Whitestone Springs part 1: Visiting the spring and hotel
from the July, 23rd 1902 edition of the Anderson Intelligencer A few weeks ago while searching Chronicling America for something else, I came across a newspaper story about a place I had never heard of before, Whilestone Springs near Spartanburg, SC. Whitestone Springs is now obscure, but from 1901 to 1906 the spring and the associated hotel was a major success until the hotel burned down and wasn't rebuilt. I visited the spring on a sunny, cold day last week to see if any ruins were still around after all this time. Whitestone Spring is now part of Croft State Park on land that was a military camp from 1940-1947. The official way to get there is to hike there from within the park, but there's also an old road you can follow from Whitestone Spring Road, located on the park's eastern edge. I went the official way, so the park gets their admission fee and because I haven't been hiking inside this part of the park before. I arrived at Croft State Park later t...