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Hilton Head Island History
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Although South Carolina had been "discovered" by many explorers from throughout Europe beginning about 1500 it wasn't until 1663 when English Captain William Hilton sailed from Barbados, and surveyed Hilton Head Island, claiming it for the English crown, and calling it "Hilton's Headland." In the 1700's Hilton Head was part of Beaufort's shipbuilding legacy due to it's deep-water creeks and the prevalance of hardwoods on its' shores.
"Hilton's Headland" flourished in the late 1700's and early 1800's when Sea Island or long-staple Cotton was grown on the island along with rice and indigo. This prosperity continued until pre-Civil war time with more than 20 working plantations located on the island.
Beginning in July of 1861, Fort Walker was built on Hilton Head Island at the entrance to Port Royal Sound in order to protect the port from Union attacks. On November 7th, Union forces attacked Fort Walker in the Battle of Port Royal. Nearly 13,000 Union troops flooded onto the island in the days after the battle and a large military presence continued until about 1868.
In 1893 an enormous hurricane hit Beaufort County, killing at least 2,000 people in the county and flooding parts of the island with its 12-foot surge. Many of Hilton Head Island's structures were destroyed in this storm.
By the 1920's the boll weevil had destroyed almost all of the Sea Island Cotton in the region. The island remained a sleepy little village with not much more than 1,000 residents for more than 20 years, until 1949, when a group of lumber associates from Hinesville, Georgia, bought a total of 20,000 acres of pine forest on Hilton Head's southern end for an average of nearly $60 an acre. By 1950 logging was taking place on about 19,000 acres of the island.
Electricity did not come to the island until 1950. The first ferry began running in 1953. The first bridge onto the island was not built until 1956. Infact, the bulk of the development that brings us to modern day Hilton Head didn't happen until the late 1950's when Charles Fraser (son of one of the original developers of the logging business) bought 5,000 acres from his father and began developing it into what is now Sea Pines Plantation. Charles Fraser was an engineer who had the vision and the inspiration to create what would become the first planned community in the United States. The underlying premise to Mr. Fraser's vision was the creation of a resort community that would retain the natural beauty of the land. His vision continues today with Hilton Head taking great strides to protect our natural environment . . . one of the many reasons so many people want to live here.
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