There’s nothing like finishing your day by looking at 300-year-old buildings here in the US. For any European reader out there, I know that 300-years-old isn’t that remarkable for a building for you…but here in the States, we’re lucky if we ever see something 100 years old! This was a great way to cap off our day’s visit to Colleton and Givhans Ferry State Parks.
Colonial Dorchester SHS preserves the location of one of the earliest settlements by the English here in the US. There is an old fort made of a material called ‘tabby’ (lots of oyster shells in it) overlooking the Ashley River. There is also the bell tower of a church from the 1700s and a cemetery. Additionally, ongoing archaeological research is being performed, which we saw as we walked around.
The site has a model of what the town would have looked like, and there were some nice printed interpretive guides to help you as you walked around. It was interesting, like at Charles Towne Landing, to note the presence of the fort at this town. While I suppose there needed to be law enforcement within the town, it seems that a major focus was keeping intruders out.
The kids really enjoyed seeing the archaeological site, especially since they had the wire screens that they used to sift through the dirt for artifacts. After I showed them how it is used, they each had to take turns putting a handful of dirt through the screen. I used to think that archaeologists only worked in ‘exotic’ places like Egyptian pyramids, but it’s cool to see that there’s so much to be learned through archaeology here in our own state.
I continued looking for new birds at this site, learning about a rusty blackbird, which the Merlin app helped me identify. We also saw a great blue heron flying and perching near the river. There was also what I think was a yellow-bellied sapsucker (a type of woodpecker) up in one of the trees.
With the hour getting late (the park closed at 5), we headed out right at 5 to go right down the street to Famulari’s Pizza, so that Tiffany could order the deep-dish Chicago pizza that she’d been craving for about a decade. (It did not disappoint!)
We had a great time with ‘Miss Stephanie’ and are glad she could join us on this tour of three of South Carolina’s many great state parks. Thirty down, seventeen to go! Click below for more pics from around Colonial Dorchester.
Beavers in the Park 