SCIWAY News, No. 15 – September 1998

In This Issue

• Visit Your Local Schools on the Web
• New and Notable South Carolina Web Sites
• SCIway Adds New Address
• Greenville County Library Provides State's 25th Web Catalog
• More Info on South Carolina Business Directory
• SC Botanical Garden's Wren House Featured in Southern Living
• Upcoming Festivals, Shows, Events
• All Aboard the Emerald City Specials!

Visit Your Local Schools on the Web

Students are back in classes throughout South Carolina, and this year more than 500 of our state's public and private K12 schools have Web sites (see https://www.sciway.net/k12/). This is 200 more than when the first issue of SCIWAY News was mailed in March 1997.

I'm happy to say that the overall quality of these websites has increased even more than their number. For two outstanding examples among many, see the 25 Aiken County schools that have websites (https://www.acpsd.net/ and https://www.sciway.net/edu/k12/aiken.html) and St. Joseph's High School in Greenville (http://www.sjcatholicschool.org/).

Also, if you're interested in high school sports, you can find a growing number of sports page links at https://www.sciway.net/sports/hsalpha.html. And for what has to be one of the best school band websites on the Internet, see South Carolina Band Link (http://www.bandlink.org).

I hope that in the year ahead more communities will invest time and money in their school websites. As the person who reads the mail at SCIway, I know for sure that a lot of people who are considering moving to a new area genuinely value the information and the feel for a community that school websites provide.

If your local school or school district has a Web site or a high school sports page that's not yet listed on SCIway, please send its address to service@sciway.net or complete the short "Add a Site" form on SCIWAY's home page (https://www.sciway.net).

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New and Notable South Carolina Web Sites

Average Annual SC Teacher Salaries, By County - 1996, 1997

This Web page no longer exists.

Charleston Museum

http://www.charlestonmuseum.org

College of Charleston - remodeled

http://www.cofc.edu

Columbia Business Network Association

http://www.cbna.net/ - site no longer exists

Senator Fritz Hollings

http://www.senate.gov/~hollings/ - page no longer exists

Congressman Bob Inglis

This Web page no longer exists.

Sail South Carolina - track SC's entry in the Around Alone Race

http://www.sailsc.com - site no longer exists

South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Museum - Columbia

http://www.crr.sc.gov/

South Carolina Department of Mental Health

http://www.state.sc.us/dmh

South Carolina State University

https://scsu.edu/

City of Spartanburg

http://www.cityofspartanburg.org

US Dept of Agriculture - Natural Resources Conservation Service

http://www.ga.nrcs.usda.gov/sc/home.htm - site no longer exists

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SCIway Adds New Address

We're not changing our name, but the SCIway Web site now has a second address: http://southcarolina-info.com/ (no longer exists) This address takes you directly to SCIWAY's home page.

We don't expect anyone who already knows about SCIway to use this new address–it's too long to type. Its sole purpose is to increase the amount of traffic we get from Internet search engines such as AltaVista, Excite, HotBot, Infoseek, and Lycos. So far, it seems to be working.

Nothing else about SCIway has changed. Our old address – https://www.sciway.net still works fine.

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Greenville County Library Provides State's 25th Web Catalog

The Greenville County Library's online catalog now has a Web interface, which means you don't need telnet software on your computer to access it. The Library's Web address is http://www.greenvillelibrary.org/ .

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More Info on South Carolina Business Directory

We are quickly learning that developing an online South Carolina business directory could be a career–there are a lot of business Web sites out there! But the more we work on this project, the more we realize how much this directory is needed. A lot of South Carolina companies are spending a fair amount of money on websites–many of which are excellent. But the majority of these sites are scattered in places most people would never think of looking, so many sites don't get enough traffic to justify their costs.

The primary goal of SCIWAY's South Carolina Business Directory is to make it easier for Internet users to learn about South Carolina businesses. The directory will go online in late October, but you can see some example pages now at https://www.sciway.net/bus/ .

To be included in SCIWAY's Business Directory, a company must have a physical location in South Carolina and a Web page or Web site that provides information about the company. At least until the year 2000, there will be no charge for a single basic listing–one per company.

We will also offer "additional listings" under other business categories and locations for $10 a year per listing ... and "enhanced listings" (with bold links, searchable descriptive text, and red text) for a flat fee of $20 or $40 a year. You can learn more about these options by pointing your browser to https://www.sciway.net/join-us/. Advertising agencies and Web developers can also find commission information on this page.

All additional and enhanced listings purchased this fall will not need to be renewed until January 1, 2000.

We already have a long (endless?) list of South Carolina websites to add to SCIWAY's Business Directory. However, we will give top priority to businesses that ask to be included in the directory. All you need to do is send your company's Web address to business@sciway.net.

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SC Botanical Garden's Wren House Featured in Southern Living

One of the gems of Clemson University's campus is its 270-acre South Carolina Botanical Garden (http://virtual.clemson.edu/groups/scbg). About three years ago the Garden's staff wanted to build a visitors center that would exemplify the agrarian notion that a house and its landscape and garden are all one. But they had no money, so they decided to build a Southern Living Showcase Home with the help of a long list of companies and individuals.

This home, called Wren House, is featured in the September issue of Southern Living magazine (pages 78-85). You can tour Wren House until May 1999, after which it will be converted into a visitors center. For directions, visiting times, and other useful information, go to http://virtual.clemson.edu/groups/scbg/wren/ - site no longer exists

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Upcoming Festivals, Shows, Events

For current SC calendar of events, click here.

Fall Candlelight Tours of Homes - Charleston, Sept 17 - Oct 24

Rock Around the Clock - Winnsboro, Sept 18-19

Charleston Scottish Games and Highland Gathering - Sept 19

Art in the Park - Greenville, Sept 19-20

Kudzu Festival - Blythewood, Sept 24-27

Old Time Horse Farmers Gathering - Blackville, Sept 25-26

Around Alone 1998-99 and Charleston Maritime Festival - Sept 25-27

New Ellenton Atomic Festival - Sept 26

General Lee at the Mills House print signing - Charleston - Sept 26

Jazz Carolina! - Hartsville, Oct 1-3

Standpipe Festival - Belton, Oct 1-3 (Nice water tower picture)

Gopher Hill Festival - Ridgeland, Oct 2-3

South Carolina State Fair - Columbia, Oct 8-18

Taste of Charleston - Boone Hall Plantation, Oct 11

Ronald McDonald House Golf Tournament - Blythewood, Oct 12

Network Aiken's Businesswomen's Expo - Oct 15

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All Aboard the Emerald City Specials!

Some of my best memories of high school are of traveling by train between Shreveport, Louisiana, and Baton Rouge and New Orleans. There was a freedom and a leisureliness and a community to it that I really liked.

South Carolina used to have its fair share of passenger trains too. Now, as far as I know, we have just two Amtrak routes: one toward the east with stops in Dillon, Florence, Kingstree, Charleston, and Yemassee (north of Savannah) and a central route that visits Camden, Columbia, and Denmark. (See http://www.amtrak.com/silver-service-palmetto-train for a map that shows these routes.)

But if you're in Greenwood on the weekend of November 14-15, you can see and ride the first passenger trains departing South Carolina's Emerald City in almost 30 years. The Saturday train will pull out of Greenwood about 7:30 in the morning, head west through Abbeville, deliver you to Atlanta's Underground for a three-hour stay, and roll back into Greenwood about 8:30 that night. Sunday's train will also leave at 7:30 a.m., but it will head southeast, crisscross the Savannah River three times, rest in Savannah for four hours, then turn around and chug into Greenwood about 9:30 p.m.

These train trips from the past are being sponsored by the Greenville Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society, and you can get a ticket to ride for as little as $89.

I know we're all busy and time is precious. But if train travel used to be a part of your life or if you've ever wondered why it's so special to some people, take this chance to turn back the clock and ride some tracks that haven't seen a passenger train since the early 1950s. Caps off to the Greenville NRHS Chapter for providing South Carolinians this truly special opportunity!

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