State Agricultural Museum Opens in Pendleton

Those who helped create the Bart Garrison Agricultural Museum of South Carolina hope that the museum will celebrate the legacy of agriculture in South Carolina while helping to point the way to its future.

The museum held a Grand Opening Friday afternoon and also unveiled the first phase of its exhibits.

“To say that I'm happy to be here is possibly the understatement of the decade,” said Vicki Fletcher, executive director of the museum's parent organization, the Pendleton District Commission.

The interactive museum utilizes farm life artifacts dating back 200 hundred years.

Les McCall, curator of collections, was named the museum during the grand opening.

“We're here for agriculture and agricultural education in South Carolina,” he said. “It's a museum for all ages.”

The museum focuses on the state's agricultural heritage as well as how agriculture will impact our culture and our economy in the future,” McCall said.

The museum's focus is reflected in its motto, “Come Grow With Us.”

“We're about ag, we're about growing and producing,” McCall said. “But also because we believe this museum is going places. This is just phase one, merely the beginning, our first foot in the door of what we can do.”

South Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture Hugh Weathers said agriculture is the way “we connect South Carolina's past to our present and more importantly to our future.”

“South Carolina agriculture today is very vibrant,” he said.

Many businesses and producers fall under the “big tent” of agriculture from dairy farms like the one Weathers himself grew up on to larger agribusiness to organic farms in the state.

“Where do we go in the future?” he asked before sharing statistic that's “a little disheartening.”

“The average farmer in South Carolina is 60 years old,” he said. “How do we attract at that next generation?”

There's no “better example” than the members of the Future Farmers of America, Weathers said.

Clemson University and the Department of Agriculture partner on the Commissioner's School of Agriculture, now in its tenth year.

“Trying to find kids who don't necessarily come from an ag background to take a look at agricultural and agribusiness as an academic opportunity, but then stay in our industry here in South Carolina.”

Sen. Danny Verdin said the state is moving “back to the future” with agriculture.

“From the inception of this colonial proprietary state 300-plus years ago, agricultural and agribusiness pursuits drove the dreams and aspirations of the people who populate this great state,” Verdin said.

Verdin said the family farms that connected agriculture down through the generations are disappearing.

“We have an aging population,” he said. “We have a third of the land mass cultivated today than we had during World War II. Yet from a future standpoint, from a GDP standpoint and from a per capita income standpoint, we have a greater now for those who aspire to agricultural pursuits than we had in that previous generation.”

He said the museum will inspire the next generation to enter agriculture.

It will also have an economic impact.

“Tourism in South Carolina is more than just loading up the car from somewhere in the Midwest and heading to Myrtle Beach,” Verdin said. “The back roads, the Upcountry, the back country … are rapidly increasing in popularity, for not just day trips but weekend trips, exploring what's right around us.”

State Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism spokesman Marion Edmunds agreed, stating that agriculture and tourism are linked.

“Agriculture creates the product that we promote,” he said. “People come to South Carolina because of the special food that we have, the special dishes, the culture that surrounds our agriculture.”

Though Sen. T. Ed Garrison did not live to see the museum hold its grand opening, he was very much a presence at Friday's event. Garrison died last Sunday at age 91.

Sen. Garrison was the driving force behind the creation of the Pendleton District Commission and the former Pendleton District Agricultural Museum, Fletcher said.

“All of us in the Upstate owe him a debt of gratitude for the quality life we enjoy we today,” she said.

Garrison's wife and many members of his family were on hand for the opening of the museum and were the first to tour it.

The museum is named for the late Bart Garrison, Garrison's son, who was killed in a silo accident in 1990.

“The senator had a passion for South Carolina, for agriculture and for his family and friends,” Fletcher said.

“He was my hero, I loved him dearly and he lived a fantastic life,” Tom Garrison III said of his dad.

Tom Garrison also spoke of his brother Bart, telling of the time he and Bart decided they wanted to pick cotton as children, alongside the workers.

“I loved my brother dearly,” Garrison said. “I'm just so thankful for all of y'all coming out and celebrating this special occasion.”

“Bart Garrison, like many others, made the decision to become a farmer, during a time when America had nearly forgotten her agricultural roots,” Fletcher said. “The Bart Garrison Agricultural Museum of South Carolina is dedicated to the memory of Bart and in honor and memory of all who dedicate their lives to serving in farming, past present and future.”

The museum is located at 120 History Lane in Pendleton, across Highway 76 from the Tri-County Technical College Pendleton Campus. Call (864) 646-3782 for more information.