Touring the Historic Pee Dee Country of South Carolina

Jul 17, 2011
Katharine Garstka

Tobacco Barn Near Dillon - Jack Boucher, National Park Service

Named for the Pee Dee River, the Pee Dee area of South Carolina is known for cotton, tobacco, and the meteorite craters known as Carolina Bays.

The Pee Dee area of South Carolina can be easy to overlook – it doesn’t have the beautiful beaches of the Strand or Myrtle Beach, nor is it home to the quaint old-world charm of Charleston. It doesn’t have world-famous zoos, aquariums, or huge theme parks. It does, however, have a sense of history – with museums and historic houses, along with state parks and gardens. For those interested in learning about how people lived, and how the South developed, a tour through the area can be both entertaining and educational.

The Pee Dee Indians and Early Settlers

The early inhabitants of the area, the Pee Dee (Vehidi) tribe, gave their name to both the Great Pee Dee and the Little Pee Dee rivers, along which they farmed, hunted, and traded with other nearby tribes. Spanish explorers brought additional trading opportunities, as well as small pox, which drastically reduced the Native American population. In the latter half of the 17th century English colonists began arriving in Charleston, and the Pee Dee developed relationships with them, as well.

Because of the area’s fertile farmlands and abundant rain, Scots-Irish immigrants eventually moved south from Pennsylvania; others came directly from Britain. In Marlboro and Darlington Counties, tracts of land along the Pee Dee River were set aside for Welsh settlers from Pennsylvania and Delaware. Here they planted indigo and rice, and later, tobacco and cotton; these last two are still major crops today.

Pee Dee Country Towns

The Pee Dee River starts in North Carolina and heads south through the sand hills and plains around Florence, eventually making its way to the sea at Georgetown, 60 miles up the coast from Charleston.

The towns of this area of South Carolina have always been small, and are surrounded by farms and plantations. Florence, at the center of the Pee Dee region, is the largest, at about 30,000 people. The rest tend to be no larger than 10,000, and many are smaller yet.

Darlington may be the best known, but mainly for its stock car races and Darlington Raceway Museum, though the town also offers a five-mile boardwalk and hiking trail through swamps with mossy trees, camellias, and azaleas.

Bennettsville, County Seat of Marlboro County

Bennettsville is an old farming community founded in 1819. It is noted for its large courthouse square and picturesque downtown buildings, including the Marlboro County Historical Museum housed in the Dr. J. F. Kinney historic home. The museum has exhibits of local history, and a small library of genealogical books that visitors can consult.

A number of other well-preserved Victorian and antebellum homes make the town well worth a visit. One outstanding example is the D. D. McColl house, which now serves as the Bennettsville Visitors Center. Also be sure to stop in at the Breeden Grocery for a variety of local delicacies, including a case or two of real old-fashioned Blenheim Ginger Ale, named for the tiny town of Blenheim, just south of Bennettsville. This spicy drink was created in the late 1800s by a local physician, who combined water from the Blenheim Artesian Mineral Springs with Jamaican ginger, thus producing a medicinal concoction that leaves some “patients” gasping at the heat.

Cheraw, named for the Native American tribe whose main village was originally on the site, was founded in 1740. Its historic district includes more than 50 antebellum buildings, as well as some from the Victorian and revival eras. During the Revolutionary War, Cheraw was occupied by the British; during the Civil War, by the Union Army. The town was also home to Dizzy Gillespie; a seven-foot bronze statue of the musician resides on the town green.

South Carolina’s Cotton Heritage

To see the real flavor of the Pee Dee region, a traveler should make some stops on the “Cotton Trail,” a 90-mile drive promoted by the South Carolina tourism department. The trail features museums, cotton fields, gardens, and working cotton gins in the cotton towns of Clio, Bennettsville, Cheraw, Society Hill, Hartsville, and Bishopville.

Bishopville is the site of the South Carolina Cotton Museum, which displays a large collection of implements for growing, harvesting, and processing cotton. Exhibits trace the history of cotton from that grown by indigenous people of South Carolina to the factories of the present age. Visitors are introduced to a three-foot-tall model of the infamous boll weevil – not something most people will easily forget.

For a completely different experience, visitors to Bishopville may explore Pearl Fryar’s Topiary Garden, two acres of living art. Many of the 300 plants were salvaged from compost piles of nearby nurseries, and all have been coaxed and trimmed into amazing green sculptures. Mr. Fryar has added a variety of “junk art” sculptures that add further interest to the grounds.

The Tobacco Museum

Another stop on the journey should be at the Tobacco Museum in the old train depot in Mullins. It contains displays showing how tobacco is grown and processed, and includes a reconstructed pole barn. A small research library offers multi-media documentaries with local residents describing life in the area before 1950.