Editing Bowman, South Carolina (section)

==History==
{{One source|section|date=October 2023}}
Interest in building a town at the intersection of present-day [[U.S. Route 178|US 178]] ([[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]] Highway) and S.C. 210 ([[Branchville, SC|Branchville]]-Providence Roads) was evidenced in the acquisition of substantial properties of the Reddick A. Bowman estate by one Samuel W. Dibble, Sr.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dibblebook.tripod.com/|title=The Johnson's Island Autograph Book Of Lt. Samuel Dibble|website=dibblebook.tripod.com}}</ref> of Orangeburg, SC in 1887. The Smoak Tramway, a six-mile logging [[railroad]] extending from Branchville toward north Four Holes Swamp which was chartered in 1884, was also targeted for acquisition by Dibble's associate, Thomas M. Raysor, who operated the Raysor Mill near Stokes. These actions, aimed at developing and exploiting the agricultural and lumbering potential of an area that had remained rather dormant since the [[American Civil War]], were taking place in the late 1880s. These represented the prelude to the chartering of the future Town of Bowman and the transportation and land development organizations and operations which preceded its chartering.

The site chosen for Bowman was actually situated in the center of a rice farming country, later transformed into a major cotton-producing area where the land has a clay sub-soil, ideal for this and other crops. it was located on an old road that was traveled in colonial days by people going from Charleston to Orangeburg, and which was once alleged to have been known as Oak Ridge, a plateau about ten miles long and five miles wide.

One of the oldest remaining operating companies located in Bowman, South Carolina, is V.P. Kiser Lumber Company, which now produces [[Wood shingle|pine shingles]]. Some wood from Kiser Lumber Company was used to build Bowman's UFO Welcome Center.