We decided that our tourist actions were not yet complete. The group elected to head to the Magnolia Plantation outside of Charleston. The plantation was founded in the late 1670s and is still in operation today, although not in the same capacity. The land was originally awarded by the head of England, Oliver Cromwell, to the Dreytons as a result of their participation of the overthrow of King Charles I. The resulting land grant went from father to daughter, then was passed to heirs within the family over the generations. The tour guides claimed that the family was in their 13th generation now.
When we arrived it was cold and windy. It never got any warmer during the day and despite bring our "cold weather" clothes, each of the group was whining about the cold. It rained the night before and everything was quite wet, including our feet.
On this trip, I
decided not to bring my "big guns" camera and instead opted for a
small camera that would fit easily in my luggage: my new Fuji
X10. All of these photos were from the X10.
The photos below are what we saw.
This peacock was one
of several on the plantation and greeted us with loud calls when
we came into his "area".
There were a number of
odd birds in the fields close to the plantation
headquarters. Some were white, some where speckled. I
never got the names for any of them, but they were fast making a
good photo a challenge.
A panorama shot of the
main field area of Magnolia. Click
here to see the full-size image. Click on the image to
zoom; use arrow keys to pan and tilt. Hit "Back" when done.
They put us on a tram
and took us around the perimeter of the plantation grounds.
The wind was cold and our fingers were freezing, but the above
photo of one of the swamp areas came out ok despite the fact that
we were moving and it was very overcast. Note the Spanish
Moss hanging on the trees. The wooden ramp is a "sunning
ramp" for the alligators.
The tour took us past
some of the old slave worker's quarters.
The plantation had
many huge Virginia Live Oak trees. This one was one of the
bigger ones, but not the biggest.
One of the principle
crops of the original plantation was rice. The swampy area
above was one of the rice paddies and was drained and filled as
part of the rice planting and harvest cycle. The land has
now returned to reeds and cattails.
One of the foot paths
on the grounds spanned a hand-dug irrigation canal.
Most of the walkways
were spanned by by overhanging branches of the live oak
trees. The result was the perfect southern ambiance.
The main field in
front of the plantation house was neatly manicured.
The house is the 4th
iteration of dwellings on this property. The first was built
in the late 1600s and has long since rotted. The second
house was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. The
3rd was on this foundation, but was burned by General Sherman's
"march to the sea" during the Civil War. This interation was
built during the reconstruction period on the foundations from the
3rd iteration and was occupied until the 1970s.
I discovered that Mr.
Peacock knew about potatoe chips and he came running when he heard
the bag open. It was sufficiently dark that I had to use the
flash, thus the sheen on his neck feathers.
Despite the cold and
wind, the moss-covered oaks were very impressive.
There was an
operational garden near the old slave quarters.
Ha! We paid for
a boat tour of the swamp and upon our arrival, we spotted one of
the boats in the weeds. It seems that the wind had blown the
ready-to-moor boat away from the pier so the boatman could not
start the outboard. He had to get assistance from the
grounds crew to get clear of the weeds to allow operation of the
motor.
From the pier we could
see some nice property across the Ashley River. These places
in North Charleston had their own private waterfront as well as
private docks.
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Photos
and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2012, all rights reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use.
