TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS In the beginning of the century, Newberry was dependent entirely for transportation upon roads. The rivers within the district were not navigable and the Saluda and Broad rivers forming the district boundaries were only partially so. The legislature had appropriated considerable sums prior to 1800 to insure the navigability of the Broad and Saluda, and after that date it continued to do so throughout the first third of the nineteenth century. By an act of 1801 commissioners were appointed to contract for opening the Broad and Pacolet rivers: Warren Buford, William Hill, Arramanus Lyles, Joseph Brown, John Pearson, Joseph Hughes, Thomas Taylor, Robert Stark, and John Adam Summer. In 1805 the legislature found that "the opening and clearing of the inland navigation of the large rivers of this state, would be highly beneficial to the agricultural, commercial and general interest thereof, and would greatly facilitate and cheapen the carriage of produce and other heavy commodities to market." It appointed as commissioners to contract for and superintend the opening of the Saluda and Broad: John Dreher, James Gowdy, Sampson Pope, Major William Moore, Philemon Berry Waters, William Caldwell, and Elihu Caldwell. Locks were erected on the Broad and Saluda near Columbia and at Lorick's on the Saluda between Newberry and Edgefield districts. Robert Mills insisted that the Saluda River was navigable for 120 miles above Columbia with the Saluda Canal, two and one-half miles long, with five locks, overcoming a fall of thirty-five feet; Dreher's Canal, one mile long, and with four locks, overcoming a fall of twenty-one feet; and Lorick's Canal, which had a single lock of six feet lift. He made many converts by his advocacy of internal improvements financed by the state. ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com