SALUDA COUNTY was formed from the Northern and Eastern part of Edgefield County in the Constitutional Convention of September 14, 1895. The County was initially given the name, "Butler County", but on Monday, the 16th, it was changed to "Saluda County". The name is from the Saluda River, the name the Cherokee Indians gave the major river in the area. The name means a "river of corn."

The Saluda Old Town Treaty was signed July 2, 1755, with the Cherokees. This treaty may be the most important political event ever to occur in Saluda County, from a National standpoint. There is a tablet on the West Side of the Court House about the Treaty. Also, there is a beautiful mural depicting the Saluda Old Town Treaty on Church Street.

The Saluda area had been in the National picture long before the County was formed. It was the night of May 21, 1791, that George Washington spent the night in a home near Ridge Spring. Two great heroes of the Battle of the Alamo in Texas, William Barret Travis and James Butler Bonham, were from Saluda County. There is a monument on the Court House grounds in their memory.
The County of Saluda has a total land area of 288,877 acres, covering 451 square miles. It ranks 39th in size among the counties in South Carolina. Saluda County is conveniently located 43 miles from Columbia, 40 miles from Augusta, 76 miles from Greenville, 145 from Charleston. The Town of Saluda sits squarely in the center of the County at the crossroads of South Carolina Highway 121 and US Highway 378.

The Town of Saluda is the county seat. There are two smaller towns located to the South, Ridge Spring and Ward, both of which are quaint villages. And, interestingly, a small portion of the Town of Batesburg-Leesville which sits primarily in Lexington County, is also in Saluda County.