Man Rescued After 75 Foot Fall From Wildcat Falls

Rescuers from as far away as Greenville raced to Upper Wildcat Falls in northern Greenville County Saturday morning (Feb. 26th). According to dispatches a man fell 75 feet down the face of the waterfall which has been the site where about a half dozen people fell and had to be rescued in 2021. Through the past several decades people have been killed or seriously injured from that waterfall. A state naturalist has described Upper Wildcat Falls as the most dangerous waterfall in South Carolina.

The Saturday morning incident was dispatched shortly after 10:30. The incident location is located in the River Falls Fire District. Rescuers from Greenville ERT, Gant Fire Department, Berea Fire Department, Duncan Chapel Fire Department, Slater-Marietta Fire Department, River Falls Fire Department, Greenville County EMS, and the Greenville County Sheriff's Office responded to the waterfall which is located above Wayside Wildcat Falls off of Highway 276/Highway 11. A Prisma Health Greenville Memorial Hospital helicopter was also dispatched.

Deputies from the Greenville County Sheriff's Office ordered Highway 276 to be closed down from the Cleveland Post Office to the Highway 276, Highway 11 split during the emergency and adding to the calamity.

Rescuers reached the victim shortly after 12 noon and carried him from the waterfall and down the quarter mile trail to the roadside parking area where he was loaded inside a helicopter and transported to Memorial Hospital in Greenville. The extent of his injuries were not made public.

This is believed to be the first waterfall rescue in northern Greenville County this year. Signs have been posted at the base of the waterfall warning people not to climb the waterfall but those signs were stolen so often that the SC Parks Service stopped replacing the signs.