History and Culture on Hilton Head, Bluffton, and Beaufort. Discover local history, mysteries, fun facts, traditions, and more. LOCAL Life is about living well in the Lowcountry. Stories are everywhere: intriguing people and places, food and fashion, culture and creativity, homes and health.
History of the red dot Story + Photography by Michael Reynolds Visitors to South Carolina are often puzzled to see that so many of the state’s liquor stores have red dots on them — sometimes a single red dot on the sign or painted on an exterior wall, but more often three bright red dots…
Take an isolated island, conjure up a vision, add sparks of passionate creativity:
By Carolyn Males When you own a video company named Popcorn Octane, you might expect people to think of action-charged movies like Top Gun or Mad Max. But as Guy Smith found out a while back, naming your company Popcorn Octane also can bring the island’s fire marshal to your door to check out the…
Examining the oyster shell concrete that helped build the Lowcountry
Story by Richard Thomas + illustrations by Carly Schultz Since Hilton Head Island is ringed by the sea, life on this and other islands was dependent on methods of transportation that would safely cross expanses of water. It is not surprising, then, that among the first hand-crafted items in the Lowcountry were boats of one…
TWO LOCAL EXPERTS GIVE US AN INSIDE LOOK AT THE SHRIMP INDUSTRY Story by Michaela Satterfield + Photos by Megan Goheen Tales from the shrimp industry as told through the lens of past and present shrimp trawler captains paint a picture of the ebb and flow of the trade. That lens is literal for former…
THE FASCINATING HISTORY OF LOWCOUNTRY SHRIMPING Story by Richard Thomas + Illustrations by Carly Schultz Though the visibility of oysters on the low-tide mounds of area creeks, or in the shell rings still there in various places on Hilton Head, make the oyster the obvious leading candidate for the true indigenous food of the Island,…
THE HUMMEL FAMILY’S WOODSTOCK MOMENT By Carolyn Males April 2006-June 2008 Art Boy is in deep trouble. Again. The left side of the wooden platform stage is shaking. The crowd is pumped. Bands like Hannah Wicklund & The Steppin Stones, Kelly Graham’s percussion trio and Audio Tuxedo are rocking the sleepy streets of Old Town…
A TALE OF TWO THOUSAND TWIN TOWNS Story by Carmen Hawkins Dececco In January 1931 Toledo, Ohio, signed a “Twinning” agreement with Toledo, Spain. Eighty-eight years later, in June 2019, Hilton Head Island signed a friendship pact with Verona, Italy. In the intervening years more than 700 cities in the United States alone have engaged…
HILTON HEAD HAS A CENTURIES-LONG HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL INFLUENCE Story by Richard Thomas + Illustrations by Carly Schultz With the English settlement of South Carolina primarily confined to the Charles Town vicinity for the first 50 years of its existence, the Port Royal Sound and the surrounding area became relegated to the status of “Indian…
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