Slow Travels-South Carolina

By Lyn Wilkerson

This installment of the Slow Travels series explores the Palmetto State of South Carolina. The routes followed in this exploration are U.S. Highways 17, 25, 52, and 178. From the Atlantic Coast, including Charleston, Myrtle Beach, Beaufort, and Hilton Head, to the Cherokee Piedmont on the North Carolina State Line, South Carolina's history is unveiled along these routes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lyn Wilkerson
• Release date: May 16, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452391144

Lyn Wilkerson

Caddo Publications USA was created in 2000 to encourage the exploration of America’s history by the typical automotive traveler. The intent of Caddo Publications USA is to provide support to both national and local historical organizations as historical guides are developed in various digital and traditional print formats. Using the American Guide series of the 1930’s and 40’s as our inspiration, we began to develop historical travel guides for the U.S. in the 1990’s.

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Introduction

This guide, along with the various others produced by Lyn Wilkerson and Caddo Publications USA, are based on the American Guide Series. Until the mid-1950’s, the U.S. Highway System provided the means for various modes of transport to explore this diverse land. To encourage such explorations, the Works Projects Administration under President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Federal Writers Project created the American Guide Series. This series of books were commissioned by the Federal Government to capture the culture and history of the United States and provide the direction necessary for travelers to explore it. Each state created a commission of writers who canvassed their respective territories for content to submit. The preliminary works were then sent to Washington D.C. for final assembly in to a standard format. The result was a travel guide for each state. The series spread to include guides for important cities as well. After the State Guides were complete, the concept of a national guide was developed. However, it would not be until 1949, with the backing of Hastings House Publishing, that a true national guide would be created. Through several rounds of condensing, the final product maintained much of the most essential points of interest and the most colorful material.

To quote from the California edition of the American Guide Series, romance has been kept in its place. . . The intent of this guide is to provide information about the historic sites, towns, and landmarks along the chosen routes, and to provide background information and stories for what lies in-between. It is not our desire to dramatize the history or expand on it in any way. We believe that the character and culture of this state, and our country as a whole, can speak for itself. The guide has been created, not for just travelers new to the city, but for current residents who may not realize what lies just around the corner in their own neighborhood. The goal of Caddo Publications USA is to encourage the exploration of the rich history that many of us drive by on a regular basis without any sense it existed, and to entertain and educate so that history will not be lost in the future.

U.S. Highway 17

U.S. Highway 17 hugs the curving coast line of South Carolina, varying in altitude from about 9 to 15 feet, and generally follows the former King’s Highway, which developed from an old Indian path. Bishop Francis Asbury traversed this route (1785-1816), when he strove to introduce Methodism into this predominantly Anglican region. The zeal of his missionary spirit rose above the hardships he endured on the rough trail through the lonely swamps and savannas.

Mason Locke Weems, preacher, biographer, fiddler, and pioneer book agent, peddled his wares along this road to aristocrats and tavern loafers alike, and gathered material for his own lurid and moralizing tracts. On April 26th, 1791, George Washington’s lumbering entourage entered South Carolina and followed the King’s Highway on the first presidential tour.

This is country reminiscent of ancient Indian towns, of venturesome Spaniards and Frenchmen, who sought to settle and claim Carolina in the sixteenth century. It is the region of Colonial baronies and of antebellum plantation grandeur. The land is scarred with sites of Revolutionary battles and of the debacle of the American Civil War and Reconstruction.

North Carolina Line

Following the arc of the shoreline around Long Bay, U.S. Highway 17 gives frequent glimpses of the sea. The road progresses past one coastal resort after another and proceeds along the salt marshes to Charleston.

Little River (2 miles south of the North Carolina Line on U.S. 17)

This town was facetiously known as ‘Yankee Town’ because of its numerous North Carolina settlers. Just east of the settlement is the wide salt stream for which it is named.

Junction with South Carolina Highway 90 (2 miles south of Little River on U.S.17)

The travel route follows S.C. Highway 90 through Nixon’s Crossroads, along the original route of U.S. Highway 17.

Nixon’s Crossroads (1 mile south of U.S.17 on SC 90)

The route turns left on South Carolina Highway 65 at this junction.

Junction with Little River Neck Road (0.6 miles south of Nixon’s Crossroads on SC 65)

Side Trip to Fort Randall (Left on Little River Neck Road)

Site of Fort Randall (5 miles northeast on Little River Neck Road)

This Confederate stronghold was captured by Union forces in 1864. The site is on a private estate, bordered by waters once a rendezvous for pirates. A fortune of booty is supposedly concealed on these shores.

At this junction with Little River Neck Road, the travel route turns right to rejoin U.S. Highway 17 South.

Junction with Business U.S. Highway 17 (11 miles south of Little River Neck Road on U.S. 17)

The travel route follows Business U.S. Highway 17 through Myrtle Beach.

Myrtle Beach (6 miles south of U.S. 17 on Business U.S. 17)

With the Gulf Stream only about 40 miles seaward and sand dunes landward lending protection, the climate is consistent throughout the year and the town has evolved from a summer colony into a year-round golf and pleasure center.

Side Trip to Conway (U.S. 501 North, Business U.S. 501 North)

Conway (11 miles north on U.S. 501, 3 miles north on Business U.S. 501 North)

Conway is the seat of Horry County. This county was once referred to as the Independent Republic of Horry. The county is an anomaly in Low Country development. Early settlers came from North Carolina to work in lumbering operations and the naval stores industry. Hemmed in by swamplands, the inhabitants were connected with the outside world only by the rivers down which they shipped their logs and turpentine to the coast. In their remoteness, they were forced to subsistence farming, and developed a spirit of independence that is today a powerful factor in their success with new crops. Horry-ites were among the rare folk who deliberately lived within their means. Horry became one of the most progressive counties in South Carolina, with its fertile fields of tobacco, truck crops, melons, and strawberries.

Conway became the principal port of Waccamaw traffic, in which lumber still dominates. Though Conway (originally known as Kingston) was established on land granted by King George II of England, it was for decades hardly more than a river wharf. In 1801, it became Conwayborough, honoring General Robert Conway to whom the State made a grant overlapping the town site. The suffix was dropped around 1881. The greatest spurt of growth occurred in 1854 when Burroughs & Collins, with headquarters on the river, bought extensive timberlands, built lumber plants, organized a bank, established boat service to Charleston, and built a railroad.

Points of Interest:

Old Courthouse (Main Street)

This structure later became Conway’s city hall.

Kingston Presbyterian Church 1858 (Shore of Kingston Lake)

This structure took the place of a little edifice abandoned in 1795.

Murrells Inlet (14 miles south of Myrtle Beach on Business U.S. 17)

According to local legend, Captain Murrell, a pirate, often took shelter here. African-Americans from Sandy Island traded sacks of hand-threshed rice for potatoes and groceries. Julia Peterkin pictured these Sandy Islanders in her novel Black April.

Point of Interest:

Sunnyside House

This home of Mott Allston was built in the 1860’s. In front of the house, a physician, shortly after 1900, shot his beautiful wife on the lonely, mist-hung beach at sunset, saying that he mistook her for a ghost.

Wachesaw Landing (3 miles northwest on Wachesaw Road-County Road 62)

Graves in the vicinity have yielded Indian skeletons and other relics.

This vicinity developed a large proportion of Gullahs. The name, Gullah, itself probably derives from Angola and possibly from the large number of slaves who arrived from that part of Africa in the early 1800s. Geechee—another name for the language and culture of black Sea Islanders—comes from a tribal name in Liberia. Traditions, language and myth stayed longer with the coastal Carolina Gullahs, who were allowed greater latitude of self-sufficiency and were relatively isolated on the Sea Islands.

Junction with U.S. Highway 17 (2 miles south of Murrells Inlet on Business U.S. 17)

The travel route returns to U.S. Highway 17 here.

Brookgreen Gardens (2 miles south of Business U.S. 17 on U.S. 17)

Old Brookgreen Plantation was the birthplace of Washington Allston in 1779. Julia Peterkin used it as the ‘Blue Brook’ plantation of Scarlet Sister Mary, a Pulitzer Prize novel. The gardens occupy a 4,000-acre tract incorporated in 1932 for ‘the preservation of the flora and fauna of the Southeast and to exhibit objects of art.’

Point of Interest:

Alston Cemetery

The site is part of The Oaks, the former plantation of Joseph Alston, governor of South Carolina (1812-1814), who married Theodosia Burr in 1801. From The Oaks in 1812, she went to Georgetown and sailed for New York on the schooner Patriot to visit her father, Aaron Burr. The ship was lost at sea. On the tombstone of Governor Alston and his little son is an inscription that tells Theodosia’s story.

Pawley’s Island (5 miles south of Brookgreen Gardens on U.S. 17)

This is the oldest of the resorts between North Carolina and Georgetown. A persistent legend at Pawley’s concerns the ‘Gray Man," who heralds the approach of every storm. Tradition records that in 1893, a gray-clad man appeared at the door of the Lachicottes, a family of French descent long associated with this region, and begged for bread. Accepting this as a warning from the traditional apparition, they left immediately for the mainland. Their flight was followed by one of the most severe storms in South Carolina history.

Point of Interest:

All Saints’ Chapel

This chapel’s parish was established in 1767.

Junction with Hobcaw Road (8 miles south of Pawley’s Island on U.S. 17)

The land south and east of this junction was is part of the Hobcaw Barony. A 17,500-acre research reserve, the Hobcaw Barony is one of the few undeveloped tracts on the Waccamaw Neck.  The Native Americans called it hobcaw, meaning between the waters.  In 1718, the land became a colonial land grant, a barony.  Sold and subdivided into plantations extending from the river to the sea, Hobcaw Barony was part of the great rice empire until the turn of the 20th century.

Bernard M. Baruch, Wall Street financier and advisor to presidents, purchased the property comprised of 11 former plantations in 1905 for use as winter hunting retreat.  He invited presidents, prime ministers and politicians to hunt duck, turkey, deer, quail, foxes and hogs in the South Carolina Lowcountry. After 50 years, he sold all the land to his daughter and the time of her death, she created a foundation to manage the land as an outdoor laboratory for the colleges and universities in South Carolina.

Swamps, abandoned rice fields, pine and hardwood forests, salt marsh and barrier island environments provide habitat for many native animals of the coastal plain.  Historic sites include Hobcaw House, rebuilt in 1930 on a bluff overlooking Winyah Bay; Bellefield House and stables, built in 1936 for Belle W. Baruch; and Friendfield, a 19th century slave village used until 1952.

Georgetown (3 miles south of Hobcaw Road on U.S. 17)

This community lies at the head of Winyah Bay, the confluence of the Waccamaw, the Big Pee Dee, and Sampit, and the Black Rivers. It was established in 1735, named for the Prince of Wales, who later became King George II of England. It was laid out in large, uniform squares on a tract donated by the Reverend William Screven. Most of the settlers were English, and the town flourished as a port, shipping rice and indigo to the West Indies and to Great Britain.

Points of Interest:

Church of Prince George 1746 (Highmarket Street and Broad Street)

This Protestant Episcopal parish was founded in 1721.

Masonic Temple 1735 (Prince Street and Screven Street)

Georgetown County Courthouse (Prince Street and Screven Street)

This structure was built with Masonic rites in 1824.

Market Building 1841 (Front and Screven Street)

Pyatt House (Front Street and Wood Street)

When George Washington visited the town in 1791, he is said to have stayed in the Pyatt House.

Winyah Indigo Society Hall 1847 (Prince Street and Cannon Street)

The Convivial Club, organized in 1740, was the forerunner of the Winyah Indigo Society, which received a royal charter in 1758. Dues were paid in indigo. The society became educational in purpose in 1753. George Washington was entertained at lunch by the Society when he stopped in Georgetown. Union forces took the hall when they invaded the town during the American Civil War.

Junction with S. Island Road (1.8 miles south of Georgetown on U.S. 17)

Side Trip to Belle Isle Gardens (S. Island Road South)

Belle Isle Gardens (2.6 miles south of U.S. 17 on S. Island