Observation platform in the works for Sassafras

A $350 thousand gift from Duke Energy will soon allow visitors access to South Carolina’s highest peak—Pickens County’s Sassafras Mountain. The funds will allow construction of an observation platform to begin. The donation was formally presented at today’s meeting of the South Carolina Natural Resources Board in Columbia. Funding was committed as part of the Relicening Agreement for Duke’s Keowee-Toxaway Hydro Project. Sassafras Mountain is the state’s highest point at 3,553 feet and sits on the border of South Carolina and North Carolina. It is the separation point for three distinct watersheds, two of which drain into the Atlantic Ocean. The other travels to the Gulf of Mexico.