Hilton
Head Island History
Find
out more about Hilton
Head Island Living
The
name Hilton Head comes from English explorer
Sir William Hilton, who first marked the
island on nautical charts in 1663 as he
sailed along the Atlantic Coast. Impressed
by the naturally protected expanse of today's
Port Royal Sound, he listed the island's
prominent tall pine trees as a sailors'
reckoning point, or "head", and
it has been called that ever since. Discovery
of the island preceded Hilton by thousands
of years, however, as Indian tribes used
the area for hunting and gathering as far
back as the Archaic period in 8000 B.C.,
and an ancient 150-foot shell ring still
exists in Sea
Pines Plantation Forest Preserve. Also
known as a midden, the shell ring is a distinctive
mark of nomadic tribes, who would build
temporary huts around which rings of debris
would arise from discarded shellfish, animal
bones and broken pottery. Still clearly
visible, the ring is only one of twenty
known to exist today, and is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places.
Hilton Head's natural abundance would also
attract later French and Spanish explorers
during the 16th century, and brief settlements
were made on nearby St. Helena and Parris
islands in the 1560's by adventurers Lucas
Vasquez de Ayllon and Jean Ribault. They
valued Hilton Head's ample fresh-water springs,
noting its location on maps with the descriptions
"agua dulce" and "l'eau douce",
meaning sweet water. Neither the Spanish
nor the French colonies would survive Indians
and starvation, but the traditional island
water still makes its mark on current maps,
as lovely Spanish
Wells is home to modern-day inhabitants
on Hilton Head's western shore.
Throughout the colonial period, the island
was coveted by warring European nations
as well as local pirates who lurked in marshes
and creeks near today's Pinckney Island
Wildlife Refuge, where Hilton
Head Plantation's Skull Creek is a lasting
reminder of their terrifying flag. Indian
attacks were a constant threat to permanent
settlement until after the 1715 Yemassee
War, when Indian-fighter "Tuscarora
Jack" Barnwell was rewarded for his
leadership with a grant of 1,000 acres to
established the first permanent residence
on Hilton Head.
As pirate, Indian, French an Spanish threats
diminished by the mid-1700's, the island
was increasingly cleared and cultivated
for plantations. The first successful crop
was a plant called indigo, which was converted
to a bluish dye by soaking leaves in vats
of water and crushed oyster shell, ingredients
easily accessible in the plentiful marsh
beds of Broad Creek that bisects Hilton
Head island and borders Indigo Run today.
Another plentiful raw material was timber,
and by the late 18th century, the sturdy
live oaks of Hilton Head had helped make
coastal South Carolina one of the largest
shipbuilding areas in America, a classic
island industry that Shipyard
Plantatoin conjures subtle memories
today.
With the coming of American independence,
times changed to include larger, more lucrative
crops of cotton, which thrived in the island's
rich soil and sunny climate. To work Hilton
Head cotton plantations, thousands of slaves
were shipped in from Africa, bringing with
them the distinctive Gullah language and
traditions that are unique to this sea island
area today. Baskets of "sweetgrass"
and cast-nets for fish and shrimp are still
hand-woven by slave descendants, who also
added a special flavor to island home cooking
with the likes of okra gumbo, she-crab soup,
and hoppin' john. For many years before
Hilton Head's first mainland bridge was
built in 1956, generations of these poor
island residents would fill homemade, shallow-draft
bateaux with harvested crops and shellfish
for a 25-mile sailing and rowing journey
to Savannah's market dock, filing down Broad
Creek where sleek pleasure craft exit the
modern lock system at Wexford
Plantation today.
The Civil War would end the plantation system
and drastically change Hilton Head's fortunes.
The island's strategic location and sheltered
sounds became central to the Union's plan
to blockade Southern ports, and in December,
1861, the largest naval battle ever fought
in America took place off beaches of Port
Royal Plantation, as a fifty-ship Union
flotilla blasted its way to victory. Confederate
cannoneers made a gallant defense behind
a fortification built from palmetto logs
and sand called Fort Walker, whose ruins
still stand. With overwhelming firepower
and numbers, the invading forces easily
captured Hilton Head, establishing military
headquarters, troop encampments and training
grounds, and a pier for warships.
The island's prominent position along the
coast would guarantee a Federal presence
for many years after the war. In what is
now Palmetto
Dunes Plantation, the Coast Guard built
a light house at Leamington Point in the
1870's, and added a Marine Corps developed
a training camp that featured huge anti-aircraft
and naval guns at nearby Camp McDougal during
World War II. Even the Fort Walker location
was reactivated during the Spanish-American
War, as guns were briefly installed for
fear of invasion.
Unfortunately, the biggest attack suffered
by Hilton Head since the Civil War came
from the great hurricane of 1893 and the
boll weevil infestation few years later,
effectively ending the cotton era. Over
the next fifty years, the island population
would decrease from several thousand to
less than 300, mostly descendants of slaves.
Without a bridge to the mainland, there
was little economic opportunity on Hilton
Head at the end of the 19th century, and
island fields were converted to smaller
subsistence crops of tomatoes, potatoes,
watermelon, sugar cane, butterbeans and
corn. The surrounding waters were also a
source of income, as island residents gathered
oysters by hand from area mudflats and,
in the 1890's, an oyster canning factory
was established on Jenkins Island near today's
Windmill
Harbor.
With ample varieties of waterfowl, wild
turkeys, raccoons and deer, much of Hilton
Head was sold to absentee owners for hunting
preserves, and as late as 1930, hunting
barons were paying $6 an acre for land that,
some seventy years later, Pete Dye would
sculpt into a world-class championship golf
course at Long
Cove Club.
From old island cotton fields, massive pines
brought timber interests in the 1940's,
and three newly-constructed mills required
the first electric power to be brought to
the island, and the opening of the first
car ferry to Bluffton. New access brought
the first tourists to Hilton Head during
the 1950's, and in 1955, the island's first
motel was opened at Forest
Beach. In 1956, a bridge was built connecting
the island to the mainland, and the same
year, Charles Fraser bought out timber interests
and began developing Sea Pines Plantation.
Fraser recognized Hilton Head's potential
as a natural recreational paradise to draw
homeowners, investors and vacationers, and
over the next five years, planned and built
the first marina, inn and golf course on
the island.
As Hilton Head development grew, so did
its reputation as as luxury oceanfront community
and golf resort, and in 1967, the island's
airport was opened near today's Palmetto
Hall, as the first plane to land belonged
to Arnold Palmer. In 1969, the full-time
island population was 2,500, but that same
year, the Heritage Golf Classic was played
for the first time at the Harbour Town Links
in Sea Pines, ushering in an era of tourism
and developmental growth that would increase
the local population and tourism exponentially.
Today, Hilton Head is an incorporated town
of more than 39,000, with more than two
million vacationers visiting annually. Graced
with twelve superbly-developed communities,
more than 20 championship golf courses,
as well as world-class beach resort hotels,
tennis and marina facilities, Hilton Head
is at the cutting edge of upscale modern
living without losing its natural character.
Diligent environmental stewardship programs
protect vulnerable species and natural areas,
well-conceived zoning, utility and construction
planning gives inhabited areas of the island
a more pleasing aesthetic perspective, and
with its canopy of towering trees set against
pristine blue water and white sandy beaches,
William Hilton himself would recognize this
stunning spectacle as Hilton Head.
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