Pawleys Island: A Century Of History And Photographs (Images of America)
United States history, Arts and entertainment, Travel and geography, United States travel and geography
Summary
The history of Pawleys Island can be summed up in four words rice sea golf and hammocks The rivers threading through coastal South Carolina created an ideal environment for cultivating rice and by the… mid-18th century vast plantations were producing profitable crops and wealthy landowners But those plantations also produced malaria-carrying mosquitoes so the landowners sent their families to the seashore for the summer and built the first houses on Pawleys Island starting in 1822 The end of slavery doomed the rice culture and the old plantations were sold to rich Northerners for hunting and fishing retreats During the Depression the Lachicotte family started making and selling distinctive rope hammocks the perfect symbol for the island s slow simple lifestyle By the 1960s many of the old plantations were turned into golf courses reviving the economy But the beating heart of Pawleys Island remains the rhythm of the sea and what one early visitor called the only beach in the world