Entertainment

History Comes To Life At Old Santee Canal State Park

by Nikki Gaskins Campbell
Colonial cooking on display at Discovery Days in Moncks Corner.

BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C.–Pirates, soldiers, OH MY! For two days, history came to life during Old Santee Canal State Park’s inaugural “Discovery Days.”

From large mastodon tusks, megalodon teeth and more than century-old silverware, visitors got to explore and see many artifacts uncovered from the Cooper River.

Pictured: Fossils including part of a woolly mammoth tusk.
Pictured: Joe Harvey, a local diver, shows guests some of the fossils he’s recovered from the Cooper River.

During the 2-day event, pirate & Civil War reenactors took part in explaining how they lived long before electricity, the Internet or social media ever existed.

Pictured: Civil War reenactors

The event also included book lectures and author signings, indigo dyeing, sweetgrass basket making, colonial musket drills and a colonial cooking demonstration.

Pictured: Basket weaving demonstrations

Historian and preservationist Joseph McGill, founder of the Slave Dwelling Project, educated visitors about the experiences of the Massachusetts 54th regiment, the African-American Union soldiers featured in the Civil War movie, “Glory.”

Local actress Christy Pleasant portrayed Eliza Lucas Pinckney, the Colonial Lowcountry entrepreneur credited with developing the cultivation of the indigo plant, a valuable crop prior to the American Revolution.

The 2-day event was sponsored by the Berkeley Museum, Old Santee Canal State Park and the Berkeley County Historical Society.
Nikki Gaskins Campbell
Follow Me
Latest posts by Nikki Gaskins Campbell (see all)

Comments are closed.