Thanksgiving Turkey Drive
In 1797, work was completed on a road through Saluda gap between Greenville and North Carolina (I believe this is the present Rt. 276) . According to Greenville, A History by A.V. Huff, Jr.:
An annual event was the passage of thousands of turkeys, driven in flocks of four hundred to six hundred. The birds were kept together by drovers carrying long whips with pieces of red flannel attached. By night the turkeys roosted in nearby trees, and by day they could travel about 8 miles. Both flocks and herds required large amounts of feed on the journey. The drives occurred every fall and continued until about 1885 when the railroads made them obsolete.
The goal of the drive was Travelers’ Rest, so named because it was a day’s journey from Greenville. ” Horses, mules, cattle, sheep and hogs from Kentucky and Tennessee came over the same road in large herds.” So there must have been quite a market going on in TR.
Happy Thanksgiving!