How the Swamp Rabbit Trail Put a Small South Carolina Town on the Map
How the Swamp Rabbit Trail gave a historical town a new life and a new identity.
Travelers Rest, South Carolina got its name in the 1800s for exactly the reason you’d think—it served as a rest stop for livestock drovers who were traversing the Blue Ridge Mountains.
In 1888, the Greenville and Northern Railway train, nicknamed The Swamp Rabbit, started operating between Greenville and River Falls, bringing passengers through Travelers Rest. The train switched to freight service only in the 1920s, but Travelers Rest continued to thrive until the 1980s and 1990s when the textile mills around South Carolina started closing and the local storefronts shut down one by one. All that was really left were some big-box stores and eateries at the edge of town.
But then, in 2009, the rail line was converted into the Swamp Rabbit Trail, a multi-use pathway along the Reedy River. The trail opened in stages, but the first section was a 9-mile greenway that connects Greenville and Travelers Rest. It now consists of a 28-mile (and growing) network of trails that goes through downtown Greenville and Falls Park with its 28-foot natural waterfall, while connecting to the 400-acre Conestee Nature Preserve.
The trail has had a massive impact on the local economy, with shops and restaurants near the trail reporting up to an 85 percent increase in revenue. “The first year that the trail was open they had about 15,000 people [who] used it,” says Tim Todd, Director of Discover Upcountry Carolina. “Now it’s about half a million people a year.”
The trail’s popularity combined with the boom of neighboring Greenville spurred the revitalization of downtown Travelers Rest. Today, it’s home to the coffee-shop-creperie combo Tandem, Swamp Rabbit Brewery, and Charlie’s Southern Rustiques, a little antique store set in a vintage Sinclair gas station. Local restaurateurs from surrounding towns are opening outposts in Travelers Rest, too, including Greenville-based Chicora Alley and Community Tap.
One downtown store that’s been there since before the trail is Sunrift Adventures, the oldest outdoor gear shop in South Carolina. They’ve been serving outdoor enthusiasts who come through on their way to the surrounding state parks, rivers and lakes since 1980. It now has a booming bike rental business thanks to the trail as well.
While the paved, mostly-flat Swamp Rabbit Trail attracts casual cyclists and joggers, Travelers Rest is a destination for another kind of cycling enthusiast, too. About 10 miles north of downtown is the Tuscan-inspired Hotel Domestique, a 13-room boutique hotel started by George Hincapie, a racing cyclist who was a domestique—or support rider—for Lance Armstrong. Hincapie had trained in the Blue Ridge Mountains to prepare for the Tour de France. Naturally then, Hotel Domestique attracts many harder-core cyclists with their guided rides, Ventum bike rentals and in-house bike mechanic.
Hincapie also hired James Beard semifinalist Adam Cooke to be the chef at Hotel Domestique in 2013, and Cooke has stayed in the area ever since—he now serves up farm-to-table cooking at the nearby Topsoil Restaurant, which he owns and operates with his business partner, Wendy Lynam. “When I first moved here to help open the hotel, most of [downtown] was pretty vacant,” Cooke says. “I remember wondering why. It’s such a cute little town and a great location. Then, over the last 10 years, the town and surrounding areas have grown like crazy.”
As for Topsoil, he tells me, “It was always a dream to do something a little bit smaller. We opened this restaurant with a big focus on our own lifestyle and our own work-life balance.”
Topsoil gets a lot of brunch traffic from Swamp Rabbit Trail users, especially cyclists who ride their bikes in and grab something to eat before riding back to Greenville. The restaurant’s reputation also draws foodies from Asheville, Atlanta and beyond. Despite all the acclaim, though, Cooke still stays true to his focus on work-life balance. He keeps Topsoil open only for four days a week. He spends one of the other days visiting local farms, and the other two riding bikes or skateboards with his kids on the Swamp Rabbit Trail.
The success of the trail, which is estimated to generate $6.7 million in tourism revenue annually, now has people following it in other ways. Namely, in 2015, the Doodle Trail opened, connecting the South Carolina cities of Pickens and Easley. Meanwhile, the Ecusta Trail is currently being proposed in North Carolina on another unused railway track that connects Hendersonville and Brevard.
But no matter where these trails go, you can’t say that they don’t still lead back to the Swamp Rabbit Trail, the very reason why Travelers Rest is back on the map.