Wile E. Coyote doing this kind of thing and getting run down by suddenly appearing Mack trucks.

This sign looks to have seen better days. I think it's been hit a few times.