A production of South Carolina ETV in association with the South Carolina Department of Parks and Tourism ♪ (male singer) ♪ Oh, I have found the sweetest place ♪ ♪ where people smile and know my name.

♪ ♪ Oh, I have found the sweetest land ♪ ♪ as warm as sun and cool as rain.

♪ ♪ A place so faaarrr... from all we had, ♪ ♪ a place so far from all we've known, ♪ ♪ a quiet place that we can love ♪ ♪ and call our home.

♪ ♪ ♪ South Carolina's youngest county was established in 1919.

It is a landscape of snowy white cotton fields and deep green pine forest.

Bordered by the Salkehatchie River on the east and the majestic Savannah to the west, both the county and the county seat were named for the first postmaster, Paul H. Allen.

Welcome to Allendale County and to "Palmetto Places," a series that explores and celebrates South Carolina's small towns and countryside.

I'm Joanna Angle.

The Savannah has been called a treacherous river, difficult to navigate becaus of constantly shifting sandbars and miles of shoals.

Yet for centuries, it has beckoned the adventurous, including the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto, who arrived in May of 1540 with an army of 600 to search for gold.

The river and its tributaries have been the life force of this region since time began.

Over the past 30 years, archaeological studies have yielded fascinating clues about prehistoric life along the Savannah.

Dr. Al Goodyear is the project director.

(Al Goodyear) Today we're visiting a very ancient prehistoric site in South Carolina, the Big Pine Tree site.

Archaeologists at the University of South Carolina have been interested in this site for several years because of information it's giving us about the earliest human beings that came into this part of the world, South Carolina.

They came, we believe, at the end of the Ice Age, perhaps 11,000 years ago.

They found this setting probably not too dissimilar than today, this small creek near the Savannah River.

They found this setting because they could find an important kind of rock called chert that allowed them to make stone tools with which they made their living, things like spears, knives, scrapers, and so forth.

On the bank of this site, which is being eroded naturally by the floods of the Savannah River, this is an excellent place for archaeologists to come and look for clues for the earliest human beings.

Along the beach that we see here today are many examples of artifacts that have washed out from their earlier position in the bank.

[water sloshing] Here are examples of rock, what archaeologists call chert and geologists call chert, examples of what we think are some of the earliest artifacts from here because they have this river-smoothed surface on it, this outer surface.

Because it has that, we know that the Indians obtained that from the Savannah River or probably from this creek.

We know that because rivers make these rocks smooth.

They couldn't have gotten the rock out of the river or creek unless the water was a lot lower than today.

When the early people came here, they would begin to work this stone.

They would make many chips, and while any one of these may not be very interesting, taken together they can tell an archaeologist a great deal about primitive technologies of people who were once here.

For example, the older, whiter stone is white because it's been in the ground for thousands of years.

[stones rattling] Here's an example of what's probably a scraper, an ancient tool.

[water sloshing] It's made of the light-colored chert.

Again, we think that's faded from being in the soil for perhaps 9-, 10-, or 11,000 years.

There's an edge right here, a sharp edge, with teeth-like projections on it like a steak knife, that somebody could have used to cut with.

Another thing that is diagnostic of the early people here are things that archaeologists call blades.

These are long slivers of flint-like material that would have been knocked off of big cores.

You find these from here to Siberia and Europe.

This is a good tie-in that shows that people here at the end of the Ice Age did come out of the Old World and brought technologies with them.

Here at this eroding profile of the Big Pine Tree site, we can see pretty easily why archaeologists and geologists would be so interested in studying a site like this.

You'll notice the different colored soils as you go down through time.

For example, in the upper zone we have more of a red-brown soil.

This has more clay in it.

This soil is about 6-, 7,000 years old.

As we go down, we're going back in time, just like going back through the pages of a book.

We get to the bottom, and we find river soil.

All this has come in from floods, this whitish soil.

It's clean because it's from the bottom of the river at the end of the Ice Age.

These cream- and white-colored artifacts are faded because they've been in the ground thousands of years.

So we have an association to this ancient soil with these artifacts.

A site like this has almost a layer cake kind of stratigraphy.

The latest layer would be the modern present.

As you go down, you're going back in time studying different cultures, with the oldest, first culture being at the bottom.

It's like a book.

You go into the first chapter, on, on, deeper into the story.

The final chapter of the book would be the earliest people that came to this part of South Carolina.

[birds chirping] (Joanna Angle) More recent inhabitants left their own traces in the form of family homes and houses of worship.

This is Roselawn, built by the Reverend Joseph Alexander Lawton during the five-year period 1835 to 1840.

It is the center of a working plantation, which has been maintained and farmed continuously by one family throughout its history.

During the War Between the States, Union troops looted and burned the home of Reverend Lawton's brother Ben, which stood just across the road.

The soldiers then commandeered Roselawn to be the headquarters for Brigadier General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick.

Known as Kill-Cavalry, General Kilpatrick reportedly, quote, "aroused more animosity, fear, and contempt than any other Federal officer," a reputation which pleased General Sherman, who declared, "He is just the type I want."

During the Federal occupation, the Lawton family was forced to live in one small room in the rear of the house.

Tradition tells that as he left, Kilpatrick ordered the house burned.

Reverend Lawton begged that his own life be taken rather than the family's home be destroyed.

The fierce general was apparently moved by the plea, and Roselawn was unharmed.

Like Roselawn, the main house at Erwinton Plantation was also occupied by Union troops.

It is told that the officer in charge of Kilpatrick's raiders defaced a family portrait of a young cadet in gray uniform.

After learning that the portrait's subject, the owner's son, had died of yellow fever at The Citadel, the Union officer showed remorse for his action by sparing the house.

Both Roselawn and Erwinton are raised cottages, a style influenced by planters who had ties to th West Indian island of Barbados.

Erwinton was built circa 1828 by Dr. Williamson Robinson Erwin.

In 1833, Dr. Erwin, his wife Julia, and her sister-in-law, Rachel Robert, were excommunicated from Kirkland Church, a Baptist missionary church, following a heresy trial.

Erected in 1827, the Kirkland Church exemplifies the simple meetinghouse design, which became popular in the early 19th century.

The front facade is enhanced by a central Palladian window balanced by paneled doors with transoms.

The sides feature smaller eyebrow windows over the five large shuttered ones.

The original pine floors, ceilings, and batten walls are preserved.

[birds chirping] By 1836, the membership here had grown to 236, and the name was changed to Smyrna Baptist Church.

[birds chirping] After the Erwins and Mrs. Robert were banned from Kirkland Church, they conducted weekly services at Erwinton Plantation until 1835 when this unadorned meetinghouse was completed and dedicated as Antioch Christian Church.

It is regarded as the mother church among South Carolinians who are members of the Disciples of Christ faith.

In 1847, a visiting evangelist reported, quote, "Erwinton is a most delightful place.

"It is not a city nor a town, "but something much more interesting... "a Christian neighborhood composed of a post office, "a male and female academy, "a neat and comfortable meetinghouse, and a congregation of Disciples."

[birds chirping] Other picturesque country churches are dotted along Route 3 near Antioch.

Saint Matthews, a small roadside chapel dedicated in 1901.

And Bethlehem Church, with semiarched windows and door.

[birds chirping] The town of Allendale began as a settlement about 4 miles southwest of the present site.

When the railroad decided to run its lines several miles away, enterprising residents joined resources to purchase three large plantations near the tracks and then moved their village here.

One unmistakable landmark is the water tower.

One of three erected in South Carolina around 1915 by a Boston engineering firm, it was built of reinforced concrete and rises 133 feet.

The tank holds 100,000 gallons of water and is still in use.

In 1941, a daredevil named Oliver stood atop the tower.

The carnival man below called out, "When the wind is in your favor, you may jump."

Oliver plunged into a tub holding 5 feet of water.

[birds chirping] This authentic one-room schoolhouse was Miss Augusta Salena Arnold's school, created by her in 1875 as the town's first school.

When public schools were instituted here, Miss Arnold's school emptied, only to reopen during the term of Governor Ben Tillman, who had closed the state's liquor bars, thus depriving public schools of liquor tax revenue, forcing them to close also.

Miss Arnold kept her little, white schoolhouse open until the crisis was over.

[birds chirping] Few small town landmarks evoke more nostalgia than the corner pharmacy.

Come with us to Farmer's Drug Store.

Henry Lafitte... (Henry Lafitte) In 1915, the Charles Farmer Sr. and Chalmers Farmer purchased this building from Mr. Searson, who had a drugstore on this side of town and one on the other side.

This was known as Searson's Number 2.

Since that time, a Farmer operated or worked in this business as an owner or pharmacist until 1991, when they signed a contract with Rite Aid, a large chain drugstore that had expressed an interest in coming into town.

Rite Aid operated the store for about one year and moved into a property about two blocks down the street.

The building became vacant, and we hated to see another vacant store on downtown Allendale.

The Carolina Commercial Bank is directly next door to this facility.

About that time, computer operations required that we do some arrangements in making different working arrangements for some of our people.

We purchased the building, and I made arrangements to have a restoration of this facility.

Not so much a reproduction, but a restoration, to give an attractive storefront to the community that would allow us to use the back of the building for our operations.

The collection in here, when we purchased the drugstore, these original furnishings-- most of the fixtures were original to the store.

The collections came, the majority of the drug part, from a back storeroom, where the Farmers said jus do with them what we wanted to, and from interested citizens and personal collections.

When I say personal collection, it's stuff you stick in the back closet and think you might do something with one day.

Fortunately, we'd saved a lot of things, and we got a contractor to help us restore areas that would accommodate our collections, and that's what we have done.

We've purchased some items to carry out the mood of the place.

It's not so much a museum as an area that gives you glimpses of the past, as opposed to reproductions of the past or the actual past itself.

The soda fountain is basically original.

It was here in 1950 when I got here and was here a long time ago.

This used to be the social center of town.

They used to have curb service.

Ladies would come in hats and gloves and either sit at the chairs or stop at the curb, honk, and place their order.

We covered the front of the counter with contact paper to give an idea of what it used to look like.

Old papers indicated it was painted black and white.

We found some interesting items, including one of the original Coca-Cola machines that used syrup.

They had the seltzer or soda water in a separate tank, but they poured the syrup in the top of the drink machin that was cooled with ice.

It is a very, very early Coca-Cola machine.

The room next door was a separate building in the beginning, and the Farmers expanded their operations into that about 1950.

We reseparated it and called it our dental surgeon/barber's office and combination drugstore, because in the early days of medicine, dentistry, and barbering, the barber or the surgeon did all three.

So we re-created an early dentist office next door.

One of the most unique collections we have in our facility are a large collection of medicine bottles, empty now, of course.

It shows the gamut of medicine from the days when they grated nutmeg-- we still have a nutmeg and the grater-- to change the flavor of the medicine, through the cod-liver oil to the poisons.

It's interesting to note that the first owners of the drugstore were not licensed pharmacists, but learned it by trade.

Licenses were only required years later.

But we have an interesting variety of old bottles, including everything from rhubarb and soda to medicines for diseases that I had never heard of until I read the cure for 'em on the back of some of the bottles.

My family moved here about 1951, and about that time, they were in the middle of building the Savannah River atomic energy plant.

Allendale was a bustling community and had been for a number of years.

When I-95 opened... it was like putting up a barricade across Highway 301.

Traffic diminished, businesses closed... it was not a long-term event.

It happened almost overnight.

Allendale lost some major and important businesses, and the town and the businesses fell into disarray.

People would try to talk people into fixing something up, but if they couldn't get the return from the repair, they were not interested.

So we had a lot of derelict, empty buildings.

I just could not, in good conscience, waste an opportunity to try to do something to help the town, the look of the town.

I'm pleased with the way the project turned out and the response we've had from people.

Sometimes I wonder if we haven't done too good a job, because we had a tourist ask what time the drugstore opened so they could get some ice cream.

But it has been effective.

[bird whistling] (Angle) "The WPA Guide to the Palmetto State" noted, "If farming is the bread of Allendale, "fishing and hunting is its meat, "for every merchant and planter is a sportsman "who takes pride in his guns and dogs "and leaves his business for frequent excursions "into the surrounding forests.

"This section abounds in quail, turkeys, and deer, "and comfortable hunting lodge are maintained by wealthy vacationists from the North."

One Allendale resident stalks and shoots wildlife not with a gun, but with his camera.

Photographer Joe Topper... [camera shutter whirring and clicking] [click] [click] [click] [click] (Joe Topper) I started out in doin' photojournalism working for a newspaper, and that kind of gave me my grass roots and my foundation in the work I do.

[click] [click] [click] (Angle How did you transcend from doing people and places to things in the out-of-doors?

Well, in, uh... the photojournalism end of it, a lot of equipment used in that is the same type of equipment, such as lenses, tripods, and that type of thing.

I use those in sports, and that seemed a natural carryover to go into wildlife and nature.

[click] In sports, you don't have a second chance to get the picture.

[click] And a lot of times, that's the same with wildlife.

[click] What are some other mammals from this are that you've shot?

I've gotten shots of deer.

[click] [click] Got one of a baby bobcat in the area.

Got one shot, and the sound of the camera spooked him, and he disappeared.

I know that birds waterbirds, are a favorit of yours.

Tell about some o your favorite bird shots.

One of my favorites is an osprey, which is a fish hawk.

[click] He had swooped down, grabbed a fish, landed on a tree limb, and started eating lunch, and the light was perfect.

It was one of those days where you were kind of i the zone and everything worked.

[click] I've got a lot of birds that are nesting and their lifestyle during mating season and then during the nesting season, which follows the mating season.

And the animalistic behavior is interesting because you find, in the end, that we are animals also.

We have a lot of animalistic behavior that we won't claim, but you see these same characteristics in other species that are out there.

What is the sho you fantasize about when yo dream at night?

What is the on that you'd love to get before you hang your camera up?

I'd love to get a grizzly bear... and be safe while I'm doing it.

Not in a zoo, but in the wild.

You know, you've seen the images of the bear fishing, getting the salmon as they're spawning, going upstream.

Something like that.

[click] [click] [click] [click] What ar the personal qualities a perso would have to have to be a successfu wildlife photographer?

I think you need a lot of patience.

You need subject matter to shoot.

You need, um... good light, or understand good light when you see it, the quality of the light, the direction of the light, how the subject relates with that light, and composition and just something that-- what I use as a key is, if I find something I feel is interesting, then I hope someone else will be interested also.

[click] [click] [click] [click] [click] [click] [click] [click] [click] (Angle) Allendale County, South Carolina... smiling faces, beautiful places.

♪ ♪ Program captioned by: CompuScripts Captioning, Inc. 803.988.8438 (female singer) ♪ And here we live, ♪ within this land ♪ of mountains' edge and ocean's shore.

♪ ♪ A land of strength... a land of grace... ♪ ♪ of men and women gone before.

♪ ♪ So many smiling faces here, ♪ ♪ so many memories still to come.

♪ ♪ Beautiful places we hold dear ♪ ♪ in this our home.

(choir joins) ♪ South Carolina, always near... ♪ ♪ and always hooommmme.... ♪♪♪ ♪