People have lived in the Blythewood area for at least 2000 years. The colonial period brought settlers from across Europe to farm in the area, but the town really became established when the railway passed through here connecting Charlotte to Augusta. Back then the town was called Doko, which many believe came from a Native American word meaning “watering hole”. It turned out to be a very appropriate name, as the steam trains passing through the area would stop at Doko Halt be restocked with firewood and water to continue their journey. The town grew around the train depot with where settlers arrived and started farms in the surrounding countryside, it soon grew to encompass what today is the place called Blythewood.
A Place for Family
Blythewood has a wide variety of homes, including many fine housing developments as well as older neighborhoods, and houses, and farms scattered throughout the picturesque rolling hills. It is a safe and settled place, with its own sheriff’s substation and fire stations. High-quality hospitals are nearby, a short drive down I-77, which serves Blythewood with two exits.
Blythewood is a family-oriented and friendly, small but growing, rural town situated about 17 miles north of South Carolina’s capitol city, Columbia, and about 76 miles south of the city of Charlotte, NC.
While shopping you can hear live music from local musicians and your children play in the park’s first class playground. Every year there are lively public events attended by hundreds of people from near and far, including:
• The “Beach Bash” – an opportunity to embrace the warmer weather in the spring by dancing the night away to a live band.
• The “4th of July celebration” – live music in the amphitheater at Doko Meadows with beverages, food, and fireworks.
• The “Doko Rodeo” – An IPRA championship rodeo featuring bull riding and barrel racing where world-class cowboys and cowgirls compete for big prize money & qualifying points that they need for the International Finals Rodeo held in Oklahoma City.
• The “Blythewood Butterfly Festival” – held in the fall at Doko Meadows where live monarch butterflies are released also arts, crafts, and educational activities abound, all centered on the theme of butterflies!
As well as the events in Blythewood there are many other ways to have fun and maybe even stay fit at the same time! There are numerous highly-rated golf courses, walking, running and horse-back riding trails as well as baseball, football, soccer, and lacrosse happening in the schools. For the big sports, try the Carolina Panthers NFL team and the Charlotte Hornets NBA team in Charlotte or the University of South Carolina’s (USC) Gamecocks football, basketball, national championship baseball, and other sports teams just down the road in Columbia. The other fine universities in the Columbia area also have their own teams that draw big crowds. Blythewood itself hosts the USC’s Gamecocks women’s golf team at Cobblestone Park and right across the street, the national champion equestrian team.
Because of the proximity of I-77 and three other nearby Interstate highways, Blythewoodians can easily escape to almost anywhere in the region and the world when vacation time calls. It’s an easy drive to the sea and the mountains, to Washington or Orlando. From Blythewood, Charleston is 136 miles, Asheville is 178 miles, Orlando is 472 miles. For farther getaways, Columbia’s airport provides connections to major hubs and smaller airports throughout the USA. Charlotte, on the other hand, is an international hub, in fact, the world’s 7th busiest airport, offering flights to destinations thought out the USA and the world. Charlotte and Columbia boast convention and concert centers, theaters, art and history museums, a NASCAR museum, Riverbanks Zoo, waterparks, and Carowinds amusement park. Employment opportunities are plentiful in Columbia (the government and academic center of South Carolina and Charlotte (a major US finance and business center) as well as in the many businesses large and small within the Blythewood area.
