Blacksburg, SC

At the 2020 census, Blacksburg was a Cherokee County town of 1,889 people four miles south of the North Carolina line, on the Interstate 85 side of Upstate South Carolina. The town’s modern shape came with the C. C. & C. Railroad: Major John F. Jones moved the system headquarters to Black’s Station, then built shops, a roundhouse, offices, and houses for railroad workers. The state changed the name to Blacksburg in 1888, giving the rail town the name it carries today.

Blacksburg’s older nickname, the Iron City, comes from the iron beds and other minerals around town. In the late nineteenth century, people also came for the rock springs, which were promoted for their healing waters. That mix of railroad, mineral wealth, and mountain-edge geography still frames the place. The Iron City Festival keeps the nickname in circulation, while Cherokee County schools serve the town and Kings Mountain National Military Park and State Park sit nearby. Blacksburg feels like a town with an industrial skeleton and a very specific regional memory: iron in the ground, rail lines through the middle, and Revolutionary War country just over the ridge.