Agency overview | |
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Formed | 1933 |
Headquarters | 1205 Pendleton Street Columbia, SC 29201 |
Annual budget | $120 million (2008) [1] |
Agency executive |
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Parent agency | S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism |
Website | http://www.southcarolinaparks.com |
The State of South Carolina has a group of protected areas managed by the South Carolina State Park Service (often abbreviated to Park Service). Formed in 1933 in conjunction with the formalization of the federal Civilian Conservation Corps program, the State Park Service is administered by the state's Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism (SCPRT). There are a total of 47 facilities that the State Park Service administers, protecting nearly 80,000 acres of sensitive, attractive, and/or historically significant lands in South Carolina. [2] The facilities fall under four types of classifications:
Cheraw State Park was the first park to be proposed within the system in 1934 with Myrtle Beach State Park becoming the first park to open in 1936. [3] Within six years, the State of South Carolina and the CCC opened 17 state parks. [4] Originally under the jurisdiction of the South Carolina Forestry Commission, the Park Service has been a unit within the Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism since its formation in 1967. Hunting Island State Park in Beaufort County is the most popular state park in South Carolina and among the most popular in the United States, attracting 1.2 million visitors per year.
Following the Nukegate scandal, Dominion Energy settled with the South Carolina tax agency on $165 million in unpaid taxes owed due to an unfinished nuclear project in Fairfield County. As part of that settlement, the state agency and Dominion Energy agreed that Dominion would offset approximately a third of the unpaid taxes by turning over more than 2,900 acres of land which will ultimately become six new state parks in the coming years. The first state park expected to open from the settlement is Pine Island on Lake Murray. [5]
Park Name | County or Counties | Size | Year Acquired | Year Opened | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
acres | ha | ||||
Aiken State Park | Aiken | 1,067 | 432 | 1934 | 1936 |
Andrew Jackson State Park | Lancaster | 360 | 150 | 1953 | 1957 |
Baker Creek State Park | McCormick | 1,305 | 528 | 1967 | 1968 |
Barnwell State Park | Barnwell | 307 | 124 | 1937 | 1939 |
Caesars Head State Park | Greenville | 7,467 | 3,022 | 1976 | 1986 |
Calhoun Falls State Park | Abbeville | 318 | 129 | 1982 | |
Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site | Charleston | 184 | 74 | 1970 | 1970 |
Cheraw State Park | Chesterfield | 7,362 | 2,979 | 1934 | 1939 |
Chester State Park | Chester | 523 | 212 | 1935 | 1936 |
Colleton State Park | Colleton | 35 | 14 | 1938 | 1940 |
Colonial Dorchester State Historic Site | Dorchester | 325 | 132 | 1960 | 1960 |
Croft State Park | Spartanburg | 7,054 | 2,855 | 1949 | |
Devils Fork State Park | Oconee | 622 | 252 | 1991 | 1991 |
Dreher Island State Park | Newberry | 348 | 141 | 1970 | 1970 |
Edisto Beach State Park | Colleton | 1,255 | 508 | 1935 | 1937 |
Givhans Ferry State Park | Colleton, Dorchester | 988 | 400 | 1934 | 1937 |
Goodale State Park | Kershaw | 963 | 390 | 1973 | 1973 |
H. Cooper Black Jr. Memorial Field Trial and Recreation Area | Chesterfield | 7,000 | 2,800 | 1994 | 2006 |
Hamilton Branch State Park | McCormick | 731 | 296 | 1972 | 1972 |
Hampton Plantation State Historic Site | Charleston | 300 | 120 | 1972 | |
Hickory Knob State Resort Park | McCormick | 1,091 | 442 | 1969 | 1973 |
Hunting Island State Park | Beaufort | 5,000 | 2,000 | 1938 | 1941 |
Huntington Beach State Park | Georgetown | 2,500 | 1,000 | 1960 | 1962 |
Jones Gap State Park | Greenville | 3,964 | 1,604 | 1976 | 1985 |
Keowee-Toxaway State Park | Pickens | 1,000 | 400 | 1970 | 1975 |
Kings Mountain State Park | Cherokee, York | 6,885 | 2,786 | 1934 | 1936 |
Lake Greenwood State Park | Greenwood | 914 | 370 | 1938 | 1940 |
Lake Hartwell State Park | Oconee | 680 | 280 | 1976 | 1985 |
Lake Warren State Park | Hampton | 440 | 180 | 1980 | 1990 |
Lake Wateree State Park | Fairfield | 238 | 96 | 1982 | 1985 |
Landsford Canal State Park | Chester, Lancaster | 448 | 181 | 1970 | 1973 |
Lee State Park | Lee | 2,839 | 1,149 | 1935 | 1941 |
Little Pee Dee State Park | Dillon | 835 | 338 | 1951 | 1955 |
May Forest State Park | Charleston | 23 | 9.3 | 2021 | 2023 |
Musgrove Mill State Historic Site | Laurens, Spartanburg, Union | 380 | 150 | 1975 | 2003 |
Myrtle Beach State Park | Horry | 312 | 126 | 1935 | 1936 |
Oconee State Park | Oconee | 1,165 | 471 | 1935 | 1937 |
Oconee Station State Historic Site | Oconee | 210 | 85 | 1976 | 1994 |
Paris Mountain State Park | Greenville | 1,540 | 620 | 1935 | 1937 |
Poinsett State Park | Sumter | 1,010 | 410 | 1934 | 1936 |
Redcliffe Plantation State Historic Site | Aiken | 350 | 140 | 1973 | 1975 |
Rivers Bridge State Historic Site | Bamberg | 390 | 160 | 1945 | 1945 |
Rose Hill Plantation State Historic Site | Union | 44 | 18 | 1960 | 1961 |
Sadlers Creek State Park | Anderson | 395 | 160 | 1966 | 1968 |
Santee State Park | Orangeburg | 2,500 | 1,000 | 1942 | 1949 |
Sesquicentennial State Park | Richland | 1,419 | 574 | 1937 | 1940 |
Table Rock State Park | Pickens | 3,083 | 1,248 | 1935 | 1940 |
Woods Bay State Park | Clarendon, Florence, Sumter | 1,590 | 640 | 1973 | 1973 |
Mount Pleasant is a large suburban town in Charleston County, South Carolina, United States. In the Lowcountry, it is the fourth-most populous municipality in South Carolina, and for several years was one of the state's fastest-growing areas, doubling in population between 1990 and 2000. The population was 90,801 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Charleston metropolitan area.
Hardeeville is a city in Jasper and Beaufort counties in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 7,473 as of the 2020 census, an increase of over 150% since 2010. Hardeeville is included within the Hilton Head Island–Bluffton metropolitan area.
William B. Umstead State Park is a North Carolina state park in Wake County, North Carolina in the United States. It covers 5,599 acres (22.66 km2) nestled between the expanding cities of Raleigh, Cary, and Durham, North Carolina. It offers hiking, bridle, and bike trails, boat rentals, camping, picnic areas, and educational programs.
The George Washington and Jefferson National Forests is an administrative entity combining two U.S. National Forests into one of the largest areas of public land in the Eastern United States. The forests cover 1.8 million acres (2,800 sq mi) of land in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky. Approximately 1 million acres (1,600 sq mi) of the forest are remote and undeveloped and 139,461 acres (218 sq mi) have been designated as wilderness areas, which prohibits future development.
Atalaya Castle, often known simply as Atalaya, was the winter home of industrialist and philanthropist Archer M. Huntington and his wife, the sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington, located in Huntington Beach State Park near the Atlantic coast in Murrells Inlet, Georgetown County, South Carolina.
Cobbler Creek Recreation Park is a 266-hectare (657-acre) protected area located in South Australia about 19 kilometres (12 mi) north of the Adelaide city centre in the suburb of Salisbury East. Originally part of the lands of the Kaurna aboriginal people, it was farmed from European settlement of South Australia until the declaration of the park in 1989.
Jones Gap State Park is a South Carolina state park in northern Greenville County, near Marietta. The 3,964-acre (1,604 ha) park, which includes the headwaters of the Middle Saluda River, is, with Caesars Head State Park, administered by the state Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism as part of the Mountain Bridge Wilderness.
Caesars Head State Park is a park in northern Greenville County, South Carolina, that borders Transylvania County, North Carolina, and is reached via US 276. The eponymous rock formation, one of the highest points in Greenville County, is a granitic gneiss outcrop at 3,208 ft (978 m) above sea level on the Blue Ridge Escarpment of the Blue Ridge Mountains and rests roughly 2,000 ft (600 m) above the Piedmont below. The origin of the name "Caesars Head" is disputed, though the outcrop was most probably named for an early mountaineer's dog. Caesars Head State Park and Jones Gap State Park are jointly administered by the state Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism as part of the Mountain Bridge Wilderness.
Myrtle Beach State Park is a 312 acre state park located in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on land donated by Myrtle Beach Farms in 1934. The park was the first South Carolina State Park to open in 1936. It was developed by the Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal Program created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The program was designed to provide employment during the Great Depression while addressing national needs in conservation and recreation. The CCC was instrumental in the development of many of South Carolina’s state parks. A number of buildings built by the CCC in the 1930s are still in use there.
The Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation is a department of the government of Oklahoma within the Tourism and Branding Cabinet. The Department is responsible for regulating Oklahoma's tourism industry and for promoting Oklahoma as a tourist destination. It is the Department which established regional designations for the various parts of the state which are in common use today: Red Carpet Country, Green Country (Northeast), Frontier Country (Central), Choctaw Country (Southeast), Chickasaw Country, and Great Plains Country (Southwest).
Paris Mountain State Park is a state park in the U.S. state of South Carolina, located five miles (8 km) north of Greenville. Activities available in the 1,540-acre (6 km2) park include hiking, biking, swimming and picnicking. The 13-acre (52,609 m2) Lake Placid offers swimming and fishing. Canoes, kayaks, and pedal boats are seasonally available for rental; private boats are not permitted. Camping is allowed and campsites range from rustic, back country sites to paved sites with water and electricity hook-ups. The park's Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) structures, including the Camp Buckhorn lodge, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. m.
Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge, a part of the Chesapeake Marshlands National Wildlife Refuge Complex, is a 2,286-acre (9.25 km2) island located at the confluence of the Chester River and the Chesapeake Bay. Established in 1962 as a sanctuary for migratory birds, Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge provides natural habitat for over 240 bird species — including bald eagles and transitory peregrine falcons — and is a major staging site for tundra swans.
Mayo River State Park is a North Carolina state park in Rockingham County, North Carolina in the United States. It covers 2,778-acre (11.24 km2) along the Mayo River, and it adjoins a Virginia State Park of the same name. North Carolina's park is near Mayodan, North Carolina. The park is one of the newest in the North Carolina system, having been authorized by the General Assembly in May 2003.
Moose Brook State Park is a New Hampshire state park in Coos County, New Hampshire in the United States. The park occupies 755 acres (306 ha) and sits at an elevation of 1,070 feet (330 m). The park, which was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression, was opened to the public in 1936.
Welcome centers, also commonly known as visitors' centers, visitor information centers, or tourist information centers, are buildings located at either entrances to states on major ports of entry, such as interstates or major highways, e.g. U.S. Routes or state highways, or in strategic cities within regions of a state, e.g. Southern California, Southwest Colorado, East Tennessee, or the South County region of Rhode Island. These welcome centers, which first opened on May 4, 1935 next to U.S. Route 12 in New Buffalo, Michigan, are locations that serve as a rest area for motorists, a source of information for tourists or new residents that enter a state or a region of a state, and a showcase for the state. These features make welcome centers, visitors centers, and service plazas, which are similar to welcome centers, distinct from rest areas. In Alaska and Hawaii, their unique geographical locations preclude them from having welcome centers as known in the rest of the U.S.
The North Carolina General Assembly established the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund (PARTF) in 1994 to fund improvements in the state's park system, fund grants for local governments and increase public access to state beaches. The Parks and Recreation Authority, a fifteen-member appointed board, was also created to allocate funds from PARTF to the state parks and to the grants program for local governments.
Lake Brownwood State Park is a state park located on the shore of Lake Brownwood in Brown County, Texas, United States and is administered by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. The 537.5 acre park was acquired by deed from the Brown County Water Improvement District No. 1 in 1933. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) developed the park between 1934 and 1942. The park opened in 1938.
Myrtle Beach Air Force Base was a United States Air Force base located near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Mayo River State Park is a state park of Virginia located in Henry County, along the North and South Forks of the Mayo River. The entrance to the park is located in Spencer. The park is located along the Virginia-North Carolina state line, and it is adjacent to a similarly named park in North Carolina.
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) South Carolina Facts