Charleston, SC Tour Day #5
As we wrap up this week long tour of my hometown, Charleston, we're going to end with another plantation and some ghosts and aquarium. That's right! Ghosts, ghost stories, and ghost tours are a big deal in the city. We'll get to that in a moment.
The South Carolina Aquarium was opened in 2000 on the banks of the Charleston Harbor. Its home to more than 10,000 plants and animals. Not only do they house sea creatures, you'll also find snakes, frogs, and Venus flytraps. The star attraction would have to be the Great Ocean Tank that extends three floors, two of which are visible to the public. It holds almost 400,000 gallons of water. You'll be able to spot sharks, eels, blowfish, and a giant sea turtle.
Speaking of sea turtles, the aquarium has a very successful sea turtle rescue program. Through the tour of the aquarium, you're able to see how turtles can escape some specially designed shrimp nets as well as watch a television monitor of the hospital. On the screen will flash different cameras in the hospital to show you all the turtles they're rehabilitating. Since their first release in 2003, 20 turtles have been successfully rehabilitated and released back into the wild. You can even track some of them on their website with satellite tracking chips that were put on the turtle.
As I said in a previous posting, plantations are still in existence in the south and some of them are called "working" plantations. That means they still have farm lands that are used to grow crops. One such plantation is Boone Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. It was originally known for its rice, cotton and pecan crops. There have been crops growing here for over 300 years. Today they still produce strawberries, peaches, tomatoes, and pumpkins.
Boone Hall was founded by Major John Boone after given a land grant for some 460 acres. The original wooden house was built in 1790, but the house that stands there now was built by Thomas Stone. He purchased the land in the early 20th century. On the grounds today, besides the house, there are nine original slave cabins, a smoke house, a Cotton Gin, and the grand Avenue of Oaks.
The Avenue of Oaks is nearly a mile long stretch of live oak trees. They were planted by Thomas Boone to mark the grand entrance to the property. This is actually the longest "Avenue of Oaks" in the United States. The majestic trees line each side of the drive and are spaced out evenly. Unlike other trees/plants, the live oaks will actually intertwine their roots to create a shared union of food. It took almost two centuries for each side of the oaks to touch over the driveway creating a beautiful canopy. During the hot and humid summer months, you'll actually be a lot cooler under the canopy than anywhere else.
The oak wood from oak trees was actually used to build many a ship, because the wood was so resilient. The USS Constitution was one of the ships built with the wood, and it actually repelled the shot of the HMS Guerriere. That earned the ship the nickname "Old Ironsides."
You are even invited to sit in front of one of the slave cabins and learn about the history of the Gullah culture in the south. You'll learn of their native language that is an English-based Creole language containing many African loanwords. Some words are pronounced differently and may be hard to understand. For instance, the word "think" will actually be pronounce "tink". The word "them" will actually be pronounce "dem". Their food is amazing as well. There are recipes that my family has cooked for generations, and I was surprised to find out that they're actually inspired by the Gullah recipes. Yum!
As I said earlier, Charleston, and the south for that matter, is known for ghost and haunts. There are many tour groups in the city that will take you on walking tours during the evening hours. They take you to some of the actually locations where ghosts are said to be. I've done a few tours with the Bulldog Tour Company. They take you all over the city to cemeteries, graveyards, and an old jail and dungeon. They'll tell you an actual story from the location, and then tell you about events that have happened in that same location since then. The pictures below show an alley known as "Dueler's Alley". Two men, one a doctor, met there to settle their differences over a woman. One man shot his gun into the air in hopes the other man would settle the argument in a different way. That wasn't the case. The other man shot the doctor in the leg, and a few days later, the doctor died. He's said to walk that alley during the evening and disappear into a brick wall. That place in the wall is actually a bricked up entrance to what used be a tavern the doctor frequented. You can make out the former door in one of the pictures below. You be the judge.
This is an amazing city where history actually comes alive on a daily basis. Growing up, history class had such a different feel to it since we could actually go to these locations on a field trip and learn the stories better. Thanks for taking this journey with me. I hope everyone has enjoyed it.
Thanks for checking in...
Zach Brown, Daybreak Meteorologist
Hey Zach,
Thanks so much for posting all of this about your trip home. Charleston looks to be a GREAT place to visit with LOTS of things to do. I love visiting historic places and I'll be sure to mark Charleston on my "must-see" list.
Your pictures are terrific and you wrote a very informative blog about each place.
So glad to have you back on Daybreak... it's not the same without you!
Thanks again!
Posted by: Mario | May 04, 2008 at 09:34 AM