electrician in Fort Lawn, SC

More than 115 years have passed since two dams were built on the Catawba River in the sleepy town of Great Falls to power three textile mills.

The mills in this Chester County town closed decades ago.

Residents still live in the mill villages. Historic store fronts along the town's main roads have been shuttered for years.

Residents have one grocery store, the Great Falls IGA, once a Piggly Wiggly. One of the town's remaining restaurants, The Flopeye Diner, has a sign on the porch with the word "hope."

Now, town and state leaders are hoping restaurants, shops, hotels and tourism-based companies will flood the town and wash away its economically-depressed status with the completion of Duke Energy's wide-scale project on the Catawba River.

Duke officials said the Great Falls-Dearborn project, which will create new recreational channels along the river for kayaking, is about 70% complete.

The project was scheduled to open this summer, but additional work was needed, said Michael Brissie, manager of generation project engineering for Duke. Brissie said the facilities will open in spring of 2023.

The project has many components — public to access channels on the river, a state park with hiking trails, an historic visitor's center, a pedestrian bridge, a 3,000-foot hiking trail on an island, parking and restrooms — all within three miles.

"This is a game-changer, obviously for Great Falls," state Sen. Mike Fanning said.

Duke started construction on the project at the Great Falls Reservoir more than a year ago. As part of a new license for the Catawba-Wateree Project in 2015, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission requires Duke to provide recreation, enhancement to water quality and quantity, fish and wildlife habitat protection and land conservation along the river.

The main focus of this project is to bring water back to two channels, or bypasses, that were cut off more than a hundred years ago. Those channels made up the 50-foot Great Falls of the Catawba, the town's namesake.

One channel will be the long bypass, a 2.25 mile stretch for leisure kayaking and canoeing. The long bypass will have Class II and III rapids, which are appropriate for families and individuals wanting a leisurely trip down the river, said Duke spokesman Ben Williamson. The short bypass will have faster water flowing over three-quarters of a mile that will have Class III and IV rapids and is geared more to experienced kayakers, said Christy Churchill, recreation planner for Duke.

Duke can control how much water it releases into the channels. Tourists will be able to check the flow schedules online, or through an app, when planning trips.

To date, Duke has built the Nitrolee Access Area with restrooms and parking for 100 vehicles. Nitrolee will be the primary public hub for access the Great Falls Reservoir and the long bypass. Adjacent to the parking lot on property owned by the Catawba Valley Land Trust is the Arc Building that was part of the Nitrolee plant in the early 1900s. The historic building will become the visitor's center.

Within a year of the project's completion, the site will be connected to the Carolina Thread Trail, a regional network of "connected greenways, trails and blueways that reaches 15 counties," according to the trail's website.

Another component of the project will be a state park on Dearborn Island. Duke is providing money to the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism to help the state develop a park on the 600-acre island with trails, Churchill said. Construction on the park, which will have a campground area, will begin once the lease with Duke and SCPRT is finalized, she said.

Duke also will build a pedestrian bridge from a kayak launch to provide access to the island.

Fanning said ideas are floating to offer a unique camping experience, including "glamping," or glamorous camping, where campers stay in modern-day yurts. He said Dearborn Island will be the third state park in Chester County, which is rare in South Carolina.

"We have plenty of regular camping and so this island is going to be a way for you to spend time on a campground and have a different form of camping," Fanning said.

Duke also will create a trail, roughly half a mile, on Mountain Island at the Cedar Creek Reservoir that will allow kayakers to hike back and put their kayaks back in the water.

Churchill said the Dearborn project is unique.

"I would bet in the country, it's pretty one-of-a-kind," Churchill said. "It's like an engineered system to enhance the natural experience."

Glinda Price Coleman, executive director of the Great Falls Town Home Association, said the return of the water is a "game changer" since the mills closed in the 1980s.

"And since then, there's been several attempts to do something to punch up the economic structure here in town," she said.

The Great Falls Home Town Association is a community and economic development nonprofit that has rallied to have nature-based tourism brought to Great Falls and the surrounding community since 2000, Coleman said.

Coleman said developers and businesses are looking into the area, but could not elaborate on specific plans. The plan now is to bring opportunities for local entrepreneurship and attract businesses to set up shop, Coleman said.

Coleman said an array of business would "be another layer of what will bring people here, not only the natural beauty that we have in the area and outdoor recreation opportunities that we have with the trails and the whitewater and the state park."

Data produced by the nonprofit, American Whitewater, estimates that whitewater activities alone will bring $3.1-$4.6 million to Great Falls annually. Coleman has said it will likely exceed that.

"I think it's providing (Great Falls) a catalyst to begin work from their perspective and from their point-of-view building back their town," Churchill said. "We're building the recreation and then from there, hopefully they can build up interest in the general public and tourism to come down to this area and go rafting, go to the park on the trails, and hopefully bring some economic benefit to the area."

Fanning said Chester County has been "looking for that next big thing and the timing is perfect."

He pointed to California-based wine giant E&J Gallo, which is building its first East Coast facility in Fort Lawn, a small town in Chester County.

Fanning said the Dearborn project "will be the single largest development, economic development, dollar amount that we've seen in a project that was not a business in the history of Chester County."

Fanning said 53 business leaders, residents and town officials from Chester, Lancaster, York and Fairfield counties meet every month to discuss the project.

"I don't want it just to have water that comes down at a high speed," Fanning said. "We're looking to promote this as a destination for people to come and spend their time and just take advantage of spending time outdoors."

Fanning said community members have met with investors to promote the area. The discussions have centered around Great Falls but Fanning is touting Eastern Chester County as the "outdoor recreational capital of the Southeast."

He said the experience will be "phenomenal." "You think about the fact that people have been doing indoor whitewater rafting in Charlotte forever," Fanning said. "Meaning we know there's a demand, we know that we're going to have people coming from all over and it's going to be spectacular."

Kayakers can visit the U.S. National Whitewater Center in nearby Charlotte, North Carolina, but the Great Falls project is not an event venue or center, Churchill said.

"They are totally different animals," Churchill said.

The Great Falls whitewater experience comes from a free-flowing channel.

"Obviously the structures that we're building to help manage the flow is man-made," Churchill said. "However, the channel itself and all the features, the scenery, it's all nature."

Fanning said a year ago, locals were "rolling their eyes and saying here's another promise that will never come to pass." But now you can drive ... and you can see the work, he added.

"This is going to happen," Fanning said. "It will happen within the next year and it will be phenomenal."

In what promises to be a family-friendly day of history, reenactments and games, Old Santee Canal Park, the Berkeley County Museum and Lord Berkeley Conservation Trust are welcoming visitors of all ages to their Colonial Day and Fort Fair Lawn grand opening, which kicks off at 10 a.m. on Sept. 24 at 900 Stony Landing Road in Moncks Corner.

The occasion marks the grand opening of Fort Fair Lawn, situated a mile away from Old Santee Canal Park.

Fort Fair Lawn is one of only two earthen military strongholds left in the United States, recounts Berkeley County Museum Director Chelsy Proper, with the other being Star Fort at the Ninety Six Historic Site, about 60 miles south of Greenville.

The Sept. 24 event will allow spectators to see Fort Fair Lawn in its current state, along with taking in reenactments provided by performers dressed in colonial attire. Some of the on-site actors will be armed with muskets and they may even fire off a canon or two.

As for the historical significance of the site, Proper explains that Fort Fair Lawn was actually built in the late 1770s by the British as a holding area to store their military armaments.

“They had it here because it’s close to the Cooper River and they were able to get their supplies up here. Moncks Corner was strategic during the revolution because it was kind of the gateway to Charleston,

“They really wanted to capture Charleston — which they did. The fort was held by the British until (late) 1781, when the patriots came in and attacked [it] and took it over.”

From that point, American troops never utilized Fort Fair Lawn, as the structure was left to be surrounded in overgrown vegetation while it progressively sank deeper into the ground.

And though it was practically abandoned by American forces, centuries later, historian Douglas Bostick of the South Carolina Preservation Battleground Trust describes the site in glowing terms by stating: “Fort Fair Lawn is probably the most pristine, intact original American Revolutionary War fortification in South Carolina, if not the country.”

Over the next 240 years after its abandonment, many locals would go drink beers at the fort or even ride their go carts around the old fortress.

So, while much of the action and reenactment activities are taking place at the fort site on Sept. 24, those who seek a deeper understanding of what transpired in Moncks Corner and the surrounding Charleston area during the American Revolutionary War period can drop in on a lecture at Old Santee Canal Park. The historical learning sessions are scheduled to run from 10 a.m. through 3 p.m.

The subjects covered during these discussions will include a snapshot of residents who remained loyal to the British regime, as well as South Carolina’s connection to Barbados, as many Charlestonians of the time originally came from the island country in the West Indies. In fact, many plantations in South Carolina very closely resemble similar estates that were prevalent in Barbados.

In addition, the first annual Colonial Day will feature games for children in the form of scavenger hunts. Other event activities include indigo dyeing, candle making, native birds/plant talk, the fabrication of sweetgrass baskets and an information session on colonial medicine.

And those who wish to tour the Berkeley Historic Museum can enjoy an up-close and personal view of artifacts found inside Fort Fair Lawn in the form of buttons, soldier belt and shoe buckles and more.

Proper considers Colonial Day and the grand opening of Fort Fair Lawn as an exciting learning opportunity for many newcomers to the Lowcountry.

“There are so many people moving to the area that a lot of them don’t know this history. So, there has been a renewed interest just in the [American] Revolutionary War in general. I’m not sure where that renewed interest comes from, I’m just glad it’s here,” says the researcher/interpreter who hails from the Bluegrass State of Kentucky.

Additional information on the Sept. 24 affair can be found on Berkeley County Museum and Heritage Center Facebook page.

Guests at a children's birthday party in Connecticut were shocked when an unexpected guest—a large black bear—crashed the party and went straight for the cupcakes.

Footage of the close encounter was captured by guests at the party that Laura Majidian threw for her 2-year-old son on Sunday in West Hartford, Connecticut.

Black Bears in America

The video is a reminder that black bears reside in heavily forested areas across the United States, with more than 8,600 reported bear sightings in Connecticut in 2021 alone, according to the state.

While bears are normally wary of humans, food-motivated bears can lose their fear of people and often search for food where people have disposed of it, including in trash cans left outside.

To avoid nuisance bears, experts recommend purchasing a bear-resistant trash can or moving bins inside. They also recommend thoroughly cleaning outdoor grills after use and keeping bird feeders away from the house.

'A Big Bear'

"Oh my god," a woman can be heard in the background as the bear eats food off the outdoor table. "That's a big bear."

Another person in the background can be heard saying to make sure everybody goes in the house while the bear licks icing off the cupcakes.

"Bear crashing Cyrus's second birthday," a man said.

The bear then puts the whole cupcake in his mouth as adults gasp in awe before the bear moves and the video cuts. You can view the video here.

Local outlets reported that the bear emerged from the woods as the children were dancing outside. She recalled grabbing "armfuls of children" out of the way but told WTNH that the bear was not aggressive—just curious about the cupcakes.

Safety Tips

Although there are an estimated 300,000 black bears living in the United States, attacks are "extremely rare," according to the National Park Services (NPS).

Attacks generally occur when a foraging bear is frightened or a human is between a mother and her cubs. The NPS recommends that if you come in contact with a black bear follow this advice:

"Remember that the bear is likely more scared of you than you are of him," they said. Keep in mind that these recommendations are for black bear attacks and not grizzly or brown bears.

According to the Forest Service, black bears are known for their excellent climbing skills which allow them to quickly scurry up trees.

Other Bear Encounters

In July, a South Carolina woman got a visit from a black bear at her front door at 3:30 a.m. Another bear shocked residents in a California neighborhood when it was discovered playing soccer on a person's front lawn.

In the same month, in Canada, a terrified woman recorded the moment a black bear approached her at a bus stop.

The nation's largest winemaker is quickly approaching its target for beginning operations at its massive East Coast hub in Chester County.

E. & J. Gallo Winery remains on track to start operations in October at its regional distribution center, which is part of the company's $423 million first phase of its Fort Lawn project. Erich Kaepp, who leads Gallo's East Coast operations, said the project's first manufacturing elements are also on track for an anticipated February 2023 production start.

Gallo formally announced its plans for the massive project last year after securing a significant incentives package. S.C. lawmakers also changed the state's alcohol laws to accommodate the company's operations.

Hiring is well underway, Kaepp said, with the first 15 employees for the distribution operations hired and undergoing training at York Technical College. The hiring process is moving along quickly, he added, and the company had announced nearly 500 jobs would be created in the project's first phase.

"(No concerns) for the labor cycle and the hiring," Kaepp told the Charlotte Business Journal. "That has been phenomenal. The local community has been great. We put our first 15 job postings out there and we had well over 300 applicants."

The California-based company has acquired around 640 acres at the intersection of S.C. Highway 9 and U.S. Highway 21 for the East Coast hub. The first phase is expected to include the regional distribution center, a production facility, warehousing, bottling, canning and an import and export hub.

Gallo is planning to open three production lines next year as part of the Chester County project's first phase. A production line for the company's High Noon brand is what's slated to open in February. The next two production lines are tentatively scheduled to open in May and August.

"Then, the sky is the limit from there," Kaepp said.

A construction timetable for the following phases is still being finalized. The first portion of Gallo's Chester County operations is expected to take up around 300 acres, Kaepp said. In total, the master-planned site will have five phases. It is expected to include well over $1 billion in total investment and the creation of more than 1,000 jobs.

The project site is serviced by the Lancaster & Chester Railroad and provides the winemaker with access to the Port of Charleston. The connectivity and abundance of land available for future expansions made the site attractive to Gallo's leadership.

After breaking ground on the project last summer, Gallo is now moving to bring the operational side of the project to life.

"That's one of the things that we're really striving to do here is establish a culture," Kaepp said. "If you do that correctly, all of the other things will take care of themselves."

More than 115 years have passed since two dams were built on the Catawba River in the sleepy town of Great Falls to power three textile mills.

The mills in this Chester County, S.C., town closed decades ago.

Residents still live in the mill villages. Historic store fronts along the town’s main roads have been shuttered for years.

Residents have one grocery store, the Great Falls IGA, once a Piggly Wiggly. One of the town’s remaining restaurants, The Flopeye Diner, has a sign on the porch with the word “hope.”

Now, town and state leaders are hoping restaurants, shops, hotels and tourism-based companies will flood the town and wash away its economically-depressed status with the completion of Duke Energy’s wide-scale project on the Catawba River.

Duke officials said the Great Falls-Dearborn project, which will create new recreational channels along the river for kayaking, is about 70 percent complete.

The project was scheduled to open this summer, but additional work was needed, said Michael Brissie, manager of generation project engineering for Duke. Brissie said the facilities will open in spring of 2023.

The project has many components — public to access channels on the river, a state park with hiking trails, an historic visitor’s center, a pedestrian bridge, a 3,000-foot hiking trail on an island, parking and restrooms — all within three miles.

“This is a game-changer, obviously for Great Falls,” said S.C. Sen. Mike Fanning.

Duke started construction on the project at the Great Falls Reservoir more than a year ago. As part of a new license for the Catawba-Wateree Project in 2015, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission requires Duke to provide recreation, enhancement to water quality and quantity, fish and wildlife habitat protection and land conservation along the river.

The main focus of this project is to bring water back to two channels, or bypasses, that were cut off more than a hundred years ago. Those channels made up the 50-foot Great Falls of the Catawba, the town’s namesake.

One channel will be the long bypass, a 2.25 mile stretch for leisure kayaking and canoeing. The long bypass will have Class II and III rapids, which are appropriate for families and individuals wanting a leisurely trip down the river, said Duke spokesman Ben Williamson. The short bypass will have faster water flowing over three-quarters of a mile that will have Class III and IV rapids and is geared more to experienced kayakers, said Christy Churchill, recreation planner for Duke.

Duke can control how much water it releases into the channels. Tourists will be able to check the flow schedules online, or through an app, when planning trips.

To date, Duke has built the Nitrolee Access Area with restrooms and parking for 100 vehicles. Nitrolee will be the primary public hub for access the Great Falls Reservoir and the long bypass. Adjacent to the parking lot on property owned by the Catawba Valley Land Trust is the Arc Building that was part of the Nitrolee plant in the early 1900s. The historic building will become the visitor’s center.

Within a year of the project’s completion, the site will be connected to the Carolina Thread Trail, a regional network of “connected greenways, trails and blueways that reaches 15 counties,” according to the trail’s website.

Another component of the project will be a state park on Dearborn Island. Duke is providing money to the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism to help the state develop a park on the 600-acre island with trails, Churchill said. Construction on the park, which will have a campground area, will begin once the lease with Duke and SCPRT is finalized, she said.

Duke also will build a pedestrian bridge from a kayak launch to provide access to the island.

Fanning said ideas are floating to offer a unique camping experience, including “glamping,” or glamorous camping, where campers stay in modern-day yurts. He said Dearborn Island will be the third state park in Chester County, which is rare in S.C.

“We have plenty of regular camping and so this island is going to be a way for you to spend time on a campground and have a different form of camping,” Fanning said.

Duke also will create a trail, roughly half a mile, on Mountain Island at the Cedar Creek Reservoir that will allow kayakers to hike back and put their kayaks back in the water.

Churchill said the Dearborn project is unique.

“I would bet in the country, it’s pretty one-of-a-kind,” Churchill said. “It’s like an engineered system to enhance the natural experience.”

Glinda Price Coleman, executive director of the Great Falls Town Home Association, said the return of the water is a “game changer” since the mills closed in the 1980s.

“And since then, there’s been several attempts to do something to punch up the economic structure here in town,” she said.

The Great Falls Home Town Association is a community and economic development nonprofit that has rallied to have nature-based tourism brought to Great Falls and the surrounding community since 2000, Coleman said.

Coleman said developers and businesses are looking into the area, but could not elaborate on specific plans. The plan now is to bring opportunities for local entrepreneurship and attract businesses to set up shop, Coleman said.

Coleman said an array of business would “be another layer of what will bring people here, not only the natural beauty that we have in the area and outdoor recreation opportunities that we have with the trails and the whitewater and the state park.”

Data produced by the nonprofit, American Whitewater, estimates that whitewater activities alone will bring $3.1-$4.6 million to Great Falls annually. Coleman has said it will likely exceed that.

“I think it’s providing (Great Falls) a catalyst to begin work from their perspective and from their point-of-view building back their town,” Churchill said. “We’re building the recreation and then from there, hopefully they can build up interest in the general public and tourism to come down to this area and go rafting, go to the park on the trails, and hopefully bring some economic benefit to the area.”

Fanning said Chester County has been “looking for that next big thing and the timing is perfect.”

He pointed to California-based wine giant E&J Gallo, which is building its first East Coast facility in Fort Lawn, a small town in Chester County.

Fanning said the Dearborn project “will be the single largest development, economic development, dollar amount that we’ve seen in a project that was not a business in the history of Chester County.”

Fanning said 53 business leaders, residents and town officials from Chester, Lancaster, York and Fairfield counties meet every month to discuss the project.

“I don’t want it just to have water that comes down at a high speed,” Fanning said. “We’re looking to promote this as a destination for people to come and spend their time and just take advantage of spending time outdoors.”

Fanning said community members have met with investors to promote the area. The discussions have centered around Great Falls but Fanning is touting Eastern Chester County as the “outdoor recreational capital of the Southeast.”

He said the experience will be “phenomenal.”

“You think about the fact that people have been doing indoor whitewater rafting in Charlotte forever,” Fanning said. “Meaning we know there’s a demand, we know that we’re going to have people coming from all over and it’s going to be spectacular.”

Kayakers can visit the U.S. National Whitewater Center in nearby Charlotte, but the Great Falls project is not an event venue or center, Churchill said.

“They are totally different animals,” Churchill said.

The Great Falls whitewater experience comes from a free-flowing channel.

“Obviously the structures that we’re building to help manage the flow is man-made,” Churchill said. “However, the channel itself and all the features, the scenery, it’s all nature.”

Fanning said a year ago, locals were “rolling their eyes and saying here’s another promise that will never come to pass.”

But now you can drive down S.C. 21 and you can see the work, he added.

“This is going to happen,” Fanning said. “It will happen within the next year and it will be phenomenal.”

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Governor Henry McMaster and the S.C. Department of Commerce today announced that E. & J. Gallo Winery (Gallo), a global wine and spirits company, will build a new state-of-the-art production facility and distribution center in Chester County to support future business growth and its long-term innovation plans. The $423 million investment will create 496 new jobs over the next eight years.

“Gallo’s investment will transform Chester County and contribute greatly to South Carolina’s economic prosperity. Creating a business environment in which world-class brands can grow and thrive is critical to South Carolina’s long-term economic success, especially in our rural communities,” said Governor Henry McMaster. “We are glad for their partnership and look forward to a long and fruitful relationship.”

Providing bottling and canning capacity as well as warehousing and distribution for the company’s growing portfolio of wine and spirit brands, the new South Carolina facility will allow Gallo to better meet customer demand on the East Coast, while reducing its overall carbon footprint. Given Chester County’s proximity to the Port of Charleston, this new location will also serve as a hub for Gallo’s import and export business.

“We could not be more appreciative of the collaboration and support shown by the state of South Carolina, the South Carolina Department of Commerce, and those in Chester County along with all of the public and private entities who have embraced this project throughout the planning process and have welcomed us to the community,” said Gallo CEO, Ernest J. Gallo.

Construction on the new facility is set to begin almost immediately, with the first phase of the project on track to be completed in October of 2022. Gallo is working closely with readySC to prepare for hiring and various workforce training needs. Individuals interested in joining the Gallo team should visit www.gallocareers.com/southcarolina for more information.

The Coordinating Council for Economic Development has approved job development credits related to this project. A $16 million Rural Infrastructure Fund grant was also awarded to Chester County to assist with costs of the project.

Last month, the S.C. Department of Commerce went before the Joint Bond Review Committee and the State Fiscal Accountability Authority and received authorization for $8 million in bonds to offset costs of off-site mitigation under the Economic Development Bond Act.

QUOTES

“Cheers to E. & J. Gallo Winery on today’s big announcement that the company is establishing operations in South Carolina. We often say economic development is a team sport in S.C., and this project demonstrates the true collaboration on the local and state levels and beyond. Gallo’s $423 million investment and the 496 new jobs in Chester County will transform the region. We take pride in our state’s business-friendly environment, and we welcome Gallo to our roster of world-class companies within our borders.” -Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt

“We are delighted that E. & J. Gallo selected Chester County as the home for their new East Coast operation. This is a project of regional significance, and Gallo selected us after an extensive search by J.M. Mullis Inc. They determined that our strong manufacturing base and proximity to talent were the key determining factors. Chester County is in a great strategic location along the I-77 corridor between two metros: Charlotte and Columbia. We are honored to have this company locate in Chester County.” -Chester County Council Chair Dr. Wylie Frederick

“E. & J. Gallo Winery is a first-rate, world-class, family-owned company. The city of Lancaster is thrilled to partner with E. & J. Gallo Winery and our across-the-river neighbors to bring good jobs, fine wines and spirits and economic vitality to our region.” -City of Lancaster Mayor Alston DeVenny

“The town of Fort Lawn is very excited that E. & J. Gallo Winery has chosen our area for this expansion of their operations. We are looking forward to working with them as they continue to grow and develop this distribution network. Gallo’s rich family history and sense of community are just what we need here in Fort Lawn and Chester County. E. & J. Gallo Winery has shown that they are a great neighbor and supporter of their community, and they are making a substantial investment and commitment that will benefit Fort Lawn and the surrounding region. We are confident this will help attract other companies to join in what is sure to be great things for the Fort Lawn community.” -Town of Fort Lawn Mayor Carlton Martin

“South Carolina Ports is thrilled to be an integral part of E. & J. Gallo Winery’s global supply chain. This family-owned, California-based company has seen sustainable growth with both wine and spirits. Gallo’s $423 million investment to open a wine bottling and distribution plant in Chester County relies on the ability to import through the Port of Charleston. SC Ports’ efficient operations and reliable service meet the needs of this global wine industry leader.” -SC Ports President and CEO Jim Newsome

“The proposition of the I-77 region as an ideal location for corporate investment is truly validated when E. & J. Gallo, the nation’s largest winemaker, selects it for their East Coast operations hub. Distribution will be a priority component of this expansion and fortunately the I-77 region is within a single day’s truck drive of 42% of the U.S. market, including five of the 10 fastest-growing U.S. metro areas. This location, coupled with the region’s tremendous transportation infrastructure and South Carolina’s pro-business climate, creates a truly compelling opportunity for a company’s sustainable growth.” -I-77 Alliance Interim President and CEO Christopher Finn

“The Lancaster & Chester Railroad (L&C) is thrilled to partner with E. & J. Gallo Winery, supporting the continued growth of their impressive wine and spirits business. Knowing the selection criteria for this project required access to both Class I rail networks and excellent daily service, we were pleased to help them locate a great site. Celebrating its 125-year anniversary, L&C is honored that E. & J. Gallo Winery has chosen Chester County for this generational investment. As part of the Gulf & Ohio Railways family of short lines, L&C welcomes E. & J. Gallo Winery to one of the best economic development regions on the East Coast.” -Gulf & Ohio Railways Chief Business Development Officer Matt Gedney

“Duke Energy is happy to have played a pivotal role in helping E. & J. Gallo Winery understand everything Chester County and South Carolina have to offer. For more than a century, Duke Energy has powered the state and its economy through significant business recruitment and retention efforts, and we look forward to serving our new neighbors in Fort Lawn for many years to come.” -Duke Energy South Carolina President Mike Callahan

E. & J. Gallo plans to build a new bottling plant in South Carolina, a facility that would serve as Gallo’s main hub east of the Mississippi, according to various reports.

The world’s biggest wine company plans to build the plant on more than 600 acres in Fort Lawn, Chester County, in an area once known for its textile mills, according to the multiple sources. Fort Lawn is about 45 minutes south from Charlotte Douglas International Airport and an hour north from Columbia, SC.

Modesto-based Gallo plans to invest more than $400 million over the next eight years and hire nearly 500 employees, Rob Donoho, head of Gallo’s global chain functions, told South Carolina state legislators on March 9. It would only be the first of five phases, Donoho noted.

“This is really intended to be our East Coast home for the Gallo enterprise for decades and decades to come,” Donoho said.

The plant, which could be reached by rail, would be designed to bottle wine in different formats, including glass, cans, bag-in-box and small plastic bottles, according to Donoho. It will also be a warehousing and distribution center for wine bottled in California and shipped to Chester County, according to Donoho’s presentation. The company could also produce its own cans on site, Donoho said.

Gallo, an importer and exporter, also plans to “double or triple” its operations at the Port of Charleston, according to Donoho.

No timeline has been given. Still Donoho and other representatives spoke of the company’s commitment.

“We do actively want to come to South Carolina. There has been a tremendous vetting process,” Donoho told the South Carolina Senate Judiciary subcommittee which is considering a bill to allow Gallo to have up to four satellite tasting rooms for educational and marketing purposes. “We’re very close to closing the deal,” he said.

Donoho cited the economic and environmental benefits of having the plant in South Carolina, given that about 70 percent of its customers are on the East Coast.

“Being a wine grape producer on the West Coast puts us at a logistics disadvantage to getting products to our consumers,” Donoho said. Shipping “heavy” glass bottles and cardboard cross country, he said, was “very expensive.”

Instead, it is “much cheaper“ for the company to ship its wine to the East Coast and source the glass and other packaging locally, Donoho said. “There is a tremendous logistics advantage to doing that.”

Donoho also noted the “sustainability” benefit of “not burning as much fuel to get the product to the consumers.”

The state’s other benefits would include supply chain revenues and the demand for trucking services, according to the presentation. In addition, the satellite tasting rooms Gallo wants to open could spur tourism, Donoho and others said.

Minimum wage in South Carolina is $7.25/hour.

Among the factors that led Gallo to choose South Carolina to build its “East Coast home,” Donoho cited South Carolina’s business-friendly climate, its location to the port of Charleston, and S.C. Ready, a state-sponsored job training program. “It’s truly one of the things that attracted us to the state,” he said.

Donoho addressed the subcommittee as the state Legislature considers S. 619, a bill that would allow Gallo to have up to four satellite tasting rooms in the state. Gallo’s representatives have called the provision a “critical” point to the company coming to the state. The tasting rooms will be a marketing and educational tool and will build brand awareness, Donoho said. Their locations for the tasting rooms, which could be 800 to 1,200 square feet, according to Donoho, were not specified.

South Carolina’s top elected officials, including Gov. Henry McMaster, have strongly backed the Gallo project in Chester County.

In a March 9 letter to the state legislators, McMaster urged support for S. 619. Gallo was “very close to announcing a once-in-a-generation $400 million capital investment in Chester County that will create nearly 500 jobs,” McMaster wrote. The investment will “transform the community and contribute greatly to South Carolina’s economic prosperity.”

E. & J. Gallo, he wrote, “is a well-respected, family owned company with products that are distributed across the globe.”

South Carolina State Sen. Brad Hutto, D – Orangeburg, voiced support for Gallo, noting the jobs that could be created. “We look forward to having them,” Hutto said, referring to Gallo.

The Senate Judiciary subcommittee was scheduled to meet again Thursday regarding S. 619. Current state wine law does not address satellite tasting rooms. The legislation was drafted after the South Carolina’s Department of Commerce, which is helping Gallo come to the state, approached the Department of Revenue to figure out the next steps, according to testimony before the state’s Senate Judiciary subcommittee.

The state Department of Commerce has submitted an application to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to seek a permit to build the plant. Construction would require filling about 1 acre of wetlands and about 8,000 feet of tributaries, according to the public notice. The environmental evaluation of the project is under way, according to the federal agency.

Gallo’s name was not mentioned as the applicant behind the Fort Lawn project until recently.

The financial agreement between Gallo and local officials has not been unveiled either. The Chester County Council has discussed the project, code named “Project Magma,” in closed-door sessions.

The secrecy did not sit well with Michael McLain who lives near the site where the proposed Gallo facility may be built. He found the identity of his potential new neighbor through the U.S. Corps of Engineers, he said. “You’re not watching after us,” McLain told the Chester County Council early March.

The plant is going to “squash the value of my property and my home and is going to be annoying the crap out of me every morning and every evening by being right across the street from me, shining lights in and out of my house,” McLain said.

This week, however, a manager at The Wagon Wheel restaurant in Fort Lawn said the Gallo plant would bring jobs to the community.

The South Carolina Department of Commerce and a Gallo representative declined to give more specifics on the company’s South Carolina plans.

“E. & J. Gallo Winery is constantly reviewing the strategic options of its business in order to meet growing global demand; toward that end, we are exploring potential operational investment opportunities on the east coast. Nothing is finalized at this stage and we don’t have specifics at this time, however we are continuing to explore strategic options within our business as we plan for the future,” Gallo representative Natalie Hoch Henderson said in an email.

Companies mentioned in this article:

E & J Gallo Winery

A thrift shop owner and her husband bidding on storage units in Savannah in October 2021 were in for a surprise when they went through their latest find and discovered that someone had left cremated human remains inside.

“It was one of the first things my son found,” Megan Leigh, the owner of My Angel’s Attic thrift shop in Jasper County, said. “My husband wanted to take them to the dump and I was like, ‘no, we cannot do that.’”

With only a name, birthday and death date that were printed on one side of the pink marble urn, Leigh took to Facebook to try and track down the family, she said. She made posts in Savannah and Jasper County community pages on social media, but no one seemed to know who the woman was. After messaging multiple people with the same last name printed on the urn, or anyone she thought might have a connection to the 79-year-old woman, she found a grandson who lives in Oklahoma.

“He wanted her,” Leigh said. “They were originally going to cover the shipping cost, then he went MIA on me.”

Despite several messages, she never got an answer, she said. The woman, who passed away in 2019, is also from Oklahoma and, Leigh found out, her son was still in the Savannah area. She was able to get in contact with his wife, who told her they would drive to Jasper County to pick up the cremains. Again, Leigh said, the family disappeared.

“I would never have expected to find someone’s ashes,” Leigh said. “It broke my heart.”

Leigh’s own mother passed away two years ago and, she said, if she had lost her ashes she would have been “devastated.” When she first brought the woman’s ashes home, she didn’t know what to do with them. She considered placing them in her home beside her mother’s ashes and photo, but her family wasn’t too keen on the idea. The cremains now sit in the back of Leigh’s van. She sees them every day and tries to fill in the gaps of who the woman was.

“I can’t hold onto her forever,” Leigh said. “She’s not my mom, she’s not my family.”

Jasper County Coroner Willie P. Aiken III said that unclaimed cremains are, unfortunately, not an uncommon occurrence. His office even has cases of unclaimed cremains spanning decades, he said. He offered to take the cremains from Leigh and have his office contact the dead woman’s family, and, if there’s no response, place the cremains alongside the others in a mass burial.

Members of the woman’s family did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In the meantime, the ashes remain in Leigh’s van and she’s working on a solution: either getting the ashes back to the family or, when her “heart gives up,” trying to find a final resting place for them.

“My heart is soft,” Leigh said. “I have to just try.”

This story was originally published February 6, 2022 11:06 AM.