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Left: Forsyth Park, one of 22 squares
in Savannah originally designed by
founder James Oglethorpe when the
city was founded in 1733.

By Sandy Nielsen PHOTOS by sandy nielsen

Where would you go in this Above: Typical historic home in Beaufort, South Carolina, not far from a notori-
country to find a history, a ous “hanging tree” for pirates.
culture, a vegetation so totally
different from our Texas that it could today has about 2,300 undergraduates and earrings. We also saw some of
almost be a foreign country? You might and continues as a state-supported the churches that led Charleston to be
try the south Atlantic states, as my college. The Citadel’s freshmen are called nicknamed the “Holy City.” At one point,
husband, Nick Martinez, and I did last “knobs” and are required to walk in the there was a church for every 56 people
December through a week-long trip to gutters of the sidewalks at 120 paces a in the city.
South Carolina and Georgia sponsored minute as they move between campus
by the Sun City Texas Community buildings. Boone plantation, with its long shaded
Association. drive up to the columned mansion and
A horse-drawn carriage ride through its preserved slave quarters, gave us
Think massive oak trees dripping with Charleston’s historic quarter took us glimpses of what it might have been like
Spanish moss and already mature past some of the city’s famous single- to live here before slavery was abolished.
when the country was still a series of room-wide houses, which along with Although Boone produced cotton, indigo
colonies. Think slaves from West Africa fountained gardens and spacious and bricks, this area was known for its
and Jamaica who developed their own verandas were designed to maximize the rice production, growing about 75% of the
Gullah language and food and religious sea breezes. So ornate and individualistic world’s rice for almost 100 years.
orientation that colors the local culture are the iron gates to these homes that
even now. Think lacy iron gates guarding a local entrepreneur has used them At a stop in Beaufort, on the way to
gracious old houses with turrets, wide as inspiration for a line of necklaces Savannah, we learned about local son
verandas, cooling gardens.
Continued on the next page
Think of one of this country’s bloodiest
conflicts, whose first shot was fired here,
but don’t call it the Civil War. Locals refer
to it as “the War of Northern Aggression
— there wasn’t nothing civil about it!”

Think of a barrier island playground
for the ultra rich, whose once exclusive
clubhouse, 12,000 square-foot “cottages”
and Tiffany-windowed chapel are now
open for gawking by the rest of us.

Charleston and Beaufort, South
Carolina. Savannah and Jekyll Island,
Georgia. For someone born and raised in
the West, it doesn’t get much more exotic.

Charleston, the oldest city in South
Carolina, drips history along with
Spanish moss. While the Revolutionary
War didn’t start here, South Carolina lost
more of its sons to the conflict than any
other state. And it was Charlestonians
who fired the first shots of the Civil War
when cadets from the Military College of
South Carolina (“The Citadel”) fired on
a Union ship in the harbor. The Citadel

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