Recreation and Leisure

The Enoree River has remained an undiscovered resource for paddlers for many years. However, public and private efforts to create safe access points have permitted a growing number of recreational paddlers to enjoy the river.

Catering to a loyal, local clientele, many fish camps serve as gathering places, hosting local club meetings and family celebrations and providing many patrons with a regular opportunity to gossip, talk politics, and discuss current events.

To add another dimension to fishing along the South Carolina coast, there is also offshore fishing. From just off the beaches out to the artificial reefs there are other species such as black sea bass, Spanish mackerel, bluefish, bonito, king mackerel, grouper, and snapper.

At the heart of the cooking are the foods that grow well in the state, supplemented by wild fish and game.

Football at USC and Clemson has become a big business enterprise, with each program having annual budgets that reach into the millions of dollars.

Natural wonders abound along the Foothills Trail, including waterfalls, bears, deer, grouse, turkeys, trout, salamanders, hemlocks, laurels, rhododendrons, and trilliums.

Though heavily damaged by Union bombardments during the Civil War, Fort Moultrie played a key role in the Confederate defense of Charleston harbor.

With walls five feet thick and fifty feet high, Fort Sumter was designed to mount 135 heavy cannons and garrison 650 officers and men. The fort was about ninety percent complete when South Carolina seceded on December 20, 1860, and due to the war was never finished.

Nearly a dozen rare, threatened, or endangered species are protected at Forty-Acre Rock, most notably the endangered pool sprite, which flourishes in vernal pools on the rock’s surface during early spring months.

The forest contains an exceptional diversity of animal species as well. More than three hundred species of bird have been observed within the forest, including such rarities as swallow-tailed kites and wood storks.

Freemasonry in South Carolina dates to 1735, when Lord Weymouth, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of England, issued a warrant establishing the office of Provincial Grand Master in the colony of South Carolina.

During a typical gander-pull, a live gander was tied upside down by its feet to a tree branch. Farmers then greased the gander’s neck, and riders on horseback would pass the tree at a full gallop, attempting to decapitate the bird and thereby win the game.

Both home and commercial gardening were essential to the survival of colonial settlements in South Carolina.

The Gibbes Museum of Art is the home of the Carolina Art Association, an organization dedicated to the cultivation of the arts and art education in Charleston since its inception in 1858.

Inspired by her “urge to write,” in 1895 she became the first woman to enroll in South Carolina College (later the University of South Carolina), two years after the General Assembly mandated that women should be allowed to attend the school as special students.

Gibson played nationally and internationally. In 1956 she won sixteen of the eighteen tournaments she entered. That same year she became the first African American to capture a Grand Slam event when she won the French Championship. She went on to win Wimbledon in 1957 and was welcomed home with a ticker tape parade. Ranked as the number one tennis player in 1957, Gibson won her first U.S. championship and was named Female Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press.

Between big bands, Gillespie led small ensembles or performed with all-star aggregations such as Jazz at the Philharmonic. As a bandleader, he was among the first to introduce Latin musical elements into modern jazz.

Lucile Godbold achieved prominence as one of America’s first female Olympic champions and as a pioneer in American women’s competitive athletics.

South Carolina is one of the leading golfing states in the nation, in terms of courses, participants, and tournament play.

From its earliest days, the coast was promoted as a family resort. The first visitors were middle-class and blue-collar families from the Carolinas seeking a summer getaway in their own “backyard.”