Tourist attraction to mark 50 years

An event next week will mark 50 years for an Oconee County tourist attraction. Duke’s World Energy opened July 1, 1969 as the Keowee-Toxaway Visitors Center. In the first year alone, according to Duke, 250 thousand visitors explored interactive energy exhibits and watched the construction of the next door Oconee Nuclear Station which began to produce electricity four years later. Visitors are invited to bring a picnic and lawn chairs for free activities on the grounds between 2 and 7 o’clock Thursday evening, June 27. Those activities will include bingo and trivia, a community art project, and live music and dancing. Visitors to the exterior gardens will notice lights from large fiberglass bulbs. Artists Martha Driscoll and Debbie Rote have painted “Celebrating Life in Our Backyard” —-a depiction of the Golden Corner’s lakes and mountains.