The state of South Carolina is rich in history and very exciting! It is interesting to find out how South Carolina was formed and grew. When our founders came over from England, they left about 12 different species of trees. Here they found there were

Stallings Island in the Savannah River is where the oldest known pottery was made in North America by Indians. Before the land was called Carolina, it was known as “Chicora.” England’s King Charles II granted a charter for Carolina Territory on March 24, 1663. The king made the eight men proprietors who had been generals and fought to restore King Charles II to the throne.

He made the eight the “True and Absolute Lords and Proprietors” of the province. On July 21, 1669, John Locke and Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper finished the “fundamental constitution.” In mid-August 1669, under the command of Captain West, three ships weighed anchor and set sail for the new province, Carolina. The three ships were the Carolina, the Port Royal and the Albemarle. The three ships began an uneventful forty-day voyage from Ireland to Barbados. While in Barbados the Albemarle, a thirty ton sloop, was wrecked in a tropical storm and could not continue. The Albemarle was replaced by a sloop, the Three Brothers, built by Barbadians. On February 26, 1670 the ships set sail for Carolina, the Carolina, the Port Royal and the Three Brothers. But there was more bad luck. When the three ships arrived in the Bahamas they encountered a storm. The Port Royal ran aground and now there were two ships left. But the story didn’t end there. As the two ships got closer to North America a storm drove the Three Brothers to Virginia. Only the Carolina, a 200 ton frigate, with a majority of the settlers on board, made land fall on March 15, 1670 at Bull’s Bay, about 30 miles north of Charleston. In the next few days they would come south to what is now Charleston Harbor, proceeding up

the Ashley River to hide from the Spaniards at Albemarle Point, known as Charles Town Landing today. Ten years later, in 1680, they decided to move to the peninsula where Charleston is today. In 1720 England decided that Carolina would be divided into North and South with a governor over each. On July 25, 1729, King George bought out the Lord Proprietors finalizing South Carolina’s transformation into a royal colony. In 1786 the capital of South Carolina was moved from Charleston to Columbia. Today South Carolina measures 225 miles from north to south, and 285 miles from east to west. The state is in the shape of a triangle, and covers only 31,113 square miles. South Carolina is the smallest in area of the Deep South States. The climate in South Carolina is sub-tropical. The average temperature range is from the 80s in July to the mid 40s in January.

Well that’s a quick overview of our State’s history. On the web-site you will read about great men and women who history recorded doing great things for our State. Through the years there have been men and women who did the right things at the right times but their histories were never recorded. They helped make our State the great place it is today.