Also see Specific Destinations, Travel and Location Humor.
Page Toppers
- Carolina Country Morning
- Carolina Hayride
- Carolina in the Morning
- Carolina Moon
- Carolina Sunrise
- Carolina Sunshine
- Cold Carolina Morning
- Dreamy Carolina Moon
- Gone to Carolina
Quotes
- I was born and raised on a Carolina sea island and I carried the sunshine of the low-country, inked in dark gold, on my back and shoulders. (Pat Conroy)
- In the 1950s in Columbia, South Carolina, it was considered OK for kids to play with weird things. We could go to the hardware store and buy 100 feet of dynamite fuse. (Kary Mullis)
- The sweet smell of the South, of Camellias and Azaleas, clings to Beaufort's ancient and historic buildings. (Walter Cronkite)
- What I remember most about Monck's Corner, South Carolina, is leaving it... (William Price Fox)
South Carolina Symbols
- Nicknames: The Palmetto State; Keystone of the South Atlantic Seaboard; The Iodine state
- Motto: While I Breathe I Hope
- Slogan: Smiling Faces, Beautiful Places
- Songs: Carolina (words by Henri Timrod, music by Anne C. Burgess) and South Carolina on My Mind
- Waltz: Richardson Waltz
- Opera: Porgy and Bess
- Dance: Carolina Shag
- Folk Dance: Square Dance
- Waltz: The Richardson Waltz
- Music: The Spiritual
- Popular Music: Beach Music
- Animal: Whitetail Deer
- Dog: Boykin Spaniel
- Amphibian: Spotted Salamander
- Reptile: Loggerhead Sea Turtle
- Bird: Carolina Wren
- Game Bird: Wild Turkey
- Fish: Striped Bass
- Insect: Carolina Mantid
- Spider: Carolina Wolf Spider
- Butterfly: Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
- Tree: Cabbage Palmetto
- Flower: Carolina Jessamine
- Grass: Indian Grass
- Shell: Lettered Olive
- Gemstone: Amethyst
- Rock: Blue Granite
- Beverage: Milk
- Hospitality Drink: Tea
- Fruit: Peach
- Snack Food: Boiled Peanuts
- Poet Laureate: Bennie Lee Sinclair (Mrs. Don Lewis)
Facts About South Carolina
- Capital: Columbia
- Residents: South Carolinians
- State Name Origin: named after Charles IX of France and Charles I and II of England
- Admitted to Statehood: 23 May 1788
- Order of Admission: 8th state
- Coastline/Shoreline: 187/2,876 miles
- Length: 260 miles
- Width: 200 miles
- Area: 32,020 square miles
- Size Rank: 40
- Number of Counties: 46
- Streams and Rivers: 29,898 miles
- Geographic Center: 13 miles SE of Columbia in Richland Co.
- Mean Elevation: 350 feet
- Highest Point: Sassafras Mountain, 3,560 feet
- Lowest Point: Atlantic coast, sea level
- Official Language: English (since 1987)
- Agricultural Products: peaches, livestock, tobacco
- Commercial Products: clothing and textiles, chemicals, metal products, industrial machinery, Portland cement
- Average Annual Rainfall: 51.6 inches
- Average Winter High Temperature: 32-55 degrees
- Record Low Temperature: -19 degrees (21 Jan 1985 Ceasars Head)
- Average Summer High Temperature: 70-92 degrees
- Record High Temperature: 111 degrees (28 Jun 1954 Camden, 1925 Blackville and Calhoun Falls)
- Official Language: English
- More information about South Carolina
Items of Interest
- The first American library housed in a separate building was constructed in 1840 at the University of SC in Columbia.
- The oldest formal gardens in the U.S., Middleton Place, was founded in 1740 and took a hundred people more than ten years to complete.
- The first battle of the Civil War took place at Fort Sumter.
- The Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame features champion thoroughbred flat racers and steeplechase horses trained in Aiken.
- Sumter has the largest Gingko farm in the world.
- The first boll weevil found in South Carolina is on display at the Pendleton District Agricultural Museum.
- Duncan Park Baseball Stadium in Spartanburg is the oldest minor league stadium in the nation.
- Johnston is known as the Peach Capital of the World.
- The Upper Whitewater Falls is the highest cascade in eastern America; it descends for nearly 411 feet.
- The Edisto River is the world's longest free-flowing "blackwater" stream. "Blackwater" not only describes the color of the tannin-rich water, but also refers to the peaceful rate of flow.
Notable Natives
Some of these were born here, others just lived a while in the state.
- "Whispering" Bill Anderson - songwriter (Columbia)
- Bernard Baruch - statesman (Camden)
- Clayton "Peg Leg" Bates - lost his leg in an accident at twelve but became a famous dancer, performed more times on the Ed Sullivan show than any other artist
- Mary McLeod Bethume - educator (Mayesville)
- Charles F. Bolden, Jr. - astronaut
- James F. Byrnes (1879-1972) - senator, secretary of state, governor, supreme court justice (Charleston)
- John C. Calhoun - civil rights leader (Calhoun Mills)
- Chubby Checker (1941- ) - singer, entertainer, best know for The Twist (Spring Gulley)
- Mark Clark (1896-1984) - Army general in WWII, president of the Citadel (Charleston)
- David Robert Coker (1870-1938) - agriculturist who helped create better cotton plants.
- Beth Daniel - professional golfer
- Charles Duke - astronaut, one of only twelve people to walk on the surface of the moon
- Alex English (1954- ) - basketball player (Columbia)
- Joe Frazier (1944- ) - boxer, heavyweight champion 1970-1973 (Beaufort)
- John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (1917-1993) - jazz trumpeter (Cheraw)
- Althea Gibson (1927- ) - first African American woman to win Wimbledon and U.S. National tennis championships (Silver)
- King Haiglar - Catawba Indian who befriended early Camden settlers
- DuBose Heyward - poet, playwright (Charleston)
- Charlayne Hunter-Gault - journalist (Due West)
- Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) - U.S. president (Waxhaw)
- Jesse Louis Jackson (1941- ) - civil rights leader (Greenville)
- "Shoeless" Joe Jackson - baseball player
- Eartha Kitt - singer (North)
- Henry Laurens - political leader
- Francis Marion aka "Swamp Fox" (1721-1795) - Revolutionary War general (Berkeley county)
- Robert Evander McNair - governor (Cades)
- Ronald McNair - astronaut (Lake City)
- Robert Mills (1781-1855) - designed the Washington Monument in Washington D.C. (Charleston)
- Julia Peterkin (1880-1961) - Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist
- Joel Poinsett - diplomat
- Henry M. Robert (1837-1923) - author if Robert's Rules of Order (guide to parliamentary procedure)
- John Rutledge - supreme court justice (Charleston)
- Strom Thurmond - politician, in 1954 he became the first US senator elected by write-in vote (Edgefield)
- Charles Hard Townes - physicist (Greenville)
- Bill Voiselle - pitcher, only major league baseball player to wear his hometown name on his uniform, from Ninety Six, SC and wore number 96
- William Westmoreland - general, army chief of staff (Spartanburg)
- Vanna White (1957- ) - television personality (Conway)
The South Carolina State Flag
In 1775, Colonel William moultrie was asked by the Revolutionary Council of Safety to design a flag for the South Carolina troops. For the background he selected a medium blue which matched the color of their uniforms. He added a white crescent similar to the silver emblem on the front of their caps. The palmetto tree was added later to represent Moultrie's defense of the palmetto-log fort on Sullivan's Island against the British fleet on June 28, 1776.
You know you are from South Carolina if...
- There ain't no such thing as 'lunch'. There's 'dinner' and then there's 'supper'.
- Sweet tea is appropriate for all meals, and you start drinking it when you're two.
- "Backards and forards" means, "I know everything about you."
- There is a Dairy Queen in every town with a population of 1000 of more, except for Orangeburg which has Dairy-O.
- You know that going barefootin' is one of the great joys of life
- You think everyone from a bigger city has an accent.
- Vacation means going to Myrtle Beach.
- Out of state friends beg you to send them fireworks.
- You know at least three places to get great fried chicken.
- You've taken a road trip to South of the Border--and it wasn't Mexico.
- You buy your groceries at Winn-Dixie.
- You know someone who works at Hooters.
- You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from South Carolina.
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Songs about South Carolina
- Beaufort County Jail - Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard (1975)
- Charleston Cotton Mill - Marty Haggard (1981)
- I'm Gonna Charleston Back to Charleston - Firehouse Five Plus Two (1956)
- Darlington County - Jeff Stevens and the Bullets (1986)
- Just a Little Bit South of North Carolina - Raymond Scott (1941)
Songs about Carolina
- Carolina Country Morning - Eddy Raven (1974)
- Carolina Day - Livingston Taylor (1970)
- Carolina Dreams - Ronnie Milsap (1982)
- Carolina Girls, Best in the World - Chairmen of the Board (1980)
- Carolina Hayride - Jim Bows and the Flycatchers (2009)
- Carolina in the morning - Bill Haley and the Comets (1957)
- Carolina in the Pines - Michael Martin Murphey (1975)
- Carolina Moon - Connie Francis (1958)
- Carolina Mountain Home - Ricky Skaggs (1999)
- Carolina on My Mind - James Taylor (1968)
- Carolina Pines - Kate Wolf (1985)
- Carolina Rolling Stone - Vernon Dalhart (1922)
- Carolina Star - Bytown Bluegrass (1985)
- Carolina Sunrise - Wayne Carson (1987)
- Carolina Sunshine - Dale VanHorne (1987)
- Carolina Sunshine Girl - Buck Graves (2000)
- Carolina Waltz - Clyde Moody (1948)
- Clouds Over Carolina - Larry Rice (2005)
- Coast of Carolina, The - Jimmy Buffett (2005)
- Cold Carolina Morning - Rebecca Lynn (1974)
- Dreamy Carolina Moon - Connie Francis (1958)
- Gone to Carolina - Shooter Jennings (2005)
- Goodbye to Carolina - Lyle Lovett (1994)
- Kinfolks in Carolina - Doc and Merle Watson (1974)
- Light from Carolina - The Contenders (1978)
- Memories of My Carolina Girl - The Delmore Brothers (1937)
- My Carolina Home - Laura Boosinger (1988)
- My Carolina Sunshine Girl - Hoyt Axton (1971)
- My Girl in Caroline - Mac and Bob (1931)
- Oh Carolina - Shaggy (1993)
- Take Me Back to My Carolina Home - Riley Puckett and Red Jones (1936)
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