The Gem Hunt
America decides what makes the map.
Every state has a spot the algorithms miss — the one locals send strangers to. Name it. Vote on the finalists. The winners get built into Roamward, the scenic road-trip app that proves you actually went. No download required to play.
Nominate
What does South Carolina do better than anywhere?
One hidden gem — a place a chatbot would never know. The most-named spots become finalists, and the crowd votes the winner into Roamward.
Vote
South Carolina gems, most-loved first
- 1Busted Plug PlazaA 40-foot, 675,000-pound fire hydrant — billed as the world's largest — looming over a downtown Columbia plaza, an easy oddball stop in the capital.
- 2Pearl Fryar Topiary GardenAn astonishing yard of swirling, abstract sculpted shrubs shaped over decades by one self-taught artist in tiny Bishopville, a genuine folk-art pilgrimage in the Pee Dee region.
- 3Campbell's Covered BridgeSouth Carolina's last covered bridge, a red 1909 span over Beaverdam Creek set in a small park in the upstate hills near Landrum.
- 4PeachoidA 135-foot water tower painted as a giant blushing peach (leaf and all) beside I-85 in Gaffney — impossible to miss and weirdly delightful in the upstate.
- 5Devil's Kitchen at Caesars HeadA cool, cave-like rock passage you squeeze through at Caesars Head State Park, with big Blue Ridge Escarpment views nearby in the mountainous northwest.
- 6Stumphouse TunnelA quarter-mile railroad tunnel hand-dug into the mountain before the Civil War and then abandoned, now cool and dripping at a constant 50 degrees, in a park near Walhalla with Issaqueena Falls nearby.
- 7Poinsett BridgeSouth Carolina's oldest surviving bridge, a graceful 1820 stone span with a 15-foot Gothic arch crossing a creek in the Greenville foothills, inside a quiet 120-acre heritage preserve.
- 8Forty Acre Rock Heritage PreserveA vast granite flatrock in the Lancaster County backcountry, dotted with rare wildflowers, vernal pools, small waterfalls, and even caves — a moody, otherworldly Piedmont spot few outsiders know.
- 9Sweetgrass Basket Makers HighwayA seven-mile stretch of US-17 north of Charleston in Mount Pleasant, lined with painted roadside stands where Gullah-Geechee weavers coil sweetgrass baskets the old way — buy straight from the maker.
- 10Hopelands GardensA serene 14-acre estate garden in Aiken, threaded with paths under 100-year-old live oaks, deodar cedars, and magnolias behind a serpentine brick wall — a free, rarely-crowded breather in horse country.
Not your state’s turn yet?
Want Roamward to map South Carolina next?
Add your vote — the loudest state gets mapped first.
How it works
Nominate
Drop the most underrated spot in your state — the gem an itinerary generator would never surface.
The crowd ranks it
Name a place someone already nominated and it rises. The most-loved gems become the state’s finalists.
Vote the winner in
Finalists go to a public vote. Winners get built into Roamward — credited to the people who found them.
Go verify it
Drive it, GPS-verify the stop, earn the badge, and share the map that proves you were first.
Don’t miss the winners
Be the first to find what the crowd picks.
Join early access and we’ll tell you when your state’s gem wins — and when Roamward opens for iOS testing.
Get early access