Join SC Dept. of Natural Resources at Wateree River Heritage Preserve and Wildlife Management Area. The meeting will take place at the top of Cooks Mountain, which has a wonderful view of the Wateree River. Participants will get to hear about the land use history of the property, current management methods, and future goals for the site. You will then have the opportunity to tour the site and take a naturalist hike around the fishing pond.

About the Property:

Wateree River Heritage Preserve & WMA was purchased by Haile Gold Mine as partial mitigation for a mining operation that was permitted in Lancaster County, SC. It is comprised of the old Cook's Mountain and Goodwill Plantation tracts. It is an important tract due to the importance of the historic and natural resource characteristics of the property. You can still find graves, ditches and dikes built by enslaved Africans for rice production on the property. One important management objective of the site is to protect and enhance jurisdictional wetlands and streams on the property by restoring the natural hydrological flow in those areas where the water was historically diverted and by re-establishing bottomland hardwood species on other areas of the property. Land types on the property range from a beautiful hardwood forest along the river to some of the highest elevations in the central part of the state. The mountain itself rises an elevation of 372 feet above sea level, an anomaly in this area that offers scenic views for miles. The mountain was the home of Mr. James Cook, a famous cartographer, who produced the Cook Map of South Carolina in 1773.