HISTORIC OCONEE COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA Subject: Ellicott's Rock Version 1.0, 5-Jan-2003, FCH-04.txt **************************************************************** REPRODUCING NOTICE: ------------------- These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format for profit, or presentation by any other organization, or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. Paul M Kankula - nn8nn Seneca, SC, USA Oconee County SC GenWeb Coordinator Oconee County SC GenWeb Homestead http://www.rootsweb.com/~scoconee/oconee.html Oconee County SC GenWeb Tombstone Project http://www.rootsweb.com/~scoconee/cemeteries.html http://www.rootsweb.com/~cemetery/southcarolina/oconee.html Contributor: Frederick C. Holder, Box 444, Pickens, SC 29671 **************************************************************** DATAFILE INPUT . : Paul M. Kankula at kankula1@innova.net in Jan-2003 DATAFILE LAYOUT : Paul M. Kankula at kankula1@innova.net in Jan-2003 HISTORY WRITE-UP : Frederick C. Holder in 1989 ELLICOTT'S ROCK - 1813 The states of Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina argued about exact state boundary lines for many years. To settle the South Carolina - North Carolina boundary, commissioners representing the two states agreed in 1813 on a point on the Chattooga River. They marked a large rock along the river bank with the inscription "Lat 35 AD 1813 NC + S.C.", standing for the agreement between the com- missioners and their respective states that the 35th Latitude would be the juncture where the South Carolina and North Carolina state lines joined. The commissioners had good reasons for selecting this location. In 1811, Andrew Ellicott made a survey for the state of Georgia in an at- tempt to resolve the boundary dispute between Georgia and North Carolina. Only five hundred feet upriver from the rock marked by the commissioners from South Carolina and North Carolina is another rock marked "NC-GA", standing for North Carolina - Georgia. Ellicott stated that he marked a rock in 1811 with these letters. Oddly enough, the rock marked by the S.C./N.C. commissioners in 1813, rather than the rock marked by Ellicott in 1811, is called Ellicott's Rock. The reason for this confusion is the fact that the rock marked by the S.C./N.C. commissioners in 1813 is commonly ac- cepted as the point where the boundary lines of South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia come together. Because it is so near the rock marked by Ellicott in 1811, and because Ellicott was the first person to mark a state boundary near this commonly accepted point, the rock marked in 1813 is called by his name. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. Location: On the Chattooga River, along the SC/NC/Georgia state lines, approximately twelve miles north of Oconee State Park. Reached from S.C. by a path leading from Burrell's Ford located 3.4 miles off of State Park Road (Hwy. 107). READING LIST: Marvin Lucian Skaggs, North Carolina Boundary Disputes Involv- ing Her Southern Line (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1941), 125-140, 201.