Hunting Island

We've just about got another road trip wrapped up. Leaving the South Carolina upstate we followed the border with Georgia on back country roads. We convienantly came upon a historical marker right about the time we wanted to stop for lunch. They had a nice pull off so we stopped to eat and take the girls out for a walk. The marker was for the town of Ellenton which once stood on the site.

present day post office site

Ellenton post office circa 1950

Today it hard to imagine that the government would destroy a whole town. But this was just after the big war and high priority was given to maintaining our lead in nuclear technology. In 1950 it was announced that the Savannah River plant for the production of plutonium would be built on 300 square miles of southern South Carolina. Ellenton and several other towns were destroyed for the project. 6000 people and 6500 graves were relocated.

Ellenton circa 1950

By 1952 Ellenton, born as a railroad stop in the 1860's was gone; 760 people, 190 residences, 30 commercial buildings, five churches, two schools, one cotton gin, the city hall and the railroad station. All gone but for some concrete curbing and a few sections of asphalt street.

10 inch gun mount at Fort Fremont

Our last stop for this trip is Hunting Island State Park. which has an oceanfront campground, it is located east of Beaufort, South Carolina. Wednesday on our way to dinner we went exploring on St Helena island and discovered an old shore defense battery. Fort Fremont dates to the late 1800's and was decomissioned in 1910.

Abandoned and forgotten until preservation efforts were but in place in 1989 the gun battery is all but swallowed by forest. It once held three 10-inch breech-loaded disappearing cannons and two 4.7-inch rapid fire guns. All that remains is the concrete fortifications.

Dock scenes for Forrest Gump filmed here

Another interesting thing about our locale is a connection to the Forest Gump movie. As you probably already know some of it was filmed nearby in Savannah Georgia. It was there during the park bench scene that Tom Hanks imortalized the phrase, "life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what your going to get".

Gay fish company shrimp boats used in Forest Gump

The Vietnam war scenes where filmed on Fripp island which is just south of Hunting Island and the scrimp boat scenes were shot at a local seafood company about a mile up the causeway from the campground.

On the beach at Hunting Island

Mostly we have been just chilling out, walking the beach, riding our bikes, reading books and writing this posting. I suppose we're making the mental transition from our highway
gallivant to life at the our beach home.