Elk in Cedar Creek?

Apparently, elk were in the Cedar Creek vicinity until about 260 years ago.  Here’s the story:

The last elk in the South Carolina was reputed to have been killed in what is now Fairfield County.  And, Fairfield County includes much, if not most of the drainage of Cedar Creek.  

The following is from the “South Carolina” entry of The Elk of North America by Olaus J. Murie, 1951, 42, StackPole Press: 

SOUTH CAROLINA 

Hays (1871) reported that elk were said to be plentiful in the Carolinas as late as 1737, and other writers referred briefly to their occurrence there.  True (1883:212, footnote)*, stated that the last elk in South Carolina was killed in Fairfield County. [emphasis added] 

Although True reported this in 1883, presumably he was referring to an animal killed in the middle 18th century. This is because all accounts in Murie’s book conclude that by the 1750s all the elk in the piedmont and mountains of the entire east coast had either been killed or moved west. If True’s footnote is accurate, this animal was reported killed before 1750 in what was then Fairfield County, for Fairfield County didn’t exist until after the Revolutionary War. Nevertheless, it’s intriguing to think that not so long ago elk may have roamed the woods and fields of Cedar Creek.

Humans have a powerful effect on the environment, causing plant and animal species to relocate and too often become extinct. This cultural force has been building for centuries, but in the last century and a half it has been increasing exponentially. With the current climate crisis, we are now threatening our own existence. The earth as we know it is in our hands–to care for, or destroy.

But now, more on elk:

Growing up in northwestern North Carolina, I was intrigued by the name of the town, Elkin, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  At one time did elk really live around where I grew up?  

Later, I learned of the town Banner Elk near the Blue Ridge Parkway, and Elkmont Campground in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  Moreover, in the 1960s, while participating in the University of North Carolina’s “Cherokee Prehistory Project,” we found elk as well as bison bones.  Obviously, both of these majestic North American animals had once lived in the Appalachians, and now the elk have returned in the National Park Service’s reintroduction program.  

In 2001, the National Park Service began reintroducing elk into Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina.  After their arrival, a bull elk wandered for a short time into northwestern South Carolina. 

Visitors can most easily see elk at dawn and dusk at the Oconoluftee Visitor Center to the National Park.  Other viewing locations in the Park are in the more remote Cataloochee Valley off I-40 and along the road from the Blue Ridge Parkway to Big Balsam campground. 

*True, Frederick William.  1883  “A List of the Vertebrate Animals of South Carolina.” S.C. State Board of Agriculture Report, Chapter 10, pp. 209-216.  

Olaus Murie’s classic study of elk: