Rest Area Find

On the way back from Florida, I stopped at the South Carolina Welcome Center on I-95 to use the facilities and stretch a bit. As I glanced over the travel brochures, I spotted this one. It's filled with repositories and resources for researching the counties in South Carolina's "Olde English District." When I posted it to Facebook, others wanted a copy. I wish I'd picked up additional copies.

I looked at the website listed on the back of the brochure and discovered, they have this brochure and several others of historic interest posted. Check out the Vacation Guides page.

The seven counties in the region include Chester, Chesterfield, Fairfield, Kershaw, Lancaster, Union, and York. One brochure contains information on the Revolutionary War in the area and includes a very useful timeline. Others include African American historical sites and Civil War sites

Magnolia Plantation & Gardens

Amy Kime Arner posted a link on Facebook today to an Associated Press article about the slave cabins on Magnolia Plantation. That reminded me of my visit to that plantation about four years ago. When I discovered that I had not placed pictures of my visit online, I decided that it was time to place a few on the blog.

Above: This is one of the slave cabins. I would love to see the restoration that they mentioned. Perhaps I'll be able to do that when NGS visits Charleston in 2011 if I don't make it there before then. More information is available on the Slave Cabin Restoration Project.
This is the plantation house. It was built before the Revolutionary War, according to the Web site. I don't recall how many prior houses the tour guides told us there had been, and I did not see that information on the Web site.
This was a swampy area that I seem to remember being near the slave cabins. It was beautiful. There were alligators sunning themselves on specially placed boards in the midst of these swampy spots.
This is along the Ashley River which borders the property. It's one of my favorite photos from the trip.
Since Magnolia Plantations has absolutely gorgeous gardens, I would be remiss not including a photo of some of the beautiful plants. I chose these lovely blooms.