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Georgetown builds a future on its past
By Glenn Morris

While Sandy Vermont - Cap'n Sandy to his audience - regales his passengers with the tale of Theodosia Burr Alston, the slow, black, lazy backwaters of Georgetown's Sampit River furl to the sides of the 40-foot Osprey, his catamaran-hulled touring boat.

"Theodosia was the daughter of Aaron Burr and she married South Carolina Gov. Joseph Alston," the 49-year-old boat captain and tour guide says. "She spent her last night alive in this world dancing with her husband in that house." He points to the Mann-Doyle House on Front Street, barely visible from the river.

Continuing in his resonant voice, rich with colloquialisms, he points again, this time to an old warehouse. "On New Year's Eve 1812, she said goodbye to her husband at the wharf beside that very same old warehouse, right there by this river. She was sailin' to New York, going home to visit her daddy, but she was never seen again. She disappeared, lost at sea, shipwrecked or kidnapped by the British. Around these parts, it's said the news broke the gov'ners heart and he took off to himself until he died."

Cap'n Sandy turns to point out the bones of a blockade runner, grounded and burned near Goat Island by Confederate troops after they had unloaded the cargo and stripped the vessel. He then eases the outboard throttles forward to power the vessel around Morgan Park, the spit of sand where the Sampit flows into the wind-driven ripples of Winyah Bay. He heads north under the bridge carrying U.S. 17 across the bay.

Talking steadily, one story blending with the next, keyed by items along the passage, Cap'n Sandy weaves a braid of natural and social history as intriguing and unstoppable as the rivers flowing into the bay. Part naturalist, part historian and always an entertainer, he's been operating his tours for more than 10 years.

Just north of the U.S. 17 bridge, the Great Pee Dee, Black and Waccamaw rivers merge in a labyrinth of black water, tidal flats and rice field dikes, among the most storied waters in the Carolinas. Like the waters, Cap'n Sandy is full of stories.

This is rice country, he says, the seat of unsurpassed influential wealth in the colonial history of South Carolina and the nation.

A minister, Elisha Screven, founded Georgetown in 1729, building on a parish of the church of England, Prince George Winyah Episcopal, founded in 1721. In the beginning, the community served as an outpost to protect Charleston against Spanish raiders and pirates, but by 1732 it became a port of entry. Shortly thereafter, the agriculture of rice and indigo came to the community and its remarkable rivers.

A plantation society developed, harnessing the tides with slave labor to flood massive, hand-cleared and excavated fields, which then were planted with rice and indigo. Some of the plantations were easily 3,000 or more acres, lining the Black, Sampit, Waccamaw and Great Pee Dee rivers to the limit of usable tidal influence.

Georgetown quickly became the seat of government and society for the plantation culture. Thomas Lynch Jr., signer of the Declaration of Independence, was born on nearby Hopsewee Plantation, which is open for tours between March and October. The Allston family - the name is also spelled Alston - hosted George Washington at their plantation on his 1791 tour of the South. The plantation is now a part of Brookgreen Gardens.

Between the 1820s and 1860s, Georgetown became the wealthiest rice- producing region in the world.

As the Osprey slides up the Pee Dee River, Cap'n Sandy brings the time line forward, gliding by White House and Nightingale plantations. Rice dikes, covered with cypress trees, form the south bank of the Pee Dee.

The slave-based economy collapsed after the Civil War, Cap'n Sandy says. Rice cultivation transferred to Arkansas and Louisiana. There were no comparable cash crops for the peculiar orientation of the plantations, so, inevitably, plantation society entered a slow spiral of decline.

One legacy of the rice plantation era was the pattern of land ownership, we learn. Families controlled vast coastal plots oriented to travel on the rivers. The fronts of the houses faced the water.

By the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, these lands lost virtually all agricultural viability except, perhaps, that of the native longleaf pine - which could be tapped for timber or turpentine.

On the auction block, many homesteads become the winter retreats or hunting resorts for wealthy industrialists. Today, many of these former plantation holdings are intact, privately held or managed as coastal wildlife or research preserves.

Georgetown's saving grace may have been the explosion of Grand Strand tourism. While neighboring Horry County blossomed with condominiums and golf courses, Georgetown, a river city, slumbered undiscovered as a tourist destination. Now it's rousing awake and finding that its past could build a future.

A 1,000-foot-long Harborwalk, constructed in 1988, has made the historic waterfront the central feature of the community. Storefront renovations and landscaping improvements to Front Street complement historical attractions such as the Kaminski House and the Rice Museum.

The Osprey, shaded by an awning with bench seats around the gunwales, is his stage - and your taxi. As the Osprey heads back down Pull-Fare Cut, a hand-dug shortcut between the Pee Dee and Waccamaw channels, a small boat with two fishermen passes.

"That's not a local somebody," Cap'n Sandy says over the loudspeakers. "A local somebody wouldn't be fishing right here. And certainly not on this tide. But that's all right."

So seems everything else on the rivers of Georgetown's past.

Getting there

Atlantic Southeast Airlines flies commuter aircraft nonstop between Atlanta and Myrtle Beach, S.C. Other airlines have connections in Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte. ASA's lowest fare is $317 round trip with 14-day advance purchase and other restrictions.

If driving, take Interstate 20 east to Florence, S.C.; and U.S. 501 to Myrtle Beach. The distance is 365 miles.

Touring

Sandy Vermont - Cap'n Sandy, as he's called - knows his territory. He's a licensed captain; the Osprey operates with a Coast Guard permit as a passenger ferry.

Cap'n Sandy offers several programs, including a two-hour ecology tour ($10 for adults, $6 for children younger than 12); a three-hour, 30- mile plantation cruise ($15 and $4); and a half-day shelling excursion ($20 and $10).

This year he will expand his operations to include a narrated self- guided walking tour of historic Georgetown, which, in his words, "gives you something to think about besides just looking at these lovely old buildings."

For information or a schedule of tours, contact Captain Sandy's Tours (803-527-4106).

Where to stay

If you want to sample the coast as it was 25 years ago, try the sleepy Brookwood Inn (803-651-2550) at nearby Murrels Inlet. Although not on the ocean, it's convenient to Huntington Beach State Park - and 27 seafood restaurants in Murrells Inlet.

Georgetown also has nine bed-and-breakfasts (the Chamber of Commerce can provide a list of accommodations).

Laurel Hill Plantation, a four-bedroom (all with private baths) bed- and-breakfast in McClellanville, S.C. (30 miles north of Charleston, 25 miles south of Georgetown) is a delightful Low Country retreat, complete with wraparound porches, on a tidal creek. It has been completely rebuilt since Hurricane Hugo devastated the original 1850s building in 1989. Jackie and Lee Morrison - he practices medicine in nearby Georgetown - indulge their visitors with enormous country breakfasts and encourage guests to put their feet up and relax. Prices are $65 to $85 a night, double (803-887-3708).

There are also campsites in the area at Buck Hall Recreation Area, Elmwood Huntcamp and Honey Hill Campground (inquire at U.S. Forest Service Headquarters in McClellanville for more information: 803-887- 3258).

Where to eat

In Georgetown, Daniel's Waterfront Eatery, a light- fare restaurant, is popular at lunch and dinner (713 Front St.; 803-546- 4377). A few tables outdoors supplement the dining rooms and are nice when the weather is mild.

For a dressier place, try the River Room, specializing in grilled fish (801 Front St. and Harborwalk; 803-527-4110). A high-dollar choice is Frank's (U.S. 17 North at Pawleys Island; 803-237-3030); you'd be wise to make reservations well in advance.

Murrells Inlet is to South Carolina the way Calabash is to North Carolina - a seafood mecca. Some of the restaurants have been in business 40 years or longer. The decor is often subdued, but the food is traditional fried-and-fresh (broiled, too).

In McClellanville: The Crab Pot Restaurant (803-887-3156) is a colorful, unpretentious hangout where locals and tourists come together for seafood (reasonably priced) and live music (reasonably appealing). The crab balls are an especially tasty appetizer.

Other McClellanville choices: Jeremy Creek Cafe (803-887-3590 closed Sunday and Monday), and T.W. Graham and Co. (803-887-3331).

Other tours

Murrells Inlet/Inlet Educational Cruise, a three-hour ecologically minded tour of Murrells Inlet, lets passengers collect and discuss organisms of the different habitats within Murrells Inlet. Captain Dick's Marina, Murrells Inlet (803-651-3676).

Information

Georgetown County Chamber of Commerce, P.O. Box 1776, Georgetown, S.C. 29442 (800-777-7705 for recorded information or 803-546- 8437 for a live person). Ask for the free 64-page Tidelands of Georgetown Travel Guide.

Free-lance writer Glenn Morris lives in Greensboro, N.C.

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