How to be a local on Hilton Head, Beaufort, Bluffton and Port Royal

For once, a helpful reader sent a note asking where he should go instead of telling me where to go.

This is from a gentleman who may be a lot like you: sort of new to the Lowcountry, but seasoned enough to realize that its stories, not to mention its oddities, are as vast at the mighty Atlantic.

“I’m now reading ‘Profits and Politics in Paradise,’ ” he writes. “Are there any other books on the history of the area that you would recommend?

“And places to go (we did go to Penn Center) to learn more about the area? We did take Emory Campbell’s (Gullah Heritage Trail) tour and were very impressed. There’s so much rich history here.”

Let’s start with a short list of non-fiction books, but he should go through the local history sections in each of the Beaufort County’s public libraries.

And helpful places to dig deeper include the Beaufort District Collection at the public library in Beaufort and the Heritage Library Foundation on Hilton Head Island.

Some books:

• “Against the Tide: One Woman’s Political Struggle,” by Harriet Keyserling.

• The three-volume history of Beaufort County by Lawrence S. Rowland, Stephen R. Wise and others.

• “Rehearsal for Reconstruction: The Port Royal Experiment,” by Willie Lee Rose.

• “Tideland Treasure,” by Todd Ballantine.

• “The Gentlemanly Serpent and Other Columns from a Newspaperman in Paradise,” by Jonathan Daniels.

• “Hilton Head: A Sea Island Chronicle,” by Virginia C. Holmgren.

• “My Life With Charles Fraser,” by Charlie Ryan.

• “Rice & Ducks: The Surprising Convergence that Saved the Carolina Lowcountry,” by Virginia Christian Beach.

• “A Guide to Historic Beaufort, South Carolina,” by Alexia Jones Helsley.

• “Beaufort, South Carolina: A History,” by Alexia Jones Helsley.

• “A Guide to Historic Bluffton,” published by the Bluffton Historical Preservation Society.

• “A Gullah Psalm: The Musical Life and Work of Luke Peeples,” by Estella Saussy Nussbaum and Jeanne Saussy Wright.

• “Gullah Days: Hilton Head Islanders Before the Bridge 1861-1956,” by Carolyn Grant, Emory Campbell and Thomas C. Barnwell Jr.

• “Penn Center: A History Preserved,” by Orville Vernon Burton.

• “A Corner of Carolina,” by Edith Inglesby.

• “Gullah Images: The Art of Jonathan Green” by Jonathan Green with foreword by Pat Conroy.

• “Northern Money, Southern Land: The Lowcountry Plantation Sketches of Chlotilde R. Martin,” edited by Robert B. Cuthbert and Stephen G. Hoffius.

• “Gullah Cultural Legacies,” by Emory Campbell.

• “The Pat Conroy Cookbook,” by Pat Conroy.

• “Remembering the Way It Was: At Hilton Head Island, Bluffton and Daufuskie” and two subsequent volumes by Fran Heyward Marscher.

• “The Great Sea Island Storm of 1893,” by Bill Marscher and Fran Heyward Marscher.

• “Beaufort Through the Ages,” by Gloria E. Singleton.

• “The Gullah Mailman” and “Tales of the Barrier Islands,” by Pierre McGowan.

• “Vibration Cooking: Or the Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl,” by Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor.

• “Gullah Culture in America,” by Wilbur Cross.

• “Images of America: Beaufort,” by Polly Wylly Cooper and Betty Wylly Collins.

• “Images of America: Hilton Head Island,” edited by Natalie Harvey.

• “Images of America: Port Royal,” by Wendy Nilsen Pollitzer.

PLACES TO GO

The writer mentioned Penn Center on St. Helena Island.

I’d also suggest the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park in downtown Beaufort, the Parris Island Museum, the Beaufort History Museum, and the Santa Elena History Center in Beaufort.

Also the Mitchelville Freedom Park and the Coastal Discovery Museum on Hilton Head, the Historic Port Royal Foundation and Museum in the heart of Port Royal, the Beaufort National Cemetery, the Pat Conroy Literary Center in Beaufort, and the Mather School museum on the Technical College of the Lowcountry campus in Beaufort.

The Port Royal Sound Foundation Maritime Center in Okatie, the Garvin-Garvey House in Bluffton, the Zion Chapel of Ease Cemetery on Hilton Head, the Old Sheldon church ruins in Sheldon, the Parish Church of St. Helena in Beaufort and the Morris Center in Ridgeland.

Attend a graduation ceremony at U.S. Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, and maybe slip by Harold’s Country Club in Yemasee, and you’ll be well on your way to getting stuck in the pluff mud of life.

David Lauderdale may be reached at LauderdaleColumn@gmail.com .