From a home to the fierce Westo tribe to a hub of the equestrian industry, Aiken County has had a huge influence on South Carolina. And some of the structures that mark that history have disappeared. More than two hundred years ago, the Horse Creek Chickasaw Squirrel King held couty near North Augusta. The first locomotive built for public transportation, the "Best Friend" from Charleston to Hamburg, first ran in the area. The home of noted businessman Richard Flint Howe hosted both the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and students of the University of South Carolina Aiken. William Gregg and the Graniteville Mill helped shape the textile industry in the state. Author Alexia Jones Helsley details the lost history of Aiken County.

Hamburg is perhaps South Carolina's most famous ghost town. Founded in 1821, it grew to four thousand residents before transportation advances led to decline. During Reconstruction, recently freed slaves reshaped Hamburg into a freedmen's village, where residents held local, county and state offices. These gains were wiped away after the Hamburg Massacre in 1876, a watershed event that left seven African Americans dead, most of them executed in cold blood. Yet more than a century after Hamburg, the one white supremacist killed in the melee is canonized by the racially divisive Meriwether Monument in downtown North Augusta. Author Michael Smith details the amazing events that created this unique community with a lasting legacy.