Enoree River

The Enoree River flows approximately seventy miles from its source in northern Greenville County to its confluence with the Broad River above Columbia. Its basin encompasses more than 730 square miles across South Carolina’s Piedmont, the largest part of which is forestlands, with a small percentage characterized as urban. Along the way, the river’s route provides borders for parts of Greenville, Spartanburg, Laurens, Union, and Newberry Counties.

Like other Piedmont rivers, the Enoree faces challenges regarding water quality, both from pollution and from sand-mining operations that cause the river to erode its banks heavily and fill its flow with sediment. It is, however, a different river upstream than it is downstream. Soon after the Enoree leaves its source, it edges metropolitan Greenville, where heavy streamside development, including clear-cut logging down to the river’s edge, and paved surfaces create rapid runoff filled with pollution, especially petroleum and related products. As it passes by Greenville and through Laurens and Union Counties, the river is rocky and features frequent rapids. Around these shoals the Enoree once supported textile mills, most notably at Pelham, Whitmire, and Enoree.

Past Enoree, as the river widens and the terrain flattens, the Enoree River enters the Sumter National Forest. Here the river is bordered by wide, open floodplains shaded by hardwoods and carpeted with fallen leaves. After hard rains, the river frequently leaves its banks, flowing into the bordering floodplains. Evidence of erosion, in the form of fallen trees along the banks, exists as the river runs through the forest and into the Broad River in Newberry County.

The Enoree River has remained an undiscovered resource for paddlers for many years. However, public and private efforts to create safe access points have permitted a growing number of recreational paddlers to enjoy the river.

Foster, Caroline. “River of Muscadines.” South Carolina Wildlife 51 (March– April 2004): 12–21.