![]() ![]() In 1951 Clemson A&M College was successful in purchasing the tunnel. ![]() Clemson lost skilled specialists the milk used for cheese was needed for aviation cadets quartered on campus and litigation arose as to the ownership of the tunnel. The outbreak of World War II in 1941 limited production, and the work was discontinued in 1944. The debris that had accumulated during three quarters of a century was cleared out, equipment for cheese curing was moved in, and the project was off to a successful beginning. With this thought in mind, the Clemson A&M College Dairy Department began experimenting with the manufacture of blue cheese and curing it in the tunnel. In 1940, an alert Clemson A&M College professor recognized the possibilities of curing blue mold cheese in the tunnel. The unfinished Stumphouse Mountain Tunnel lay idle for 80 years, visited by tourists and picnickers through the years, serving no useful purpose. The Clemson University Cheese Research Project The moisture in this warm air is condensed by the cold air in the tunnel and produces a constant wetness in the tunnel, which is favorable for curing blue cheese. Cold air moving out of the mouth of the tunnel pulls warm air down the shaft. At the midway point, a 16 by 20 foot airshaft extends upward 200 feet to the surface. The tunnel measures 25 feet high by 17 feet wide and extends 1600 feet through a granite formation into the heart of Stumphouse Mountain. The cool, refreshing breeze that blows out of the tunnel is long remembered by summer visitors. The south entrance of the tunnel became a historic landmark in South Carolina. Clemson A&M College bought the tunnel in 1951. After the war, efforts to reactivate the project failed and the tunnel was abandoned. It was the Blue Ridge Railroad (now the Anderson division of the Southern-affiliated Carolina and Northwestern Railway) that attempted to construct this line through and over the mountains to Knoxville, Tennessee. The work was begun in 1852, and in 1859 the completion of the tunnel was anticipated within two years. The tunnel through Stumphouse Mountain was to be a vital link in that road. Pioneers of Southern industry dreamed of a railroad connecting the fertile midwest with the busy port of Charleston, South Carolina. Believing her dead the warriors gave up the search, but Issaqueena later joined her husband and fled to Alabama to live happily ever after. ![]() Finally tracked down by her tribesmen, Issaqueena raced to a nearby falls (now Issaqueena Falls) and plunged out of sight into the cataract. The lovers lived in a large hollow tree or Stumphouse. Issaqueena and David, according to the legend, fled into the mountains to escape the fury of her betrayed tribe. It is actually 92 miles from her starting point in Ninety-Six, South Carolina. She estimated her journey at ninety-six miles. ![]() Today in South Carolina there are the post offices of Six Mile and Ninety Six, and the creeks bearing these names that Issaqueena conferred upon them. On that fleet, silent ride through the forest, she mentally named the landmarks she passed en route: Mile Creek, Six Mile, Twelve Mile, Eighteen Mile, Three and Twenty, Six and Twenty, and finally Ninety Six. Learning that her tribe planned a surprise attack on her lover’s settlement, Issaqueena mounted her pony and hastened to warn the settlers. The Native American maiden Issaqueena fell in love with David Francis, a silversmith who lived near what is now Ninety Six, South Carolina. The name Stumphouse originated from the Native American Legend of Isaqueena. The history and folklore surrounding this scenic spot in the Blue Ridge Mountains is legendary in the Piedmont area of South Carolina. Since then, the homemade gourmet item has worked its way into the hearts and stomachs of an ever-growing number of aficionados. The first Clemson University Blue Cheese was cured in Stumphouse Mountain Tunnel in 1941. ![]()
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