Field Trip: Scull Shoals. Part 4, Town Ruins – Oconee River Bridge & Superintendent’s House

We walked from the power plant west to the Oconee River to look at the remains of the bridge that had once crossed it, and then back over to the remains of the superintendent’s house.

The arched bridge and power plant are located to the south and slightly west of the store.

A sign indicates that the trail from the Oconee River Recreation Area parking lot is closed.

The Oconee River, looking to the north. The remains of the bridge are in the foreground – on the shore and on the ‘island’ in the river.

The shore line on the east side of the river. This section is rock and is a solid base for the bridge. The west side of the river doesn’t have this rock base and nothing remains of the bridge on that side.

The remains of the bridge pier on the island. Stone blocks are clearly visible.

A closer view of one of the stones. This shows the drilled holes that were used to guide the splitting of the stone. After the holes were drilled, dry wood dowels were hammered into them and moistened. The dowels expanded and caused the rock to split along the line of holes. At least two such stones were visible from the shore.

An iron rod was placed in a hole drilled in the rock on the shore at the approach to the bridge. Another hole remains on the other side of the approach but the rod has been removed at some time.

We climbed back up the bank and walked towards the parking lot. This took us directly past the superintendent’s house.

Looking from the ‘store side’ only a mound with some stones are visible.

From the’ river side’, a chamber lined with blue stone remains in relatively good repair. This is believed to have been a cellar.

A closer view of the cellar walls.

In addition to this site, there is a trail to the remains of the manager’s house. We didn’t have time to walk over to it; that will have to wait for another trip.
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Resources:
- Trip map (Google): Scull Shoals
- Friends of Scull Shoals: A Brief History of Scull Shoals Mill Village

Related posts:
- Field Trip: Scull Shoals. Part 1, Oconee River – Sandy Creek
- Field Trip: Scull Shoals. Part 2, Town Ruins – Store
- Field Trip: Scull Shoals. Part 3, Town Ruins – Arched Bridge & Power Plant
- Field Trip: Oconee-Greene County. Part 1, Elders Mill Covered Bridge
- Field Trip: Oconee-Greene County. Part 2, Sand Pit – Ward Rd
- Field Trip: Oconee-Greene County. Part 3. Oconee National Forest & Fishing Creek