1788

• The Oconee Bell, Shortia Galacifolia, a rare wild flower found only in Oconee County, is discovered by French botanist Andrew Michaux near the Horse Pasture and Toxaway Rivers in what will become Oconee County. Due to confusion with the Michaux maps, the location of his discovery is not easily interpreted. In 1839, Asa Gray, an American botanist, begins a quest to find the Oconee Bell, which he has named Shortia Galacifolia in honor of Charles Short, a prominent botanist and medical doctor from Kentucky. It will not be until almost one hundred years later, in 1877, that the plant will be rediscovered by George Hyams, the seventeen-year-old son of a plant collector.

• This is the Clemson Wiki project's 1,720th article.

1787

The 1780's

1789