SOUTH CAROLINA: Sad, ODD Rural Towns That Are Fascinating - Far Off The Interstate

all right everyone I am in rural South Carolina uh let me show you where like I usually do I think you can see that I'm the blue dot in the middle see Columbia to the Northeast that is the state's capital of course Augusta is straight west on the border with Georgia these towns four of them very small towns very interesting there isn't fascinating aspect to every one of these towns they've got some pretty rough numbers let's say that up front but uh they are still interesting nonetheless now the town I'm entering right now is Springfield population of Springfield is 450 people Peak population was in 1930 there was 943 people here it's lost a little over half its population from its peak days what 90 years ago the um median age here is 38. kind of middle of the range as far as age is concerned um median household income is 32 600. and the median home value is 84 200. so that's well below the U.S average median home values in the U.S as an average is 428 000. now uh poverty is really high in this town 41 percent 41 of the people that live here uh live at or below what the U.S government designates as poverty uh the poverty level is that the way it really is well we're going to see in all these towns I'm about to show you violent crime is really high this town it's 7.1 per 1000 people that's almost twice higher than the national average of 3.8 today is Tuesday mid-January weather's really nice lots of sun it's going to get up into the low 60s so that will be very pleasant going to check out a couple things here now they're driving through downtown a lot of uh decay in downtown you would expect that since the town was twice bigger at one time I would guess a lot of these buildings were built in the early 1900s it's interesting though ah this building here right on the corner I guess was an old Bank you could see it was quite the grand building in its day yeah it's a bank well it's a bank today anyway looks like it's always has been there's a handful of cars here though look at this Rexall Borden's ice cream that is an old sign wow I would like to get that on in my man cave and that thing's probably worth some money at a you know antique store you get a lot of money for that now yeah clearly this is a quiet little town but it does have one huge event every year I'm just going to kind of drive into the residential a little bit they have something here once a year called the frog jump or the governor's frog jump once a year I believe it's in April throngs of people descend Upon This Town to do just exactly what a frog jump sounds like they bring their frogs and they compete to see who's frog can jump the farthest and the highest it's actually a very big event in this state every year so uh yes it's a quiet little town but they get a lot of people in here once a year for something that's very unique anyway uh so I'm gonna cruise around the town a little bit does the uh you know median home value of 84 000. do you really see that or is it just because it's a very low cost of living you're seeing this home there's nothing wrong with that one uh so I'm gonna go take a look around a little bit see what else is here uh now this building to the left here is the Springfield High School built in 1929 it is on the national register I definitely wanted to see this you don't see high schools on National registers for on the national register very much but this one is yeah I wonder if the people who own this realize how valuable that is it's even got a Borden's ice cream uh part of the sign it's in Neon can you imagine that light it up in your man cave that would be fantastic incredible a lot of great old stuff here I'll tell you this and it's an old downtown but there is a store or shop and all the in all the buildings the storefronts it's not unimpressive very quaint it's pretty awesome actually look at this beautiful home again it could use a little little TLC but look at that Woodwork and those two porches second floor porch as well it would cost you a fortune to get a home like that right now uh here's a house that has been abandoned nature is uh beginning the process of taking this one you hate to see that but you guys see that cat up on the roof look at it I want to zoom in on him there he is oh there he went on the other side anyway uh yeah that house the architectures pretty beautiful but uh unfortunately it is just being left to rot I hate to see that I am entering the town of Blackville population right now is around 1900 people Peak population was just a little over 20 years ago 2000 2973 people so almost 3 000 people towns lost about a thousand people um median age here is 37 years old poverty is high in this town just like the last one 35.8 for children it's worse children 17 and under the poverty rate is 57 percent so that is uh that is pretty high older folks it's pretty bad too 26 percent of people 65 and over live in poverty here median household income is nineteen thousand six hundred I don't have to tell you guys that's uh that's pretty low and um median home value is bad too sixty seven thousand five hundred all right any way you look at it this is a very poor town only 32 percent of the people who live here are married um 13 percent of the women who live here are widowed so it's uh some pretty interesting numbers violent crime is pretty high 5.5 per thousand people U.S average is 3.8 so uh crime is definitely a thing here so I'm going to take a look around it's a building here that has seen better days and it is for sale by the way uh but they do have something very interesting here it's called Healing Springs I'm going to show you that in a second I'm going to look around the town first though uh the homes in this town are not quite the same that they were in the last one trash on the ground yeah this home while beautiful at one time is uh been abandoned I got this one here this is a pretty stately old home and it's a day you can tell but uh yeah it looks like it caught on fire that's sad to see anyway yeah I'm gonna look around a little bit more looks like a laundromat at one time now closed uh just flipping a UE I'm gonna head back into the downtown area I guess see what's on the other side there got a house here that is just disintegrating disintegrating where it sits [Applause] and being taken by Mother Nature yeah it surprises me when I see that you know that that's just allowed to sit there but I guess there's no money to uh hotline tear it apart and haul it off uh see got a very old home here that's for sale yeah it's really nice you can tell that's geez 100 years old maybe it's a very old home yeah this one's for sale too a few nice houses here that's pretty cozy little home there uh let's see looks like an abandoned one here yeah there's a duplex just sitting empty and right across the street got this beauty here beautiful home now outside of blackfield here they have something called God's acre Healing Springs according to tradition Indians reference the water for its healing properties it's a gift from the great spirit this historical property has been deeded to God for public use please Revere God by keeping it clean yeah so I got me a bottle I'm gonna go get some water it's right over here yeah they just have some uh pipes coming out of the ground and you just um come in and get you some water so I'm gonna do that now the wife will love that it's really beautiful here [Applause] absolutely gorgeous yeah I filled up several bottles for the wifey she loves this pure water I'm gonna taste it uh let's see I tell you what you know it when you are drinking water at its purest that's really good all right everyone I'm entering the town of Denmark let me preface everything I say here before I tell you the numbers with this uh there are two colleges here Vorhees and uh Denmark Technical College so if they're counting those students they may be skewing the numbers a little bit median age here is 24. which makes it a really young town again I think they might be counting some of the students 26 percent of the population is between the ages of 10 and 19. population of the town is the peak population was in 1980 there were a little over 4 400 so the town has lost pretty good chunk of population median household income is 25 900. I am driving into downtown now poverty level is not as bad as the past two towns still high that's at 21.9 percent for folks 65 and over it's pretty bad though 31 percent crime is really high in this town really high 9.4 per 1000 people U.S average is 3.8 so it is triple the U.S average uh violent crime median home value is 63 500. that is very low 55 of the people who live here have graduated high school so that is really low too look at that is this the actual City Hollow under huh um let's see only 15 of the town has been married now that might be uh the colleges affecting the numbers again um 15 of the women who live here are widows so that that's an interesting number as well now there's some uh interesting buildings on the national register here in this town so I'm going to try to find those first I'm up on a side street looking at these buildings here you see that it says Mr BS Social Club you think that's an actual Club thirsty package store I've got uh Denmark grocery hmm now there's downtown the main street right there uh it's still looking around the uh American Telegraph and Telephone Company building built in 1928 uh it was instrumental in the development of telecommunication here in this part of South Carolina back then it's on the national register so I want to get a good glimpse of it I'm going to go to the Voorhees College most of that is on the unit on the register as well I did see some pretty interesting beautiful homes over here on Richard Street yeah it looks really nice over here yeah these are great looking homes the big porches it's a very Southern looking aren't they it's really nice those are beauties uh well then we got one here that is yeah this one's been left to rot it's a nice house too it's too bad hmm I read somewhere that South Carolina has a really high percentage of mobile homes people accuse me of being rich that I have no idea what it's like to be poor I grew up in a trailer park very similar to this no anyway uh there's this guy here in the middle of the road I want to do my best to not hitting because um yeah there's something definitely going on with him I'm not sure what he's going to get hit huh that was pretty crazy wasn't it it's gonna explode into town even though the poverty level is lower than the past two it looks higher I got to be perfectly honest with you yeah that caught on fire didn't it I'm entering the campus of Voorhees University much of the school is on a national register it was founded in the late 1800s by a woman named Evelyn Wright she was a protege of Booker T Washington and she willed this University into existence she was a huge proponent of higher education for the underserved African-American community and it's why she uh got this place built like I said many of the buildings are on the national register they were built by many of them anyway built by the students themselves so uh that's pretty impressive driving around the campus a little bit it's uh it's really nice the campus it's really pretty what I've seen of it so far um like I said there are I think 12 buildings on the national register including this one this church Saint Phillips Episcopal Chapel yeah I'm just uh on the main grounds right now hopefully you can see it the sun's kind of in the wrong place anyway uh yeah it's uh it's remarkable that one African-American woman in the late 1800s early 1900s no less was able to get this founded and built yeah it's a better angle with the Sun see the school much of it the campus here okay I can see more of it this way more of the town here really a lot of this here see a home being swallowed up by Nature back there was a dog just hanging out let's see that this is I store it one time it looks like no more foreign homes here and that didn't mark just all over the place I'm entering the town of Bamberg this will be the last town to visit the town is named after Founding Father William Bamberg some of his descendants live here to this day there's about 3 000 people in the town now Peak population was 1990 there was almost 3 900. so the town has lost some population median age is 53. this is definitely an older town people 60 to 69 years of age make up 19 of the population [Music] let's see uh poverty level really high 31.6 children 17 and under it's even worse poverty level for them is 59 percent 38 of the town is married another interesting number I thought 23 percent of the women who live in this town are widows 23 percent crime is pretty high actually really high 8.9 per 1000 people again the U.S average is 3.8 and median home value is seventy five thousand nine hundred so like the towns before homes are very inexpensive here so I'm gonna take a look around and see what I see here the town has a very famous resident or former resident a person that was born here in the political world I will tell you about her in just a second now here's another building on the national register that is of note it is the Bamberg post office built in 1938 it's on a national register it's notable because it was built during Roosevelt's New Deal and the architecture reflects that it's actually called New Deal architecture so uh yeah that's really interesting I'm going to drive back into this downtown and tell you what I think is wrong with it there's no parking in fact the buildings if you notice are just crammed right up to the street it's kind of a bad design isn't it so it doesn't surprise you that it is the dead zone here in downtown Bamberg there's no people walking around I mean you just barely got a sidewalk and then you hit the storefront see that I have to say I do not like that without question there are some beautiful homes here in Bamberg um the famous person born here I was going to tell you about well that one's in bad shape it's a beautiful house though anyway Nikki Haley was born here and now if you follow politics you know exactly who I'm talking about she was uh governor of South Carolina twice first female governor of South Carolina and then here recently she was the U.S ambassador to the United Nations she's really outspoken politically look at that beautiful old house be nice if someone was to fix that up anyway yeah she's very outspoken politically and uh there's talk of her being a presidential candidate or even vice president in the upcoming 2024 election she is of Indian descent both her parents immigrated from India to here in Bamberg and uh yeah like I said she was born here all right everybody gonna call it a day here um next video uh the wife and I will be in Columbia South Carolina the capital city so uh you looking for that one see you then

Channel: Joe & Nic's Road Trip

Views: 1,130,977

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Id: QY_4-7xzRYM

Length: 29min 18sec (1758 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 26 2023