Mars Bluff

Front: This is the center of Mars Bluff, a rural community 8 mi. across in both directions, bounded by the Great Pee Dee River, Black Creek, & Jefferies Creek. A ferry across the Great Pee Dee began operation in 1767. Patriot and Loyalist militia later clashed in the area during the Revolution. Mars Bluff grew in both size and significance after the Wilmington & Manchester RR arrived in the 1850s. Reverse: By the 1830s J. Eli Gregg (1805-1873) ran a general store south of here. He built a new store on this site, across from the depot, when the railroad was completed in 1853. A blacksmith shop, cotton gin, grist mill, and saw mill made this the focus of Mars Bluff life for many years. Gregg’s original store burned by 1930, but a store operated on this site until the 1950s.