Hobcaw Barony is a 17,500 acre (25 square miles) research reserve located near Georgetown, on the Waccamaw Neck, a strip of land bordered by the Waccamaw River, Winyah Bay, and the Atlantic Ocean. The name ‘hobcaw’ is a Native American word meaning land between the waters. In 1718, the land became a colonial land grant, a barony. It was sold and subdivided into plantations extending from the river to the sea - Hobcaw Barony was part of the great rice empire until the turn of the 20th century.
In 1905, Bernard M. Baruch, Wall Street financier and presidential advisor, purchased the property comprised of 11 of the former plantations for use as a winter hunting retreat. He invited presidents, prime ministers, and politicians to hunt duck, turkey, deer, quail, foxes and hogs in the South Carolina low country.
After 50 years, Baruch sold all the land to his daughter, Belle. At the time of her death in 1964, a foundation was created to manage the land as an outdoor laboratory for the colleges and universities of South Carolina. Hobcaw Barony today is one of the largest undeveloped tracts on the Atlantic coast; it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is home to a variety of research programs carried out by the University of South Carolina, Clemson University, Coastal Carolina University, and others.
We're here as weekend guests of the USC College of Arts and Sciences to explore the swamps, abandoned rice fields, salt marsh and barrier island environments; to visit historic sites on the property; and of course, to experience some fine low country cuisine. This is an annual event for alumni and friends of the college, with about 40 people participating.
We arrived on Friday afternoon - in time for dinner and a presentation by Dennis Allen, Director of Baruch Marine Laboratory, a major component of the Belle W. Baruch Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences, operated by USC. There are 30 faculty and staff working year-around at the Institute; overall there are 71 projects, involving 124 investigators from 34 institutions. Dennis told us about his research in behavioral ecology of plankton communities in the salt marshes and coastal ocean. His studies over the past 30 years have demonstrated significant (and scary) changes in these animal populations attributable to variations and trends in climate change.
Saturday morning started before the sunrise, as a handful of hardy souls gathered to join Wendy Allen for a bird-watching expedition. Wendy is manager of the North Inlet-Winyah Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve and a nationally-recognized marine educator. Bird-watching is just her hobby, and we covered a lot of territory in a couple of hours of wandering through old-growth longleaf pine forest and marshlands. We saw: summer tanager, red-cockaded woodpecker, white-breasted nuthatch, brown-headed nuthatch, mockingbird, great crested flycatcher, pewee, mourning dove, wild turkey (with 3 chicks), cowbird, eastern bluebird, blue-gray gnatcatcher, tricolor heron, willet, curlew, red-wing blackbird, boat-tail grackle, chimney swift, painted bunting, and blue grosbeak.
It was a real treat to see the red-cockaded woodpecker, an endangered species that nests only in live long-leaf pine trees growing in old growth forests, a habitat that is getting increasing rare. And the painted bunting is just spectacular - we were lucky to see them as they migrate along the coast for a short time each spring.
We got back to the dining hall in time for a quick breakfast before everyone headed off in different directions. We opted for the historical tour of Hobcaw Barony with Richard Camlin, Senior Interpreter with the Belle W. Baruch Foundation. Several members of Richard's family worked for the Baruch family, and he worked as personal assistant for Belle Baruch's companion, Ella Severin. In that position, Richard learned all sorts of wonderful stories about the property and the family who owned it.
We went first to Bellefield Plantation, home of Belle Baruch. It is a two-story frame house with four single-story wings and a brick service wing in the rear.
The house is built on a raised terrace surrounded by live oaks and pines.
Facing the front entrance is a large horse stable. Belle was an accomplished equestrian and the walls of the stable are lined with the many medals she won.
By the front door is a lantern. The home had electricity, but no telephone. If Belle needed anything, the lantern was lit as a signal to the staff that lived near the stable – they would come running to carry out her wishes.
Above the fireplace in the sun porch is a portrait of Belle with her pet deer, Deary-Deer. The deer was known to have eaten a dozen roses, a box of chocolates, corn flakes, cigarettes and all the leaves off the poinsettias at Christmas.
Our next stop was Friendfield Village, the only remaining slave village on the Waccamaw Neck. It originally belonged to the Friendfield Plantation, with 12-16 cabins for slaves. Today the village includes five houses and a church.
This is an antebellum slave cabin built prior to the Civil War (ca. 1840) and restored in 1905. It is the oldest building on the Baruch property. It has two rooms and a loft; it was the home of the plantation’s midwife/root doctor.
The Friendfield Church, which was built between 1890 and 1900, and is typical of South Carolina low country freedmen’s chapels.
Other cottages in Friendfield Village were built around 1935 and served as housing for servants working for Bernard Baruch.
Our tour concluded at Hobcaw House, Bernard Baruch's 1930 mansion that played host to the rich and famous, including Winston Churchill and President Franklin Roosevelt. It’s quite a grand house from front or rear; the house overlooks Winyah Bay.
After a nice lunch, we headed to the water for an afternoon session on beach and creek ecology. Our guides were Wendy and Dennis Allen, along with their senior staff, Paul Kenny and Beth Thomas.
We headed down to Clambank Landing, so called because it was built on an old midden – a giant pile of shells left by early Native American inhabitants of the area. It’s our gateway to the miles of creeks through the marsh and on to Winyah Bay and the ocean beyond.
This old cedar tree stands near the boat landing. It’s about 12-15 feet tall and was completely under water after Hurricane Hugo (1989).
We piled into boats and headed down the creek, with a big trawling net dragging behind. The plan was to catch lots of the small critters that are born in the marsh and live in the creeks until maturity.
We captured an Atlantic sharp-nosed shark, pin fish, spot, lesser blue crabs, Atlantic brief squid, croaker, pink shrimp and puffer fish. The shark was by far the biggest of that bunch, but they all were dwarfed by a pair of unhappy southern sting rays.
The tide was going out, so we had a good chance to see huge beds of oysters lining the creeks. These so-called intertidal oysters form clusters which are harvested commercially and recreationally. Oysters represent a keystone species, fulfilling several important ecological functions. Their filtering action serves to remove suspended sediments and pollutants from the water. Oyster reefs provide valuable shelter and habitat for many other species and prevent erosion by stabilizing marsh edges.
Next stop was North Inlet – the narrow opening where the ocean meets the bay. Undeveloped beach is a fine place to be – nothing but sand, sky and starfish.
But we’re here to learn, so out came the nets to see what we might find in the shallow waters on the ‘back side’ of the barrier island. There are 176 species of fish in these waters and we caught a few of them: silversides, pompano, spots, anchovy, and the most interesting lookdown fish (with elongated fins top and bottom).
We would have been happy to poke around out there for hours, but time wasn’t on our side – had to head back to the lab and leave the beach behind.
(A note about the USC event. There were multiple options for the morning and afternoon educational sessions. In addition to the Hobcaw tour and the creek/beach ecology lesson, there were sessions on fine art photography, southern history, and the chemistry of baking chocolate chip cookies. All of the sessions were led by USC faculty and all got rave reviews.)
After some free time for showers and clean clothes, we were invited to a wine reception at the new Discovery Center, a joint educational venture of the Belle W. Baruch Foundation and the USC Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences. It is a beautiful facility, serving as a visitor center with information about the history, ecology, and programs of Hobcaw Barony. There are excellent exhibits on Native Americans who once lived here, the rice culture, and the Baruch family. There are aquariums and a salt water touch tank, as well as a huge assortment of seashells, skins and skulls. It's open all year, and it's free - check it out if you're ever in the Georgetown area.
Dinner was Low Country's finest - shrimp and grits - followed by a presentation about Bernard Baruch given by history professor Larry Glickman. Baruch was a native of Camden, SC, and became a stockbroker, millionaire, and advisor to seven presidents. He was a high profile public figure, often being found holding forth on a park bench in Central Park or Lafayette Square (Washington DC). He used Hobcaw as his winter retreat to hunt, as well as to entertain many of his notable friends. His oldest daughter Belle, loved the place as much as he did, and their legacy lives on today in the work of the foundation and the marine institute.
A fitting end to a long day - nobody had trouble sleeping that night! We headed home on Sunday morning, with a slight detour through McClellanville to visit brother Dan. All in all, a nice weekend - it's a beautiful spot on the coast - thanks to the Baruch family, Hobcaw Barony remains a South Carolina treasure - check it out!
