Environment and Geography

Today, South Carolina’s continental shelf is a passive margin, meaning that it is not colliding with any other land, as it once did millions of years ago. Instead, it is trailing along North America’s active western margin that is presently leading the continent toward Asia.

Conwegians have sought to preserve their past even as they enjoy the present. Many historically significant residences, churches, and commercial and public buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Cook Mountain also contains varied ecosystems within close proximity to each other within a small area. It is home to many animal species and plants, including longleaf pine, mixed hardwood forest, and river-bottom hardwoods.

In the 1700s landowners began using slaves to carve out rice plantations along the river. By the Revolution, the Cooper and several of its tributaries were important in Carolina rice culture. With the failure of rice culture in the early twentieth century, the banks of the Cooper River were turned to other purposes.

When opened on August 8, 1929, the Cooper River Bridge was the longest span of its type in the world—2.7 miles long and 20 feet wide.

Counties, districts, and parishes all existed in South Carolina after independence from Great Britain. Under the 1778 constitution, the parish and the district were election districts for the General Assembly.

Dabbs was also one of the South’s principal twentieth-century Christian churchmen and theologians, although he never claimed this distinction for himself. He certainly was the chief lay theologian of his denomination, the Presbyterian Church of the United States.

To promote tobacco culture, Daniel enlisted experienced leaf growers from North Carolina as “instructors.”

The isolated hills and hollows of Dark Corner were a haven for Confederate deserters during the war and in succeeding decades for countless illicit whiskey distillers.

Darlington gained notoriety in the 1890s as the site of the so-called “Dispensary War,” which reflected the unpopularity of the state dispensary system in the Pee Dee region.

Despite its notable industrial sector, agriculture dominated the way of life in Darlington. The long agricultural tradition in the county gave rise to the development of numerous heritage-wildlife preserves, parks, and gardens.

Daufuskie Island planters raised indigo in the eighteenth century and Sea Island cotton during the antebellum period. After the Civil War, Daufuskie’s economy was based on cotton, lumber, and oysters.

An active member of the South Carolina Agricultural Society, Davie also assisted in negotiating the boundary dispute between North and South Carolina.

On October 20, 1757, De Brahm’s fortunes rose with the publication of his cartographic opus, “A Map of South Carolina and a Part of Georgia.” The elegant and precedent-setting map brought De Brahm to the attention of Europe.

De Soto entered the territory of present-day South Carolina in search of the chiefdom of Cofitachiqui, reported to contain great wealth. Indians in present Georgia confirmed the account De Soto had heard but warned him of the great wilderness that lay between them and this powerful chiefdom.

At trading posts the Catawbas, Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws exchanged dressed deerskins for blankets, firearms, shot, gunpowder, cloth, axes, hoes, and brass kettles.

By the early twenty-first century, all members of the town council and the mayor were black. The town is the home of Voorhees College, a predominantly black institution that was founded in 1897, and Denmark Technical College, which evolved from a trade school established in 1948.

In 1950 Alan Schafer, a prominent businessman from Little Rock, built a small diner on Highway 301 at the North Carolina border. From this modest beginning he developed South of the Border, a giant tourist complex. The nearby community of Dillon enjoyed many benefits from its operation, as well as from Schafer’s generosity.

Finally, after five elections, three surveys, and fifteen years of political maneuvering, all of the requirements for the creation of the new county were met. In a referendum on December 14, 1909, voters supported a new county by an overwhelming margin, 1,615 to 272. Dillon was selected as the name based on the name of its largest town.

Dorchester was gradually abandoned following the Revolutionary War. Loss of population, an unhealthy location, and war-time destruction all contributed to the town’s demise.