Cameron, SC

Cameron is a Calhoun County town on US 176, in the rolling clay hills where South Carolina's Midlands begin to open toward the Lowcountry. Columbia is about 42 miles northwest and Charleston about 74 miles southeast, but the town's daily life is rooted in the surrounding agricultural belt. Cameron takes its name from Clan Cameron of Scotland, and two older houses, the Haigler House and Ulmer-Summers House, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Their presence fits a town where farm history and local architecture remain close to the road.

Agriculture still shows up in the businesses that give Cameron its working character. Cameron Cotton & Seed Company handles cotton ginning and storage, Carolina Peanuts processes the region's peanut crop, Golden Kernel Pecan Company works with another Southern staple, and Cameron Mattress Factory represents a more industrial branch of the local economy. The town is also part of the Columbia metropolitan area, even though the surrounding view is fields, farmhouses, and long two-lane roads. Cameron's 2020 population was 376, and its story is best told through the combination of Scottish name, preserved houses, cotton, peanuts, pecans, and the highway linking inland South Carolina to the coast.