{"id":1867,"date":"2022-12-07T10:59:34","date_gmt":"2022-12-07T15:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/palmeravacationclub.com\/blog\/?p=1867"},"modified":"2023-05-03T15:55:35","modified_gmt":"2023-05-03T19:55:35","slug":"traveling-through-time-on-a-hilton-head-history-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/palmeravacationclub.com\/blog\/2022\/12\/traveling-through-time-on-a-hilton-head-history-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"Traveling Through Time on a Hilton Head History Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written in partnership with Hilton Head History Tours<\/em> and published in the Fall\/Winter 2022 Palmera Compass Magazine<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It was as if I was hearing of Hilton Head Island for the very first time.\u00a0 We have come to Green\u2019s Shell Park to see a \u201cShell Ring\u201d built over 3,000 years ago by Nomadic Indigenous people who traveled here in search of shellfish. But there is more history here than just the ring. There, on the observation deck overlooking Skull Creek, the 12-mile-long island that we know\u2014or\u00a0thought<\/em>\u00a0we knew\u2014suddenly becomes a pirate\u2019s hideaway right before our very eyes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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View of Skull Creek from Green\u2019s Shell Park<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cCrews would use Skull Creek for careening their ships in order to clean the hulls, which was essential in making sure that the vessel\u2019s speed wasn\u2019t impaired.\u201d This is Todd, the guide responsible for reintroducing our beloved island to all of us during today\u2019s Hilton Head History Tour<\/a>.  Passionate about the region\u2019s past, Todd tells of Hilton Head\u2019s involvement during the Golden Age of Piracy. A perfect place for hiding and repairing their ships, crews could also navigate the intracoastal waterway between the key ports of Savannah and Charleston.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Pottery fragments found in Green\u2019s Shell Park<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cA journal entry from the time describes up to 8 pirate ships out there careening their hulls\u201d. He motions to the waterway behind us, making the group turn to take in the current scene of a single sailboat gliding through the calm creek framed by spartina grass.  It\u2019s hard to understand, but this won\u2019t be the only time we\u2019re tasked with imagining how the island would have looked hundreds of years ago during the tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tales of Blackbeard follow, and the curtain of Hollywood\u2019s take on piracy falls. Our eyes grow wide when Todd suggests the idea of Blackbeard\u2019s treasure being buried somewhere at the south end of the island, or in Bath, NC, but probably lost forever with the changing sea levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Coastal Discovery Museum<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
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As the tour moves on, we jump back and forth in time with every new significant location we explore. We make a brief journey through the Antebellum Period as we circle the main house of Honey Horn Plantation, what is now the home of the Coastal Discovery Museum, a Smithsonian affiliate. Todd assures us that a return trip back to the museum on our own time is worth it, even if it\u2019s just to walk through the beautiful butterfly enclosure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We cross into the devastating stretch of time immediately after a deadly hurricane in 1893 wreaks havoc on Hilton Head and leaves most of the island essentially uninhabitable for over a year.\u00a0 We\u2019re standing in front of one of four surviving buildings at Honey Horn, and after our bus travels toward the middle of the island, we find the second building looming over us in Zion Cemetery\u2014the Baynard Mausoleum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Baynard Mausoleum in Zion Cemetery<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
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I\u2019ve heard about this tomb before, specifically a ghost story that the locals like to tell. It\u2019s easy to see why this structure survived a massive hurricane when so many other buildings were flattened. This structure is unlike anything in our area. The roof stone is made of Pennsylvania blue slate and the walls are stone cut in Maryland. The stone cutters who carved it from the mountain traveled with it here on a series of barges and after its final leg up the Broad Creek, it was assembled where it still sits today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re leaving Zion Cemetery with the mystery of the vanishing Chapel of Ease on our hands and stories of the local patriots in the Bloody Legion\u2019s guerrilla attacks during the Revolutionary War swirling through our heads. Our group is absorbing the information and stories as fast as we can, and no, we don\u2019t seem to have many questions since Todd is so thorough with his explanations. Although, he compels us to pepper him with questions throughout the tour. It\u2019s as if we\u2019re gradually putting together the pieces of Hilton Head\u2019s history in some sort of puzzle, and the last pieces are lying in Mitchelville\u2014at least for our tour\u2019s sake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Building recreation in Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Entrance to Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A street lined with colorful beach bungalows gives way to the entrance of Mitchelville, the first town built by and for formerly enslaved people. Metaphorically called the Port Royal Experiment at the time, the group of escaped slaves that had become contraband of war before Emancipation ultimately proved their ability to self-govern. Mitchelville was a success, and by the war\u2019s end had almost twice as many inhabitants as Gettysburg, Pennsylvania at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
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Its importance rediscovered relatively recently, Mitchelville and other island landmarks show us that there is so much still to learn about our island. A theme reoccurring during the entirety of the tour, more of Hilton Head\u2019s history is still being discovered. This is reason enough to argue that only taking a Hilton Head History Tour once isn\u2019t enough. With so much information packed into three hours, each tour taken is already bound to be considerably different, and who knows what historians will discover by the time you return to Hilton Head for your next vacation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make your reservation, lace up your sneakers, and get ready to learn the real story behind Hilton Head Island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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