Last updated: June 13, 2024
Place
Cherokee Ford Trail
Cherokee Recreation District
Quick Facts
Location:
Gaffney, South Carolina
Significance:
Overmountain Men crossed the Broad River
Designation:
Trail
MANAGED BY:
October 7, 1780
The previous night, 910 men and horses has been selected from the army of nearly 2,000 frontiersmen who had gathered at "the Cowpens." This select group continued riding through the night, wrapping their flintlock rifles in their jackets to keep them dry from the rain that continued through the next morning.
By mid-morning on October 7, this force of backwoods Patriots knew they were closing in on their target of Patrick Ferguson and his Loyalist army; but they needed a place to cross the swollen Broad River that was not guarded or watched by spies.
They found that place at Cherokee Ford.
Now part of the Cherokee Recreation District's Ford Recreation Complex, the Cherokee Ford Trail is a (just over) 1-mile loop trail of gravel and natural surface that takes hikers down along the banks of the Broad River where the Patriots made their crossing on October 7, 1780.
Parking is available at a small gravel lot on Wolf Den Lane, or at the Ford Recreation Complex that the trail passes (to the side of the ballfield fence).
There are no restrooms at this facility.
For more information or if you have questions, the Cherokee Recreation District can be contacted at their website here:
Cherokee Recreation District | Cherokee County (cherokeecountysc.gov)
The previous night, 910 men and horses has been selected from the army of nearly 2,000 frontiersmen who had gathered at "the Cowpens." This select group continued riding through the night, wrapping their flintlock rifles in their jackets to keep them dry from the rain that continued through the next morning.
By mid-morning on October 7, this force of backwoods Patriots knew they were closing in on their target of Patrick Ferguson and his Loyalist army; but they needed a place to cross the swollen Broad River that was not guarded or watched by spies.
They found that place at Cherokee Ford.
Now part of the Cherokee Recreation District's Ford Recreation Complex, the Cherokee Ford Trail is a (just over) 1-mile loop trail of gravel and natural surface that takes hikers down along the banks of the Broad River where the Patriots made their crossing on October 7, 1780.
Parking is available at a small gravel lot on Wolf Den Lane, or at the Ford Recreation Complex that the trail passes (to the side of the ballfield fence).
There are no restrooms at this facility.
For more information or if you have questions, the Cherokee Recreation District can be contacted at their website here:
Cherokee Recreation District | Cherokee County (cherokeecountysc.gov)