Mark's Photo Travels

Uniquely Union is a festival in Union, SC I've been attending  the past several years now. The main draw for me is the Taster's Choice where you sample pork BBQ from a number of BBQ vendors then vote for your favorite sample. I also take the opportunity to visit some historical sites of interest to me, and this year is no exception. This year I settled on visiting Lockhart , a small incorporated town in South Carolina on the Union County side of the Broad River. But my first stop would be an abandoned country store off S.C. 49 on the other side of the Broad River in Chester County, next to the Broad River Mart convenience store . ...then a backtrack over the river and the county line back into Union County and Lockhart. My first stop was Lockhart Town Square off Mill Street . I didn't know anything about the bell at the time, but I guessed it was either from a school or the mill across the canal. My mill guess was the right one. I found a 1998 article in ...

It's the first Saturday after Labor Day and it's time again for my yearly adventure to rural Union County and the Uniquely Union Festival in downtown Union, South Carolina. With the move from the Union County Fairgrounds to downtown Union a few years ago the festival has evolved away from a BBQ centered festival to one with more variety of events designed to draw more people. The main draw for me remains the Taster's Choice event, but first I visited some familiar points of interest. The exact placement of the festival areas changes every year, and the parking area I used last year was now vendor parking. I ended up parking behind the courthouse, giving me an easy opportunity to take a quick photo of Corinth Baptist Church . Corinth Baptist Church , built in 1894, is the first church in Union to house an African-American congregation. In recognition of its importance to Union's history, the church has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places s...

Showers and thunderstorms were likely, the sky was cloudy, a few sprinkles were falling, but I went anyway. As I do every year, I attended the Uniquely Union festival now held  in downtown Union, SC. I left later than normal due to the questionable weather, so I didn't arrive until just before my favorite part of the festival was about to start: the Taster's Choice BBQ event. This year for your $5 you received a card with ten punches. Present the card to the BBQ competitor, your card is punched and you receive a sample. After ten punches, choose your winner by handing in the card to the competitor of your choice. The winner of the Taster's Choice competition this year was the Brother-in-law BBQ team: As usual, I went by the Union County History Museum to catch up with their affable director Ola Jean Kelly to see what's new. After that, I walked around taking photos of the festival... ... and the historical sites in town. I tried to ...

Every year for the past several years, I've attended the Uniquely Union festival in Union, SC, and this year was no exception. Instead of being held at the Union County Fairgrounds as in previous years, this year the festival took place in downtown Union. The Uniquely Union festival was divided into several zones. The first zone was for people to show off their classic cars. The second zone was dedicated to art and folk music. The third zone was for the kids, or "kidz" as their brochure spelled it. When I first arrived to this zone, a donut eating contest was just about to start. Nom, nom.  Later, several groups of cloggers performed. The crowd loved them.  A variety of rides were setup to thrill the little ones. The next zone was the Gospel Zone. The last zone was what drew me here to begin with, the BBQ zone and where the Taster's Choice event is held. Participants receive samples of BBQ from the BBQ contestants and vote for their favo...