Red Hill at Turkey Creek

Front: This high bluff was called Red Hill in the colonial era. It overlooks Turkey Creek, which flows into the Great Salkehatchie River. The Charleston-to-Augusta road, along an old Indian trail, crossed the creek nearby. The waters of Turkey Creek and White Oak Springs, just north of this site, were incentives for the early settlement and development of what would later become Barnwell. Reverse: McHeath’s Tavern, the first business in what became Barnwell, was built nearby before the Revolution. The town, a county seat since 1785 when Winton District (later Barnwell District, and then Barnwell County) was created, was long called Barnwell Court House. Two cemeteries a short distance east, both established about 1800, include the graves of some of Barnwell’s earliest families.