Ellen Makes Her Move

When we moved into our current house (and even the one before it), we made the classic mistake of saying, “We’re never moving again”.  After all, picking up and going from one place to the next can be a real pain in the you-know-what, especially with pets and vehicles to relocate on top of the furniture and clothes. But at least we’re only talking about moving houses. What if you had to move an entire town?

Ellenton, SC

If you live in an RV or a tiny home, you’d think nothing of pulling up stakes and going somewhere else.  You have the wheels or the flatbed to make it happen.  But moving an entire town means a population of people and a collection of structures.  it sounds like something that could only happen on a Hollywood movie set.  Unless you’re the U.S. government with its sights set on Ellenton, South Carolina.

Ellenton train depot

Ellenton first appeared on a map the way a lot of small towns did back in the day.  The railroad was interested in running new tracks through the farms of the area and a deal was made to acquire the land, including a plot for the train station.  In Ellenton’s case, the railroad developer was smitten with the primary landowner’s daughter (Ellen).  The relationship never blossomed but he did name the budding town after her.  Thus we have “Ellen’s Town”, shortened to “Ellenton”.

Ellenton grew quickly in the late 1800s, from a host of agricultural productions to a working, living community of 600 residents.  Eventually you’d find churches, schools, a post office, a general store, a dairy, and even a milling company and a cotton gin.  But what nobody saw coming was the potential of the area for the construction of a massive facility know as the Savannah River Site (SRS).  In the 1950’s in Cold War America, the U.S. government decided Ellenton and its surrounds were the perfect riverside location for plutonium and tritium production, for the development of the hydrogen bomb.  Ellenton “won the lottery” over a hundred other locations.

I can’t imagine sitting in Ellenton’s town hall back when the announcement was made.  Someone who drew a very short straw had to stand in front of the residents and say, “Sorry folks, we’re going to tear down your town so we need you to find somewhere else to live”.  Then the government wrote checks for the properties and businesses and simply walked away.  Eminent domain in capital letters.

I’ll admit I thought the government really did move Ellenton to another location.  I pictured a cartoon image of the world’s largest spatula, sliding under Ellenton’s streets and buildings like an entire sheet cake, then dropping the whole mess several miles away.  But I really thought the government moved Ellenton because we live right down the street from a town called New Ellenton.  Turns out, New Ellenton is simply where a good chunk of the original residents chose to call home.  The government had nothing to do with it.

Maybe the government didn’t move the living but the law required they move the dead.  By the time Ellenton and several other small towns were acquired and shut down, the SRS property encompassed 310 square miles.  That meant the relocation of 130 cemeteries, amounting to over 6,000 grave sites.  They didn’t get every last one, so it’s fair to say old Ellenton still has a few residents.

The black-and-white photos I share here – from the Ellenton website – give the town a charming, old-timey feel.  The few residents alive today hold reunions to share the memories of a place they can no longer see or even visit.  Some of Ellenton’s stories make it sound very cozy.  I wish I could say the same about New Ellenton, which is nothing more than a couple miles of highway with gas stations and bars scattered on either side.  Frankly, the only reason you drive through New Ellenton is because you’re on your way to somewhere else.

I wouldn’t be nostalgic for Ellenton if the government didn’t make it disappear.  Kind of reminds me of Brigadoon, the Scottish village that magically appeared out of the mist every hundred years.  Maybe Ellenton will appear out of a nuclear winter on the hundredth anniversary of it’s own demise.  In the meantime, a songwriter captured the story of the town in a rather sad ballad.  “The Death of Ellenton” was never a big hit, but the town it celebrates sure took one.

Some content sourced from the WJBF website article, “Hometown History: The Forgotten Town of Ellenton”; the Ellenton SC website (including all photographs); and Wikipedia, “the free encyclopedia”.

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Author: Dave

Five hundred posts would suggest I have something to say… This blog was born from a desire to elevate the English language, highlighting eloquent words from days gone by. The stories I share are snippets of life itself, and each comes with a bonus: a dusted-off word I hope you’ll go on to use more often. Read “Deutschland-ish Improvements” to learn about my backyard European wish list. Try “Slush Fun” for the throwback years of the 7-Eleven convenience store. Or drink in "Iced Coffee" to discover the plight of the rural French cafe. On the lighter side, read "Late Night Racquet Sports" for my adventures with our latest moth invasion. As Walt Whitman said, “That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.” Here then, my verse. Welcome to Life In A Word.

16 thoughts on “Ellen Makes Her Move”

  1. An amazing story. Ellenton “won the lottery” might be the best line. I’ve never read about this and yet it is believable. Love the reference to Brigadoon. Now that’s a classic long forgotten musical.

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    1. I’m guessing Ellenton wasn’t the only victim of the government back in those days, but it’s successor is our neighboring town so I kind of have a soft spot for the place.

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  2. Is the SRS company still there and in active production? I have no idea how you could move that many cemeteries, but am wondering if maybe, just maybe., they said they did but they didn’t, I mean who would know if they just missed a few or a few hundred or even a few thousand? Here the government has the right to “expropriate” property for the public good as in like buying farmland if they want to put a major highway through and they usually only pay fair market value even if it was a farm owned by the same family for centuries. Doesn’t seem fair somehow, but it is what it is.

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    1. SRS is the largest employer in our area Joni, with many thousands of employees working behind a very secure perimeter. Some are shutting down the property’s facilities of the 1950s while others continue research and production of nuclear materials. We’ve been meaning to take a tour, which you can do through a lengthy clearance process. I’ve never thought of SRS as the bad guy; just the government behind it 🙂

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      1. That’s interesting. It reminds me of that Oscar winner Oppenheimer a few years ago, only I believe that was in a more deserted area – Los Alamos.? I guess they have to put it someplace. Here in Ontario the Bruce Nuclear Plant is in cottage country along one of the Great Lakes – a big employer in the area – 4000 people – but every time there is talk of an expansion there’s a protest from the public.

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  3. That’s progress for you and the reason for moving all the residents, above ground or otherwise, was not so nice either. Here in SE Michigan we have a landfill site in Van Buren Township where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wants to bring contaminated materials (“soil, concrete, and groundwater which are low-level radioactive residues from uranium ore processing used for the development of atomic bombs”). The townsfolk are mad – I would be too. That’s a shame these Ellenton folks had to move. When the Gordie Howe Bridge construction was set to commence, there were homeowners that had their properties bought up so that the long entranceway to the bridge could be built and homeowners that were not “in the way” of the process had their homes upgraded with noise barriers, not 100% soundproofed, but improvements were made due to the additional traffic noise. They also put pollution barriers of some type on the homes as there will be additional pollution from truck traffic. There are noise barrier walls in place as well. I guess those folks didn’t have to move, but ….

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    1. I’m sure there are dozens of eminent domain stories like Ellenton and the Gordie Howe. Not gonna lie, Linda; we were a little hesitant to move to a community right next to a massive facility producing nuclear materials. But SRS is a good neighbor, doing good work and employing thousands of locals. It also helps to know the Savannah River – which flows south through SRS – then flows further south. Our community is to the north 🙂

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      1. Yes, I’m sure too Dave and I can’t blame you for being reluctant, but I’m glad you researched it to know it was safe to move there. Thankfully, the flow of the river won’t impact you – that is a plus too.

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  7. That kind of thing happened frequently back in the day. Eminent Domain was a nasty word to some people, yet others felt like they won the lottery. Interesting post, Dave.

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