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University of South Carolina Press - Mark Kinzer

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From exploitation to preservation, the complex history of one of the Southeast's most important natural areas and South Carolina's only national park

Located at the confluence of the Congaree and Wateree Rivers in central South Carolina, Congaree National Park protects the nation's largest intact expanse of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest. Modern visitors to the park enjoy a pristine landscape that seems ancient and untouched by human hands, but in truth its history is far different. In Nature's Return, Mark Kinzer examines the successive waves of inhabitants, visitors, and landowners of this region by synthesizing information from property and census records, studies of forest succession, tree-ring analyses, slave narratives, and historical news accounts.

Established in 1976, Congaree National Park contains within its boundaries nearly twenty-seven thousand acres of protected uplands, floodplains, and swamps. Once exploited by humans for farming, cattle grazing, plantation agriculture, and logging, the park area is now used gently for recreation and conservation. Although the impact of farming, grazing, and logging in the park was far less extensive than in other river swamps across the Southeast, it is still evident to those who know where to look.

Cultivated in corn and cotton during the nineteenth century, the land became the site of extensive logging operations soon after the Civil War, a practice that continued intermittently into the late twentieth century. From burning canebrakes to clearing fields and logging trees, inhabitants of the lower Congaree valley have modified the floodplain environment both to ensure their survival and, over time, to generate wealth. In this they behaved no differently than people living along other major rivers in the South Atlantic Coastal Plain.

Today Congaree National Park is a forest of vast flats and winding sloughs where champion trees dot the landscape. Indeed its history of human use and conservation make it a valuable laboratory for the study not only of flora and fauna but also of anthropology and modern history. As the impact of human disturbance fades, the Congaree's stature as one of the most important natural areas in the eastern United States only continues to grow.

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Publié par	University of South Carolina Press
Date de parution	15 juin 2017
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781611177671
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

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NATURE S RETURN
An Environmental History of Congaree National Park
NATURE S RETURN
Mark Kinzer

THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA PRESS
2017 University of South Carolina
Published by the University of South Carolina Press
Columbia, South Carolina 29208
www.sc.edu/uscpress
25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data can be found at http://catalog.loc.gov/
ISBN : 978-1-61117-766-4 (hardcover)
ISBN : 978-1-61117-767-1 (ebook)
Front cover photo: water tupelo (Nyssa aquatica) with spring sedge growth, Congaree National Park, Jeff Lepare / Alamy stock photo
To Nancy, Emily, and Ben
and
to the memory of my father,
James R. Kinzer,
who indulged my love of nature from an early age.
Nature is always ready to retake what we abandon and pursue tranquilly her ordinary course, serene and beautiful and timeless, which, when observed with loving understanding, has the power to confer some of that beauty and some of that serenity on the receptive heart .
Archibald Rutledge, Santee Paradise , 1956
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Chronology
Introduction
1 Managing the Presettlement Landscape
2 First Settlement, Land Clearing, and the Open Range
3 The Rise of Plantation Agriculture
4 Early Park Plantations
5 Reclaiming the Floodplain
6 The Location and Extent of Historic Clearing
7 Industrial Logging: First Inroads, 1870-1918
8 Logging after 1920
Conclusion: The Impact of Human Disturbance
Appendix A: Selected Floodplain Cultural Features
Appendix B: Biographical Sketches
Notes
Bibliography
Index
List of Illustrations
Figures
1
Floodplain Microtopography and Associated Forest Cover Types
2
Joel Adams Sr.
3
Major General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
4
Edward Rutledge
5
Brigadier General Isaac Huger
6
Colonel William Thomson
7
Detail from Marmaduke Coate s Survey of Richland District, 1820
8
Plat Showing Spigener s Fields, 1839
9
Relation of Soil Types to Topography at Congaree National Park
10
A Large Sweet Gum, Richland County, ca. 1904
11
Dense Canebrake, South Carolina, ca. 1904
12
Tupelo Gum Slough, Congaree River, ca. 1904
13
A Cypress Slough in the Dry Season, ca. 1904
14
A Large Cottonwood, Richland County, ca. 1904
15
Second-Growth Sweet Gum, Ash, Cottonwood, and Sycamore, on Hardwood Bottomland, ca. 1904
16
Francis Beidler
17
Hardwood Bottomland Recently Logged, Richland County, ca. 1904
18
Peeled Sweet Gum Logs Seasoning in the Woods, ca. 1904
Maps
1
Congaree National Park, Showing the Beidler Tract
2
Congaree National Park, Parcel and Tract Numbers
3
Congaree National Park, Boardwalk and Trail System
4
Partial Route of the Hernando de Soto Expedition (1540)
5
Route of the Juan Pardo Expeditions (1566-67, 1567-68)
6
Known Plantations in the Park ca. 1785
7
Known Plantations in the Park ca. 1850
8
Vegetation Associations Linked to Possible Past Agricultural Activity
9
Known Sites of Land Disturbance, Eighteenth through Early Twentieth Centuries
10
Logging in the Beidler Tract and Vicinity, 1969-1978
11
Park Cultural Features Described in Appendix A
Tables
1
Recognized Periods of Human Occupation in South Carolina prior to European Settlement
2
Corn Production in 1860, Beidler Tract Landowners
3
Slave Ownership in Richland District (Excluding Columbia), 1790-1840
4
Selected Entries from Ledger Book for Plantations Owned by C. C. Pinckney and E. Rutledge, 1784-1787
5
Assets of Congaree Lumber and Veneer Company, July 1890
6
Timber Shipments on the Congaree River, 1894-1897
7
Acquisition Data, Beidler Tract Parcels
8
Beidler Tract and Vicinity: Timber Deeds/Timber Leases, 1896-1907
9
Average Cost to Log Bottomland Sites in 1914
10
Profitability of Various Bottomland Species in 1914
Acknowledgments
Not a time goes by when walking the trails at Congaree National Park that I don t find myself thanking the men and women whose efforts led to the protection of this magnificent forest. I feel privileged and grateful that two of these individuals, John Cely and Richard Watkins, have encouraged me in the writing of this book. Without their wise counsel and deep knowledge of local history, this book could never have been written. John s beautifully drawn maps, in particular, are not only arresting works of art but essential resources in understanding the natural and cultural history of the park. Dick Watkins is legendary for his wealth of knowledge about the history of the park and the lower Congaree valley generally. Dick s unwavering commitment to getting details absolutely right has set a standard I have attempted to live up to in my own work.
I have had the pleasure of consulting a number of very knowledgeable people during the writing of this book. For discussing their research and responding to questions, I would like to thank Bruce Allen, Gavin Blosser, Tom Fetters, L. L. Gaddy, Paul Gagnon, Robert Jones, John Kupfer, Kimberly Meitzen, Matthew Ricker, David Shelley, Rebecca Sharitz, and Gail E. Wagner. Special thanks go to Rebecca Sharitz of the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory for responding so generously years ago to a novice posing questions about bottomland hardwood forests. In a very real sense, that response and her team s research at the park led to the writing of this book. For supplying details about their family history, I would like to thank John McKenzie and Reggie Seay. Additional information about the park and its history was provided by Martha Bogle, Charles Broadwell, Jim Elder, Claire and David Schuetrum, Dr. Robert Taylor, Jackie Whitmore, and John, Rhonda, and Caroline Grego. Naturally, any errors of fact or interpretation in the book are entirely my own.
Staff members of the South Carolina Department of Archives and History have been unfailingly helpful in responding to my many inquiries, as has the staff at the South Caroliniana Library of the University of South Carolina and the Richland County Public Library. My colleagues in the National Park Service, both in the Southeast Regional Office and at Congaree National Park, have been quick to provide information and assistance whenever asked. I take great pride in working with them to further America s best idea. It should be noted that the views expressed in this book are entirely my own and do not necessarily represent the views of the United States government, including the National Park Service.
I gratefully extend recognition to John B. Harmon for permission to publish his recollection of logging near Kingville in the 1940s. Quotations from the William Fishburne Papers and the Henry Savage Jr. Papers are courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia. The quotation from the Joshua Evans diary and autobiography is courtesy of the Southern Historical Collection at the Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Lynne Parker prepared the maps and figures for the book. Her patience and forbearance through numerous revisions is greatly appreciated. I also gratefully acknowledge comments received from two anonymous reviewers for the University of South Carolina Press.
Finally, my children have never known a time when their father was not working on this book. At times it must have seemed that way to my wife, Nancy, as well. It is for their love and support that I offer my deepest thanks.
Chronology
1540
Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto traverses uplands to north of what is now Congaree National Park.
1566-1567 1567-1568
Spanish explorer Juan Pardo crosses park on two exploratory expeditions from coast.
1750s-1770s
British Crown issues majority of original land grants in park.
1756
John McCord operates private ferry on present-day Bates Old River (ferry is made public in 1766).
1786
Brigadier General Isaac Huger begins construction of ferry and approach road in park, about six miles upstream from McCord s Ferry.
1830s (?)
James Adams Sr. commences major dike project at western end of park.
1842
Railroad completed from Branchville to Columbia, crossing park.
1890s
Large-scale commercial logging begins in park.
1899-1907
Santee River Cypress Lumber Company acquires land and timber rights in park; begins selective logging ca. 1899.
Ca. 1914
Logging operations cease on Santee lands.
1969
Renewed logging on former Santee lands sparks campaign to preserve Congaree Swamp.
1976
Congress establishes Congaree Swamp National Monument.
2003
Congress redesignates monument Congaree National Park.

Map 1. Congaree National Park, Showing the Beidler Tract. Map by Lynne Parker.

Map 2. Congaree National Park, Parcel and Tract Numbers. Map by Lynne Parker.

Map 3. Congaree National Park, Boardwalk and Trail System. Map by Lynne Parker.
Introduction
Actually the Congaree Swamp forest is a little bit on the young side even though it is a primitive or virgin stand .
James T. Tanner to Gary Soucie, 1975
CONGAREE, IT HAS BEEN SAID, is not everyone s idea of a national par