Beaufort County Research Articles

Social carrying capacity of oyster mariculture on coast of South Carolina: Understanding stakeholders perceptions and thresholds for oyster mariculture development

There is a growing embrace of oysters as a local food and quality niche product, and considerable growth potential exists for oyster farming in South Carolina (SC), USA. However, it is unknown if the coastal stakeholders will support oyster mariculture’s growth and the extent or type of farm that could occur without opposition. This study examines the social carrying capacity for oyster farming in Charleston and Beaufort Counties, SC, USA. A survey of 383 stakeholders in the study counties was conducted to 1) identify thresholds for specific indicators, such as the size of oyster farms and 2) to determine the societal acceptability of potential actions or policies that may be used in the permitting and management of oyster farms. This survey used photographic simulations of oyster farms, including virtual reality (VR) 360° still images and videos, to elicit responses from participants. The goal of this research was to develop and deliver information on the social carrying capacity of oyster farming in ways that create utility to permitting agencies, extension services, shellfish growers, and other organizations that work directly with oyster farmers. The results show that Lack of Knowledge is the biggest hurdle in fully assessing the public’s acceptability of oyster mariculture and that consistent and scientifically factual information about oyster mariculture needs to be more readily available to the public. The authors also discuss the efficacy of the use of VR technologies for the purposes of conducting normative threshold research that utilizes visual based methods.

Spatial and temporal trends of Tamanend’s bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops erebennus) strandings in South Carolina, USA, 2006–2020

Marine mammal strandings data contribute towards overall assessments of cetacean populations, including seasonal, annual and life‐history trends which result from both natural and anthropogenic causes. We conducted spatial and temporal analyses of Tamanend’s bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops erebennus) strandings in the waters of South Carolina, USA, over a 15‐year period from 2006 to 2020, with the following objectives: (1) to determine spatial and temporal trends; (2) to analyse seasonal reproductive trends; (3) to determine life‐history parameters, such as sex ratio and age class; (4) to determine the extent to which human interaction contributed to strandings; and (5) to compare stranding patterns with historical data from 1992–2005. A total of 837 strandings occurred over the study period, with a mean of 55.8 strandings per annum. The season with most strandings was Spring (April–June), while March and April had the highest number of strandings. A relatively equal number of male and females dolphins stranded, and mortality was highest in neonates, first‐year calves and adults. Neonatal strandings comprised 22.1% of all strandings and were predominant in May. Ninety‐five human‐interaction (HI) cases were observed, representing 22.9% of strandings where HI or non‐HI could be determined. Confirmed crab‐pot buoy‐line entanglements were the predominant HI category (n = 31). Density maps and hot spot analysis showed most strandings, including live and neonatal strandings and HI cases, occurred in defined areas of Charleston and Beaufort Counties. While many trends were similar to historical data, some new trends emerged, particularly an increase of strandings in March and April. Neonatal strandings decreased in November and the historical spike during this month has essentially disappeared. The results of this analysis serve as a tool to predict stranding rates and inform conservation and management decisions to better protect bottlenose dolphins.

First record of a fossil coral (Anthozoa) from Pleistocene deposits at Terra Ceia, North Carolina

A fossil coral of the genus Solenastrea Milne Edwards & Haime (Anthozoa: Scleractinia: Faviidae) is reported from Pleistocene deposits exposed near the town of Terra Ceia in Beaufort County, North Carolina. The specimen is similar in gross and corallite morphology to Solenastrea hyades (Dana) which is common in Neogene and Quaternary sediments of North Carolina, but has been altered by vadose diagenesis, making confident assignment to species challenging. The specimen is the first coral recovered from the Terra Ceia locality which has, up to now, yielded only mollusks.

Deep Learning of High-Resolution Aerial Imagery for Coastal Marsh Change Detection: A Comparative Study

Deep learning techniques are increasingly being recognized as effective image classifiers. Aside from their successful performance in past studies, the accuracies have varied in complex environments, in comparison with the popularly of applied machine learning classifiers. This study seeks to explore the feasibility of using a U-Net deep learning architecture to classify bi-temporal, high-resolution, county-scale aerial images to determine the spatial extent and changes of land cover classes that directly or indirectly impact tidal marsh. The image set used in the analysis is a collection of a 1-m resolution collection of National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) tiles from 2009 and 2019, covering Beaufort County, South Carolina. The U-Net CNN classification results were compared with two machine learning classifiers, the random trees (RT) and support vector machine (SVM). The results revealed a significant accuracy advantage in using the U-Net classifier (92.4%), as opposed to the SVM (81.6%) and RT (75.7%) classifiers, for overall accuracy. From the perspective of a GIS analyst or coastal manager, the U-Net classifier is now an easily accessible and powerful tool for mapping large areas. Change detection analysis indicated little areal change on marsh extent, though increased land development throughout the county has the potential to negatively impact the health of the marshes. Future work should explore applying the constructed U-Net classifier to coastal environments in large geographic areas, while also implementing other data sources (e.g., LIDAR and multispectral data) to enhance classification accuracy.

Land Cover Change and Soil Carbon Regulating Ecosystem Services in the State of South Carolina, USA

Integration of land cover change with soil information is important for valuation of soil carbon (C) regulating ecosystem services (ES) and disservices (ED) and for site-specific land management. The objective of this study was to assess the change in value of regulating ES from soil organic carbon (SOC), soil inorganic carbon (SIC), and total soil carbon (TSC) stocks, based on the concept of the avoided social cost of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions for the state of South Carolina (SC) in the United States of America (U.S.A.) by soil order (Soil Taxonomy), land cover, and land cover change (National Land Cover Database, NLCD) using information from the State Soil Geographic (STATSGO) and Soil Survey Geographic Database (SSURGO) databases. Classified land cover data for 2001 and 2016 were downloaded from the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium (MRLC) website. The total estimated monetary mid-point value for TSC in the state of South Carolina was $124.42B (i.e., $124.42 billion U.S. dollars, where B = billion = 109) with the following monetary distribution in 2016 and percent change in value between 2001 and 2016: barren land ($259.7M, −9%) (i.e., $259.7 million U.S. dollars, where M = million = 106), woody wetlands ($33.8B, −1%), shrub/scrub ($3.9B, +9%), mixed forest ($6.9B, +5%), deciduous forest ($10.6B, −7%), herbaceous ($4.8B, −5%), evergreen forest ($28.6B, +1%), emergent herbaceous wetlands ($6.9B, −3%), hay/pasture ($7.3B, −10%), cultivated crops ($9.9B, 0%), developed, open space ($7.0B, +5%), developed, medium intensity ($978M, +46%), developed, low intensity ($2.9B, +15%), and developed, high intensity ($318M, +39%). The percent change in monetary values was different from percent change in areas because different soil orders have different TSC contents. The percent changes (between 2001 and 2016) both in areas and monetary values varied by soil order and land cover with $1.1B in likely “realized” social cost of C mostly associated with Ultisols ($658.8M). The Midlands region of the state experienced the highest gains in the “high disturbance” classes and corresponding SC-CO2 with over $421M for TSC, $354.6M for SOC, and $66.4M for SIC. Among counties, Horry County ranked first with over $142.2M in SC-CO2 for TSC, followed by Lexington ($103.7M), Richland ($95.3M), Greenville ($81.4M), York ($77.5M), Charleston ($70.7M), Beaufort ($64.1M), Berkeley ($50.9M), Spartanburg ($50.0M), and Aiken ($43.0M) counties. Spatial and temporal analyses of land cover can identify critical locations of soil carbon regulating ecosystem services at risk.

The Integration of Lidar and Legacy Datasets Provides Improved Explanations for the Spatial Patterning of Shell Rings in the American Southeast

ABSTRACTArchaeologists have struggled to combine remotely sensed datasets with preexisting information for landscape-level analyses. In the American Southeast, for example, analyses of lidar data using automated feature extraction algorithms have led to the identification of over 40 potential new pre-European-contact Native American shell ring deposits in Beaufort County, South Carolina. Such datasets are vital for understanding settlement distributions, yet a comprehensive assessment requires remotely sensed and previously surveyed archaeological data. Here, we use legacy data and airborne lidar-derived information to conduct a series of point pattern analyses using spatial models that we designed to assess the factors that best explain the location of shell rings. The results reveal that ring deposit locations are highly clustered and best explained through a combination of environmental conditions such as distance to water and elevation as well as social factors.

A multi-level analysis of mixed gender couple’s food decisions in a tourism context

PurposeThrough application of multi-level structural equation modeling as the data analysis technique, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the group-level impacts on a couple’s food choices during travel at a coastal destination.Design/methodology/approachResearchers obtained 380 individual questionnaires from 190 mixed gender couples (who eat oysters) in Charleston and Beaufort County, South Carolina, USA. Data were collected from both members of the couple during their vacation. Due to missing data and normality issues 5 couples and 30 individuals were eliminated. The remaining data were analyzed with SPSS 21 and EQS 6.2 with advanced confirmatory factor analysis and multi-level (ML) regression techniques.FindingsThe study results indicated that while women have a more negative attitude than men toward oysters, their intention to eat oysters during vacation is not different from their partner. By detecting the interdependency of responses of individuals within a couple, this study revealed that a ML approach is a more powerful way to understand the decision-making process of couples. Additionally the difference in the results of single- and ML models showed that the latter approach lowers the chance of Type 2 error and provides more accurate results.Originality/valueIn tourism decision-making literature, the focus has been mostly on the individual despite the collectivistic nature of tourism activity. The current study is the first to analyze a couple’s decision-making process at the group level. Furthermore by collecting data from both members of the group during their vacation, this study has distinguished itself from previous studies.

Latino Immigrants in North Carolina

In the second edition of her insightful book on Latino migration to North Carolina, Hannah Gill of the University of North Carolina’s Institute for the Study of the Americas and the Center for Global Initiatives, recalls an anti-immigrant protest rally that occurred in April 2008 in Washington, the county seat of Beaufort County, North Carolina. More than one hundred people walked through the streets of Washington to attend a meeting of the Beaufort County commissioners, which had been called to discuss the cost of undocumented immigrants on county health and social services.

A comparison of automated object extraction methods for mound and shell-ring identification in coastal South Carolina

One persistent archaeological challenge is the generation of systematic documentation for the extant archaeological record at the scale of landscapes. Often our information for landscapes is the result of haphazard and patchy surveys that stem from opportunistic and historic efforts. Consequently, overall knowledge of some regions is the product of ad hoc survey area delineation, degree of accessibility, effective ground visibility, and the fraction of areas that have survived destruction from development. These factors subsequently contribute unknown biases to our understanding of chronology, settlements patterns, interaction, and exchange. Aerial remote sensing offers one potential solution for improving our knowledge of landscapes. With sensors that include LiDAR, remote sensing can identify archaeological features that are otherwise obscured by vegetation. Object-based image analyses (OBIA) of remote sensing data hold particular promise to facilitate regional analyses thorough the automation of archaeological feature recognition. Here, we explore four OBIA algorithms for artificial mound feature detection using LiDAR from Beaufort County, South Carolina: multiresolution segmentation, inverse depression analysis, template matching, and a newly designed algorithm that combines elements of segmentation and template matching. While no single algorithm proved to be consistently superior to the others, a combination of methods is shown to be the most effective for detecting archaeological features.

Problematic archaic whale Phococetus (Cetacea: Odontoceti) from the Lee Creek Mine, North Carolina, USA, with comments on geochronology of the Pungo River Formation

Heterodont cetaceans are abundant in Eocene, Oligocene, and early to middle Miocene deposits worldwide. Taxonomic practice in the 19th and early 20th centuries led to the establishment of a multitude of names based on isolated teeth. Some of these taxa, such as Phococetus vasconum from the lower Miocene (Burdigalian) of France, have been alternatively interpreted as archaeocetes, odontocetes, and mysticetes. Isolated teeth resembling Phococetus vasconum from the Pungo River Formation in the Lee Creek Mine (Beaufort County, North Carolina, USA) also share features with the enigmatic early Miocene odontocete Inticetus vertizi, suggesting that Phococetus may represent a large heterodont odontocete.

Automated mound detection using lidar and object-based image analysis in Beaufort County, South Carolina

ABSTRACTThe study of precontact anthropogenic mounded features—earthen mounds, shell heaps, and shell rings—in the American Southeast is stymied by the spotty distribution of systematic surveys across the region. Many extant, yet unidentified, archaeological mound features continue to evade detection due to the heavily forested canopies that occupy large areas of the region, making pedestrian surveys difficult and preventing aerial observation. Object-based image analysis (OBIA) is a tool for analyzing light and radar (lidar) data and offers an inexpensive opportunity to address this challenge. Using publicly available lidar data from Beaufort County, South Carolina, and an OBIA approach that incorporates morphometric classification and statistical template matching, we systematically identify over 160 previously undetected mound features. This result improves our overall knowledge of settlement patterns by providing systematic knowledge about past landscapes.

New County Records Demonstrating a Northern Expansion of Mansonia titillans in South Carolina, USA.

New county records in South Carolina suggest an expansion of the recorded northern distribution of Mansonia titillans in the USA. New location records of Ma. titillans in Beaufort County, as well as new county records in Berkeley, Clarendon, Colleton, and Georgetown counties are reported. Taxonomic notes are presented that provide 100% identification accuracy. Adult Ma. titillans were collected between August and December 2017 from 8 locations in 5 counties in South Carolina. Distribution records for floating water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) and water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes), the aquatic plants normally associated with immature Ma. titillans, are documented in relation to new records of Ma. titillans adults.

New Record of Northern Long-eared Bats in Coastal South Carolina

Abstract Myotis septentrionalis (Northern Long-eared Bat) is widely distributed in North America, from the Appalachians to the Maritime Provinces and west to British Columbia. In November 2016, we captured 2 non-reproductive Northern Long-eared Bats, 1 female and 1 male, in nets set in Beaufort County, coastal South Carolina. Previous records for the species indicate its nearest breeding colonies are >350 km away, and it had not been documented in South Carolina outside the Blue Ridge region. Although the Northern Long-eared Bat is known to move between summer roosts and winter hibernacula, it is not considered a long-distance migrant. Our records potentially represent an unrecognized coastal population rather than stray individuals. Such a population may be important for the survival of the species, which has been severely impacted elsewhere in its range by white-nose syndrome, a disease that is caused by the introduced fungal pathogen, Pseudogymnoascus destructans, which has not yet been recorded in coa...

Automated Mound Detection Using Lidar and Object-Based Image Analysis in Beaufort County, South Carolina

The study of pre-contact anthropogenic mounded features — earthen mounds, shell heaps, and shell rings — in the American Southeast is stymied by the spotty distribution of systematic surveys across the region. Many extant, yet unidentified, archaeological mound features continue to evade detection due to the heavily forested canopies that occupy large areas of the region, making pedestrian surveys difficult and preventing aerial observation. Object-based image analysis (OBIA) is a tool for analyzing light and radar (lidar) data and offers an inexpensive opportunity to address this challenge. Using publicly available lidar data from Beaufort County, South Carolina, and an OBIA approach that incorporates morphometric classification and statistical template matching, we systematically identify over 160 previously undetected mound features. This result improves our overall knowledge of settlement patterns by providing systematic knowledge about past landscapes.

Remembering Reconstruction: Struggles over the Meaning of America’s Most Turbulent Era ed. by Carole Emberton and Bruce E. Baker

Reviewed by: Remembering Reconstruction: Struggles over the Meaning of America’s Most Turbulent Era ed. by Carole Emberton and Bruce E. Baker Thomas J. Brown (bio) Remembering Reconstruction: Struggles over the Meaning of America’s Most Turbulent Era. Edited by Carole Emberton and Bruce E. Baker. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2017. Pp. 296. Cloth, $45.00.) President Barack Obama’s designation of the Reconstruction Era National Monument in Beaufort County, South Carolina, as a unit of the National Park Service in January 2017 invites examination of the ways in which Americans have previously remembered Reconstruction. This collection offers an eloquent introduction by W. Fitzhugh Brundage and ten essays that address Reconstruction narratives advanced variously by white supremacists during the Jim Crow era, African Americans during the [End Page 164] same time period, internationalists during the overseas expansion of the American empire, textbook authors since the end of Reconstruction, and community boosters around 1970. The opening section confirms that invocation of the supposed horrors of Reconstruction served as a useful polemical tactic for white supremacists from the defeat of the Lodge Bill in 1890 through the defeat of antilynching legislation and a ban on the poll tax during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency. K. Stephen Prince’s contribution, drawn in part from his Stories of the South: Race and the Reconstruction of Southern Identity, 1865–1915 (2014), emphasizes that canonical works by Hilary A. Herbert, Thomas Nelson Page, Joel Chandler Harris, and Thomas Dixon warned northerners to leave racial issues in the control of white southerners. Jason Morgan Ward finds the same historical arguments still effective a half century later, though he identifies a decline in their potency during the Dixiecrat movement. The section on African American remembrance is significant not only for tracing a different vision of Reconstruction but also for highlighting direct recollections of personal experiences. Shawn Leigh Alexander’s excellent sketch of T. Thomas Fortune explores the activist’s efforts to draw a story of black resiliency from his memories of white supremacist violence in Jackson County, Florida. Justin Behrend’s careful reading of John R. Lynch’s The Facts of Reconstruction (1913) stresses that the Mississippian understated Republican radicalism and Democratic racial terrorism in an effort to reach across the color line. Coeditor Carole Emberton shifts the focus away from public figures in a promising preview of her current research into black vernacular memories of emancipation. These complex responses to trauma were not as politically didactic as Fortune’s and Lynch’s accounts but were no less purposeful in fashioning strategies for survival in a persistently dangerous racial landscape. Three essays ably trace reverberations of Reconstruction in wider policy discussions during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Mark Elliott’s analysis of attempts by liberal-minded northerners to engage white southerners in discussion of the “Negro question” in the early 1890s shows that Indian policy of the 1870s and 1880s, in important ways an outgrowth of Reconstruction, had become by the end of the century a lens through which would-be reformers saw African Americans and would soon see people of color in the Caribbean, the Pacific, and Africa. Natalie J. Ring’s similarly thoughtful treatment of the “southern problem” describes the early-twentieth-century overlap between imperialist ideology and proposals for a “New Reconstruction” that would reform public health, education, and the economy in a quasi-colonial region while firmly avoiding any [End Page 165] return to biracial democracy. Samuel L. Schaffer explains how Woodrow Wilson’s remembrance of Reconstruction—less a specific autobiographical recollection than a generational white southern grievance, though Wilson was born in the same year as T. Thomas Fortune—shaped the president’s approach to peacemaking and decolonization in the Treaty of Versailles. The final two essays are the most chronologically expansive and the most tightly focused. Elaine Parsons achieves impressive results with an old research design in plotting interpretations of the Ku Klux Klan in history textbooks from 1883 to 2015. She finds a useful gauge of racial attitudes as well as a continuing pattern of sensationalism that implies an impermeability of the Klan, and racial violence more generally, to rational analysis. Coeditor Bruce E. Baker closes the...

A Comparison of Automated Object Extraction Methods for Mound and Shell-Ring Identification in Coastal South Carolina

One persistent archaeological challenge is the generation of systematic documentation for the extant archaeological record at the scale of landscapes. Often our information for landscapes is the result of haphazard and patchy surveys that stem from opportunistic and historic efforts. Consequently, overall knowledge of some regions is the product of ad hoc survey area delineation, degree of accessibility, effective ground visibility, and the fraction of areas that have survived destruction from development. These factors subsequently contribute unknown biases to our understanding of chronology, settlements patterns, interaction, and exchange. Aerial remote sensing offers one potential solution for improving our knowledge of landscapes. With sensors that include LiDAR, remote sensing can identify archaeological features that are otherwise obscured by vegetation. Object-based image analyses (OBIA) of remote sensing data hold particular promise to facilitate regional analyses thorough the automation of archaeological feature recognition. Here, we explore four OBIA algorithms for artificial mound feature detection using LiDAR from Beaufort County, South Carolina: multiresolution segmentation, inverse depression analysis, template matching, and a newly designed algorithm that combines elements of segmentation and template matching. While no single algorithm proved to be consistently superior to the others, a combination of methods is shown to be the most effective for detecting archaeological features.

A race for survival; will salt marshes in Jasper and Beaufort County, South Carolina drown or keep pace with rising sea level?

A race for survival; will salt marshes in Jasper and Beaufort County, South Carolina drown or keep pace with rising sea level?

Seafood consumption habits of South Carolina shrimp baiters

ABSTRACTShrimp baiting is a fishing technique used by many South Carolinians and has been regulated in the state since the late 1980s. A postcard survey was developed and included with 400 South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) annual surveys of registered shrimp baiters over a two-year period. The survey contained questions concerning frequency, portion size, baiting locations, and preparation techniques for shrimp as well as other species consumed and demographic information. An overall response rate of 37% was received. The majority of respondents were men over the age of 55 years. Charleston and Beaufort counties were the most common locations for shrimp baiting. Almost half (45.9%) of respondents reported eating locally caught shrimp at least 2–3 times per month. The most common portion size was ½ pound (8 oz. or 277 g), with 44.8% of respondents reporting this as their typical amount of shrimp ingested at one meal. Only 3.7% of respondents reported typically eating the whole shrimp, while all other respondents ingested shrimp with the head removed. The most commonly consumed species besides shrimp were blue crab, oysters, and flounder. According to the US Food and Drug Administration mercury (Hg) guidelines, the majority (97%) of our respondents were not at risk for consuming unsafe levels of Hg from locally caught shrimp. However, this does not take into account other local seafood eaten or other contaminants of concern. These consumption results may be used in conjunction with data on contaminant levels in shrimp to determine potential adverse health risks associated with consumption of locally caught shrimp.

Reconstructing Memory: The Attempt to Designate Beaufort, South Carolina, the National Park Service’s First Reconstruction Unit

Reconstructing MemoryThe Attempt to Designate Beaufort, South Carolina, the National Park Service’s First Reconstruction Unit Jennifer Whitmer Taylor (bio) and Page Putnam Miller (bio) A phone call in 2000 from Bruce Babbitt, then secretary of the interior, to Eric Foner, the nation’s foremost scholar of Reconstruction, planted the seed for a National Park Service (NPS) site in Beaufort, South Carolina, to preserve and interpret the period following the Civil War. Despite strong local backing and a well-organized strategy to support legislation calling for a study to consider establishing the first unit of the NPS devoted primarily to Reconstruction, the effort floundered. This was partly due to the enormous bureaucratic hurdles involved in the creation of a new unit of the NPS, but the primary issue was deep-seated and unresolved attitudes toward race, slavery, and historical memory that manifested themselves through a Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) campaign that proved difficult to overcome when combined with the great gap between the public’s understanding of Reconstruction and that of the scholarly community. The historical profession, with its focus on scholarly writing, has yet to bridge this divide or adequately explain the craft of history, which always involves exploring new source material to present a more complete and accurate understanding of the past. In the twenty-first century, the NPS has lagged far behind historical scholarship in recognizing the significance of Reconstruction in American history. As head of the federal agency with responsibility for the NPS, Babbitt was keenly aware that there were many historic sites within the NPS and throughout the nation that focus on the Civil War but no major sites devoted primarily to the preservation and interpretation of the Reconstruction Era.1 Since 1936, the NPS has been using various versions of a thematic framework to illustrate the broad scope of the American experience and aids in identifying gaps in its presentation of American history.2 The absence of a Reconstruction site was a glaring gap. Babbitt read Eric Foner’s groundbreaking 1988 work Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, which provided fresh insights into a complex and turbulent period. He subsequently telephoned Foner to ask advice about [End Page 39] where the NPS might establish a new unit to interpret Reconstruction, if it were possible to do so. After some contemplation and research, Foner suggested the Sea Islands of South Carolina.3 It was not surprising that Foner’s answer was in Beaufort County. C. Vann Woodward, one of the great scholars of American history, wrote that Reconstruction in the Sea Islands “offers a rare opportunity to review the vast spectacle in miniature and see it in its germinal phase.” In this place, the first formerly enslaved troops saw combat, the first public schools tackled illiteracy, and the community experimented with the wage system, testing it with strikes and bargaining. In addition, freedmen purchased abandoned and confiscated land and participated in politics. Woodward encouraged Willie Lee Rose to undertake the seminal book Rehearsal for Reconstruction: The Port Royal Experiment, which explored in depth all the major themes and players and what Woodward described as “the nuances of change by which a slave became a free man.”4 With the identification of a location rich in Reconstruction history, Babbitt took the next step and invited Foner to accompany him to Beaufort, South Carolina.5 Babbitt and Foner’s December 2000 visit was an important spark in igniting a plan to establish a new unit of the NPS to interpret Reconstruction, but it also illuminated significant challenges that lay ahead. Babbitt could not commit long-term support toward the creation of a new historic site: when he came to Beaufort, about six weeks remained in President Bill Clinton’s term. Yet, Babbitt wanted to do what he could to advance the case for the NPS to become involved in the interpretation of Reconstruction before he left office. On December 7, accompanied by NPS staff and two dozen local historians and leaders, Babbitt and Foner toured the key places in Beaufort County associated with Reconstruction. The group, which represented a diverse coalition of county organizations, ate lunch and discussed possible next steps at Penn Center Historic District...

The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina, Volume 3: Bridging the Sea Islands’ Past and Present, 1893–2006 by Lawrence S. Rowland and Stephen R. Wise

Reviewed by: The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina, Volume 3: Bridging the Sea Islands’ Past and Present, 1893–2006 by Lawrence S. Rowland and Stephen R. Wise Kevin Dougherty The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina. Volume 3: Bridging the Sea Islands’ Past and Present, 1893–2006. By Lawrence S. Rowland and Stephen R. Wise. (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2015. Pp. xx, 492. $44.95, ISBN 978-1-61117-545-5.) Bridging the Sea Islands’ Past and Present, 1893–2006 is the third of three excellent volumes on the history of Beaufort County, South Carolina, written by Lawrence S. Rowland and Stephen R. Wise. Rowland is distinguished professor emeritus of history at the University of South Carolina Beaufort and past president of the South Carolina Historical Society. Wise is [End Page 193] the director of the Parris Island Museum and the author of Lifeline of the Confederacy: Blockade Running during the Civil War (Columbia, S.C., 1988) and Gate of Hell: Campaign for Charleston Harbor, 1863 (Columbia, S.C., 1994). As historians, storytellers, and regional experts, they have set a very high bar. Rowland and Wise continue to draw heavily on the “names, not numbers” tradition that they used so effectively in the previous two volumes (p. xix). By this technique, readers are introduced to a dizzying array of individuals that represented and gave life to the particular phenomenon under discussion. Captain Henry Von Harten, “the most experienced pilot on the Port Royal bar,” appears among the losses of the damaging hurricanes of 1898 (p. 17). The death of merchant F. W. Scheper in 1913 “marked the end of an era of great enterprise” (p. 61). Robert Smalls, the “King of Beaufort County,” was seemingly ubiquitous, and his 1915 death was marked by the “bittersweet irony” that he had lived long enough to see the Reconstruction-era political revolution give way to the beginnings of the Great Exodus of African Americans from the sea islands (pp. 32, 183). Sidney Benton is described as “the lettuce king” during the heyday of truck farming between 1908 and 1928 (p. 212). Congressman James F. “Jimmy” Byrnes, “Beaufort’s man of influence in Washington,” played a pivotal role in the construction of the bridges and highways built between 1908 and 1929 that “determined the patterns of transportation, settlement, and commerce for the county for the next half century” (pp. 276, 225). J. Edward McTeer, the legendary “high sheriff of the lowcountry,” battled moonshiners during the Prohibition era (p. 271). Leland Grayson, the seven-foot-three “Beaufort Behemoth,” is highlighted as “the physically largest soldier from South Carolina during World War II,” and boxer Smokin’ Joe Frazier claims title to “the most famous Beaufortonian of the twentieth century” (pp. 365, 388). These and a potpourri of other such characterizations bring to life the narrative in a very readable and memorable way. In addition to these rich explorations of personalities, Rowland and Wise succinctly and expertly analyze the region’s themes of “frontiers and revolution—if not always progress” (p. xvii). They explore the demographic changes that “transformed Beaufort County from a 90.5 percent majority black population in 1900 to a 61 percent majority white population in 1960”; that made it a “Marine Corps town,” complete with “a working middle class,” thanks to the establishment of the recruit depot at Parris Island in 1915; and that created a haven for leisure seekers and retirees that began with wealthy northerners in the late nineteenth century and resurged with the opening of Del Webb’s Sun City in 1993 (pp. xviii, 364). The authors trace the region’s agriculture and economic journey through the prominence of cotton, truck farming, and phosphates. Rowland and Wise tell the impressive story of the fusion politics that “transformed a former Confederate and Democratic stronghold into a model of biracial democracy that survived into the worst years of Jim Crow political tyranny” (p. xix). The authors go on to relate the county’s “exemplary” response to the civil rights revolution of the 1960s that stood as “a worthy tribute to its pathbreaking Reconstruction history” (p. 387). Unsurprisingly, given the book’s title, they convincingly make the case that “[t...