Paris Mountain State Park

Paris Mountain State Park is located five miles north of Greenville, South Carolina. Activities available in the 1540acre park include hiking, biking, swimming and picnicking. The 13acre Lake Placid offers swimming and fishing. Canoes, kayaks, and pedal boats are seasonally available for rental; private boats are not permitted. Camping is allowed and campsites range from rustic, back country sites to paved sites with water and electricity hook-ups. The park's Civilian Conservation Corps structures, including the Camp Buckhorn lodge, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. m.HistoryCherokee Indians once dwelled on Paris Mountain, before European men began to colonize North America. The first white man settled in what is now known as Greenville County in 1765. He was an Irishman from Virginia named Richard Pearis. He married a Cherokee woman and became close to the Cherokee tribe. The Indians continually gave Pearis land until his property extended 10sqmi. Richard Pearis is the source of the name “Paris” Mountain. In 1775, a letter from the superintendent of Indian affairs, Jonathan Stuart was written to the Cherokee Indians chastening the Indians for selling their lands to white men. In one part of the letter, Stuart writes, "You are constantly listening to Richard Pearis, who cheats you of your lands." Some of the land which Richard Pearis possessed contained the mountain known today as Paris Mountain. Therefore, the name "Paris" is a construed form of "Pearis". A legend surrounding the mountain speaks of the first white men to visit the mountain. The chief of the indwelling Cherokee tribe tried to protect the mountain, and when he grew old, he passed on the responsibility to his daughter and her husband. The husband failed in this task and sold the mountain; in anger, the daughter of the chief killed her husband.