Hampton Plantation, Battery Warren and St James church

After moving back to the hosts spot this morning we headed for lunch, it was a buffet of local food, great whitting fish, mac and cheese, fried cabbage, 3 kinds of chicken (fried, baked and BBQ), rice and gravy, red rice, peas, corn and lemon pound cake to end off the meal.  Everything was pretty good but not worthy of a repeat.  All three of these places were in the Forest or at least we had to take forest roads to get to them. Seen one other car the whole time we were there.

Hampton Plantation: The plantation’s Georgian-style mansion and well-kept grounds serve as an interpretive site for the system of slavery that helped build such plantations into the greatest generators of wealth in early American history. They also tell the story of the freed people who made their homes there for generations after emancipation.

They all have stories about George Washington's visit to SC..

The grounds were really nice, it is a state park so not kept up like the others, and no admission.  We were the only ones walking around, of course Eric thought this was a haunted place and said the ghosts were walking with us! or at least watching us...

Battery Warren:

The Santee River..

St James Santee Church..

The wealth that built many of Charleston's buildings and institutions had its origins in the indigo, cotton, and rice culture of the St. James Santee Parish area - basically the area near McClellanville and Jamestown in South Carolina. Settlement of the area began with the Huguenots who settled plantations along the Santee River in 1685 after fleeing religious persecution in France. In 1706 St. James Santee Parish was incorporated into the Church of England and was the first parish organized outside of Charleston. The region reached its
zenith after Jonathan Lucas built the first waterpowered rice mill c. 1787 at Peach Tree Plantation. This mill did for the rice culture what the cotton gin did for cotton. After the Civil War, St. James Santee's plantation world collapsed.

Of course there is a cemetery on the grounds...

The Red Cockaded Woodpecker makes its home in mature pine forests. Longleaf Pines (Pinus palustris) are most commonly preferred, but other species of southern pine are also acceptable. While other woodpeckers bore out cavities in dead trees where the wood is rotten and soft, the Red-cockaded Woodpecker is the only one which excavates cavities exclusively in living pine trees.  the trees have double white stripes painted on them so the loggers know they can not cut these trees down. there is a $1000+ fine for cutting down one of these trees.

A great day in the woods.