McClellanville

McClellanville, SC
29 12.02 N 078 39.35 W

Add another entry to our list of charming places to visit along the east coast.   Always before, we went past McClellanville on the ICW without stopping.   This time, we decided to take our time and look it over.

With a population of only 400 people and nearly 100 shrimp boats, the character of McClellanville is not hard to discern.   Historically it was different.  In fact, not until the soldiers returned from WWII did the shrimp industry here take off.    We learned that at the McClellanville Museum that we visited this afternoon.

It's a charming place.   The streets are lined with enormous live oak trees and splendid large houses reflecting glories and riches of the plantation past.

We're tied up tonight at the Leland Oil Company dock.   Mr Leland sells fuel to all the fishing boats, plus he has space on the floating dock for two visitors.  Leland is one of only a few family names here.  McClellanville resembles Tangeir Island in many ways.

McClellanville is surrounded by nature.  A national forest sits to the west and the Cape Romaine national seashore salt marshes to the east.  Most South Carolinians have no idea where this place is.  It is noteworthy as ground zero for the devastation wrought by Hurricane Hugo in 1989.   The man at the museum filled us in on how bad it was.   Sea level in this village was 14-22 feet above the ground.  However, charity donations and volunteer help from all over the USA poured in to help rebuild and now it looks great.

We ate dinner at T.W. Graham and Company, just 0.5 miles away.  Thursday is Mexican night.  Libby got a fried oyster taco.  Man oh man were those oysters delicious.   It was reasonable too.  Nice place.  I also bought some shrimp at the local seafood market to eat tomorrow night.

I posted a photo album of McClellanville here.   Below is my favorite picture.  Libby is hugging the Deerhead Oak tree.  It is 31 feet around.  I have a whole series of photos of Libby hugging notable trees.  One of these days I'll turn them into a blog post.