Stans Museum of Life and the Environment

Natural & Cultural Features of the Site

The Stans Museum of Life and the Environment will be located on a 400 acre tract at the northwest intersection of Interstate 77 and the Catawba River in Fort Mill, South Carolina.  The site’s features and history will play a central role in the Museum’s story of people & place. The area is currently rich in plant and animal life and preliminary geological, biological, and archaeological investigations and archival research have provided the following clues to the property’s cultural and natural history:

• On the top of the bluff overlooking the Catawba River where the Stans Museum of Life and the Environment will be constructed there are numerous rounded river stones.  These rocks are indicative of a large, shallow river running through the site during the Jurassic period of 200 million years ago
  
• Two naturally occurring springs and three perennial streams that feed the Catawba River are also found on the site
  
• There is evidence that the property has been utilized by humans in a variety of ways for the past 10,000 years
  
• There appear to have been at least two separate Catawba Indian villages on the site that may date to the first half of the 18th century
  
• The Native American presence can also be seen in an extensive fish weir complex that has been discovered in the channel between the small island and the main bank of the Catawba River
  
• Cleared areas reminiscent of prairie environments that were traditionally created by Native Americans utilizing fire can be found throughout the site and are home to the endangered Schweinitz’s Sunflower
  
• Two mineral prospecting pits exist, probably dug during the 19th century after gold was found in the region.  Any gold that may have been present was probably considered too minimal and difficult to extract
  
• In the early 1820s, a homestead was established on the property.  An early Catawba Indian Land Lease shows the homestead and archeology has revealed brick rubble, ceramic shards, broken glass and non-native plants that indicate its location
  
• Bridges haven’t always connected the two banks of the Catawba.  Ferries used to help people and goods alike cross its waters and there is evidence of a 19th century ferry landing. On land immediately adjacent to the site stone was quarried for the first Lake Wylie dam that is located upriver.

Watch a video clip of Bill McDonough during a visit to Fort Mill as he discuss the new features of the Stans Museum of Life and the Environment!
- Quicktime 56k
- Quicktime DSL

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