Bryson Children's Nature Walk: What's Built in Six Mile and What's Still Coming

At 565 N. Main St. in Six Mile, an open tract runs along SC Highway 137 toward a pond and a stretch of wetlands, with Six Mile Mountain in view. Today, Thursday, November 5, the Clemson Area Chamber of Commerce is scheduled to hold a ribbon cutting there at 11 AM for the Bryson Children's Nature Walk. The town asks the public to visit the site after the ceremony, because construction is still going on.

The town lists the 1.5-mile trail, the boardwalk and the pond overlook among the site's main features. The trail leads out to the boardwalk and overlook. The rest of the plan includes children's vegetable gardens, an outdoor learning center, a small agricultural history museum, and a real entrance drive with parking. Not all of it is finished. Building it in stages was always the plan, and the way the project is funded means it will keep growing after the ribbon is cut.

Twenty-three years from bequest to boardwalk

The land came from Conrad Ardell Bryson, who lived in Six Mile his whole life. He died in 2003, and most of his estate was this 63-acre tract of undeveloped land. According to the Municipal Association of South Carolina's 2024 achievement award writeup, Bryson left more than 62 acres to the town "for the benefit of economically challenged children," and sorting out the bequest took more than 17 years.

The town settled the terms of the will by working with Bryson's estate representatives and the land trust Upstate Forever. Together they placed the land under a conservation easement that protects it permanently. The Town of Six Mile's project page says the easement "prohibits future development." The early money was modest: $8,000 in closing costs from the Upstate Land Conservation Fund, plus federal American Rescue Plan Act funds.

Mayor James Atkinson told the Pickens County Courier in March, "This has been a 10-year project." The town gives the same count: ten years in the making, four of them spent fundraising and building.

What the ribbon actually opens

On the town's project page, the major features are listed as being "at various levels of completion." The town has posted its progress piece by piece this year. In April it announced the official opening of a new Children's Garden, with individual plots assigned to young gardeners. An update on August 18 named what had been finished since then and what was still coming.

The opening announcement also lists an agricultural history mini-museum, an SCDOT entrance apron, a front entrance drive and a parking area among the features at various levels of completion. The pieces the town has declared finished sit at the heart of the site, out at the pond. Most of the work the town still lists is about how people get onto the site and what gets taught there.

The town's August post put it plainly: "The Boardwalk and Pond Overlook are complete. The journey continues."

How the rest gets paid for

The town says the whole site has been built with grants and donations, "and no town funds at all." That shapes what comes next. Every remaining feature depends on new grants or gifts, and the same donations also pay for upkeep "for perpetuity." You can donate through the Town of Six Mile's online donation page. Checks should be made out to Bryson Children's Nature Walk and mailed to the Town of Six Mile, P.O. Box 429, Six Mile, SC 29682.

The plan also builds in its own revenue. The learning center is meant to be free for agricultural and conservation education, and it can be rented for weddings, with that income going to site maintenance.

The garden is set up the same way. Plots are assigned twice a year, in April for spring and in September for winter. Children get first priority, and adults must supervise them. Agricultural and conservation businesses, organizations and groups can also ask to adopt a plot or an area, preferably with native, edible or pollinator-friendly plants. Approved groups may post a sign no bigger than 3 by 6 inches.

These choices tell you what the site is for. In a post on Upstate Forever's blog, Mayor Atkinson pointed out that someone could price the Bryson tract by what it would have sold for as development land, then quoted local author and naturalist Dennis Chastain:

"How can you put a price on the precious experience of a child on hands and knees, absolutely fascinated as a Monarch butterfly drifts from flower-to-flower sipping nectar from bright cheery flowering plants?"

The easement rules out future development, so what the tract becomes depends on what the donations add to it as a nature walk.

Before your first walk out to the pond

The town's posted rules treat this as a protected natural area. Upstate Forever checks that the site follows the easement, and SCDNR and the Pickens County Sheriff's Department also monitor it. The basics:

• Hours: 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset.
• Not allowed on the trail: motorized vehicles and mountain bikes, horses, camping, hunting, fires, fireworks or anything combustible.
• Stay on the trail. Cutting across switchbacks erodes the hillside.
• Leave wildlife alone, and don't remove or alter plants.
• Cell service may be weak or missing, so tell someone where you're going and when you'll be back.
• Don't bring food on the hike. The town says bears have a strong sense of smell and sometimes come aggressively toward hikers carrying food.
• Ticks: walk in the middle of the trail, wear repellent, tuck your pants into your socks, and do a tick check afterward.

The same rules page says trail use is at your own risk.

The rest of Main Street's calendar

The nature walk is at the north end of Main Street, and town business happens closer to downtown. The next Six Mile Town Council meeting is Thursday, November 12, from 7 to 9 PM at Town Hall, 106 S. Main Street. It's open to the public.

Two holiday events follow a few weeks later. Old-Fashioned Christmas is Thursday, December 3, from 4:30 to 6:00 PM at the Stoddard Pavilion downtown, with entertainment, a tree lighting, free hot cocoa and photos with Santa. The 55th Annual Christmas Parade comes down Main Street on Saturday, December 5, at 10 AM. Also this month, the town plans to announce when the 2026 Silver Angel Tree opens. The program supports local seniors.

For the Bryson site, the town's August update promised more signage, fencing and trail work as the project goes on. Next spring's garden plots will be assigned in April.

If you're heading out to the pond after the ribbon cutting, or you're thinking about land near Six Mile's protected greenspace, Daniel Sanders & Co. is happy to talk about this corner of Pickens County. Daniel grew up in the Clemson area and pays attention as places like the Bryson Children's Nature Walk take shape.