PICKENS — A state grant could allow those with disabilities to fully enjoy all that the Hagood Mill has to offer.

Hagood Mill officials are applying for a Recreational Trails grant from the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism.

During a public meeting held Friday to discuss the grant, Hagood Mill Site Manager Ed Bolt explained what the grant would allow mill officials to bring to one of Pickens’ greatest historical and cultural resources.

“(SC PRT) have about a million dollars to give out in this program for the development of recreational trails,” Bolt said. “It’s a great program.”

While the biggest portion of the department’s grants will go toward the creation of nature and 4-wheeler trails, Hagood Mill officials hope to use grant funds to create a 700-ft path around the various attractions located at the mill, including the cabins and the mill itself, “for wheelchair access to our buildings.”

The grant, if awarded, will help Hagood Mill become compliant with the American with Disabilities Act.

Mill officials estimate the path will cost about $10,000 to create.

“It will give comfortable, solid wheelchair access to all our buildings that are out there,” Bolt said. “It’s disappointing to see anybody come up there and have to struggle, or need someone to push them through the wet grass.”

Creating such a path has long been a goal of mill officials.

Hagood Mill Board Member Ken Nabors said he hopes the path, once completed, will encourage those with disabilities who may have been turned off by the lack of access to visit the mill.

“This is a culmination of what’s been going on for several years,” he said.

Local Boy Scouts built wheelchair ramps to the mill and to the cabins, which, while a big help, doesn’t completely eliminate the problem.

“They still have to go across the ground,” Nabors said. “This will help facilitate that.”

The path will make it easier for everyone who visits the mill to traverse the grounds, Bolt and Nabors agreed.

The path will also provide access to the South Carolina Rock Art Center, which will house and protect one of the mill’s greatest attractions — prehistoric rock art discovered at Hagood Mill.

“The handicapped path will also eventually connect to the Rock Art Center,” Bolt said.

Museum and mill officials are currently in the process of raising funds to construct the center.

Officials have raised about $85,000 so far, and hope to raise a total of $200,000 - $400,000.

“We’re going to build it eventually,” he said.