Olde Charles Towne: South Carolina's Birthplace
Managed By The South Carolina State Park System, The Historic Site Is A Suiting Destination for Observing Thankfulness of Flourishing Harvests
In 1969, well before most other states, South Carolina prepared to celebrate its tricentennial. The state’s story began with the founding of Charleston, originally called Charles Towne, in 1670, 300 years before. The committee in charge decided to build a replica of the original settlement, and they were able to build it on the original site. Turned out, the town of Charleston had moved.
The original colonists settled on a peninsula jutting from the west bank of the Ashley River, some distance upstream from downtown Charleston today. “This site was selected because it was easy to fortify,” explains Rob Powell, manager of Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site. “The settlers were concerned about attacks from the Spanish, as well as Native Americans and wild animals.”
Most of the early colonists came from Barbados, then the largest and most successful British colony in the New World. “In fact,” Powell says, “the first seven governors of the colony were all from Barbados.”
The colony was founded by the first Earl of Shaftesbury, Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper. “That’s where we got the names for our rivers, the Ashley and the Cooper,” Powell says. “He was one of the Lords Proprietor, the friends of Charles II, and named his new town after the king.”
The colony’s goal was to make money for Lord Cooper, and the first order of business was to find a cash crop. The settlers tried sugar cane, so profitable in Barbados, but the Carolina growing season, although hot, wasn’t quite long enough. Other crops attempted included olives and grapes. “They thought they could grow Mediterranean crops, since this is on the same latitude,” Powell explains. “But the climate here wasn’t mild enough.”
The colonists eventually fell back on growing indigo and flax, along with various fruits, vegetables and herbs, but none provided the desired cash flow. Bob Powell says some of the crops grown by the colonists were discovered through archeological digs which continue during the spring and fall. Today, the historic site includes a cash crop garden, featuring these experimental crops.
The Tricentennial Commission reconstructed part of Charles Towne’s fortifications on the footprint discovered by the archaeologists, and commissioned the Adventure, a replica of a ketch, a popular style of ship that ferried people, livestock and crops between Carolina and Barbados. “It represents the coastal traders of the period,” Powell says. “For us, it’s a floating exhibit, with a full-time interpreter on board.”
The 664-acre park also includes the Animal Forest, a 22-acre natural habitat zoo, occupied by animals that the early settlers would have encountered in 1670. Residents include bison, red wolves, black bears, cougars, wild turkeys, river otters, a bald eagle, and, the newest resident,
an elk. “We don’t see many of these animals around here today,” Bob says, “but they were common back then.”
After the settlers moved on, the site along the Ashley became a plantation during the succeeding centuries, and several features remain from that time. The plantation house itself is now a ruin, but the Legare-Waring House, once the home of the plantation’s manager, is a popular spot for Charleston weddings. Perhaps the most notable survivors from that period are a magnificent alley of oaks and 80 acres of English-style gardens filled with magnolias, azaleas and camellias that surround the house.
Powell says both the oak alley and the gardens are the legacy of Ferdinanda Legare Waring, who bought out her family’s interest in the property in the late 1800s. The gardens and marshes along the river are home to a variety of wading birds, including wood storks, snowy egrets and blue herons, along with the occasional alligator, according to Powell.
Charles Towne Landing opened in April, 1970, and was managed for two years by the Tricentennial Commission, before being transferred to the state park system. Archeology is ongoing, with a Native American ceremonial site and an African American cemetery among the discoveries. A museum contains 12 rooms of exhibits and artifacts telling the story of the property through the years, and a self-guided History Trail leads popular sites of the past.
Powell says that the park’s most popular programs are the cannon firings held twice a month. “We have six cannons, which is half of what the original colony had,” he says. “We know from an order Lord Cooper sent that they had a dozen on the palisade and earthworks. A lot of what we know about Charles Towne comes from his letters and writings.”
The colony never did find a profitable cash crop, and by the 1690s, the rice culture that would dominate Low Country South Carolina for the next two hundred years was beginning to take hold. “People started expanding outward,” Powell says. “Some went upriver to Summerville and Goose Creek, but most went down to Oyster Point, which is where the city of Charleston is located now. They needed a deep water port, to develop as a major trading center.”
Eventually, the original colony was nearly forgotten. “It’s funny,” Powell says. “We would have no idea what the colony looked like if it weren’t for a Spanish spy. Antonio Camunas managed to get inside the fort and sent back detailed descriptions of the fortifications to Madrid.”
Renee Wright
A graduate of Franconia College in Social Psychology, Renee has worked as Travel Editor for Charlotte Magazine and has written three travel guidebooks for Countryman Press among other writing assignments. She enjoys food and camping.
Make Sure To Stay At:
Campground and Cottages at James Island County Park, to explore historic Charleston and the Lowcountry. Just minutes from numerous attractions is your private retreat within the 643-acre James Island County Park.