A UFO house and 6 other things you don’t know about the Grand Strand, but should
The Grand Strand, stretching from Little River to Georgetown, encompasses about 60 miles of beaches and contains more than a few mysteries that even some long time residents might not know.
The Sun News took a deeper look into seven oddities that’ll make locals and vacationers alike say, ”what?”
Garden City is home to one of the US’s last remaining UFO houses
Surrounded by traditional beach cottages, the UFO-shaped house stands out against the view of the Garden City Peninsula. The house stands next to the Gulf Stream Cafe, the only accessible point to park if you want to go view the house.
Built in 1976 by Miami architect Peter Van Klout, the UFO design is meant to let the house withstand hurricanes. Mike Childs, a real estate broker in the area, saw the house when it was first being built.
“I’ve always been fascinated by its uniqueness and always drive by whenever I’m in Garden City,” Childs said. According to a blog post Childs wrote about the house, it is owned by the Graham family of Gallivants Ferry. When Hurricane Hugo hit South Carolina’s coastlines, the house suffered no structural damage, while dozens of other homes on Garden City Beach were completely demolished.
Klout built similar UFO houses in Florida that have since been sold or disappeared, including one on Islamorada, which was last sold in 2012, according to the Islamorada Times.
There’s a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard?
Yes, a single tunnel runs under Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach, allowing visitors to cross the busy “strip” without dodging traffic.
Built in the 1980’s by the Sea Mist Ocean Front Resort, stairs descend to the subterranean passage on either side of Ocean Boulevard at 13th Avenue South. The tunnel’s ceilings are painted with a mural of undersea life: depicting a diver, octopus, sharks and whales.
“It’s a nice little surprise,” amenities director Jody Ammons told The Sun News in 2019 of guests’ reactions to the tunnel. “A lot of people appreciate it if the traffic is really bad.”
After recent heavy rains, the eastern end of the tunnel had some water ponding on the floor but Ammon’s said that flooding is rarely a problem in the passage. However, the murals that once decorated the walls were frequently covered with graffiti, forcing the resort to keep them painted white.
Why are there goats on this Murrells Inlet island?
Tourists and diners strolling the Murrells Inlet Marshwalk may have noticed a tribe of goats living on a small island across from Drunken Jacks Restaurant and Lounge. “We jokingly tell them they are saltwater deer,” Drunken Jack’s owner Al Hitchcock said of the tourists that ask about them.
The goats have been placed there every Spring for since 1982 to control undergrowth. While on ‘Goat Island’ the animals, currently seven in number, enjoy obstacles for climbing and even a covered shelter to get out of the sun and rain.
Tourists can enjoy watching the newly born kids frolic about the island in the Spring. Still, the real treat comes during the annual Fall ‘round-up,’ around Thanksgiving, when wranglers splash through the shallows to chase the goats onto a waiting pontoon boat and return to their inland farm.
“They have the best of both lives,” said Hitchcock, “the island during the summer and the farm during the winter.”
Read More about the goats of Murrell’s Inlet Goat Island in these past Sun News stories:
Baby Goat Alert: The Newest Residents of Murrells Inlet.
Ready, set, GOAT: Murrells Inlet Goat Island evacuated ahead of Hurricane Dorian
Record tiger shark caught from pier is a world-class fish story
On Saturday afternoon, June 13, 1964 a visiting fisherman set a world record for the largest tiger shark ever caught with a rod and reel, and he did it off a North Myrtle Beach pier within sight of the beach.
Walter Maxwell, a stonemason from Charlotte N.C. hooked the massive predator on early Saturday afternoon and fought the beast for over five hours as bystanders gathered and friends poured water on his reel to keep it cool, according to a June 2005 article in Saltwatersportsman.com.
“When that fish jumped, it was only about 30 yards off the end of the pier, almost in the surf,” Maxwell told Outdoor Life in a 1984 interview, “There was a tremendous crashing sound.”
The shark was landed on the beach and a wrecker used to load it on a flatbed truck. When it was weighed on certified scales on Monday morning, this leviathan was 1,780 pounds and measured 13 feet, 10 ½ inches and was 103-inches around, setting an International Game Fish Association record that stands to this day.
“Everyone is in awe daily,” said Edgar Stephens, manager of the Cherry Grove Pier, “everyone wants to come see where this fish was caught and just be a part of the history.”
Shark fishing off beaches or piers is no longer allowed in Horry County.
North Myrtle Beach is home to 3 wind turbines
Though rising in plain sight, three wind turbines in North Myrtle Beach often go unnoticed. Two of these towers are owned by the city, and one is owned by Santee Cooper, a major utility provider.
Installed in 2010, the purpose of the wind turbines right now is to build “public familiarity” with wind energy, according to Paul Gayes, Ph.D. in coastal oceanography and a marine biology and geology professor at Coastal Carolina University.
The three wind turbines don’t power much on their own.
“It’s something akin to being able to power public restrooms or something, it’s a very small amount of resource,” Gayes said.
However, these wind turbines were the beginning of a long-winded effort by North Myrtle Beach and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to bring wind power to the Southeast. In May, Duke Energy won an auction for the rights to build offshore wind turbines in the Carolina Long Bay area, near the border of South Carolina and North Carolina.
Gayes said this $160 million investment shows that wind energy has a future near North Myrtle Beach.
“It all really started back then with those small little turbines. Before long, you’ll have large ones that are producing at utility scale production. Much of that will be centered around North Myrtle Beach,” Gayes said.
Myrtle Beach police department sends a drunk driving awareness message via hybrid police/taxi car
The “choose your ride” police cars you might see in downtown Myrtle Beach or near popular tourist attractions were a drunk driving awareness campaign started in 2016 by the Myrtle Beach Police Department. The police taxi car sits around different spots in Myrtle Beach, spots that are visible as you’re driving and isn’t used for patrolling. Thomas Vest, a spokesperson for the Myrtle Beach police department, said the car is a conversation starter.
“The idea is there are two options after drinking. One is to go home in a cab or ride share and the other is to go to jail in the back of a police car. It was an old car coming off the line and we decided to wrap it as a mobile billboard instead back in 2016,” Vest said. “Now we move it around the city and it gets people to think about the consequences of a DUI.”
Country Music Hall of Fame group Alabama got their start in Myrtle Beach club
In 1973 Alabama cousins and band members Randy Owen, Teddy Gentry, and Jeff Cook then called “Wild Country,” from Fort Payne, Alabama, toured the southeast and landed in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to play at The Bowery, a local club just off Ocean Boulevard.
According to The Bowery’s web page they played six nights a week for tips during the summers for the next seven years and developed a “huge regional following” before changing their name to “Alabama” in 1979.
In 1980, the cousins, plus drummer Mark Herdon, signed with record label RCA where they recorded their breakout hit single “My Home’s in Alabama.” Alabama would ultimately take more than thirty records to the top of the Billboard charts, have 42 singles reach the top, and sell over 73 million albums with songs such as “Tennessee River” and “Mountain Music.”
In 1996 the band recorded “Shaggin’ on the Boulevard,” a homage to their summers in Myrtle Beach, which refers to the popular dance of the same name and mentions many local area clubs.
Alabama was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2005.
The Bowery at 110 9th Avenue North in Myrtle Beach, is still a popular local club featuring live music and memorabilia of the famous artists that have played there.
South Carolina’s only public school bus boat ferries children living on historic Sandy Island
Sandy Island, located between the Pee Dee and Waccamaw rivers, is in part a 9,000-acre wildlife preserve owned by The Nature Conservancy. It’s also home to about 40 residents deeply rooted in Gullah culture. The island is only accessible via boat, meaning residents, including children, utilize a free public boat service to get to and from the mainland.
The school boat, named “New Prince Washington” is owned by the South Carolina Department of Education, which replaced an older vessel in 2020. The boat travels to and from Sandy Island, picking up children to take them to schools on the mainland, such as Waccamaw high school.
Only a few kids take the school boat now, with only seven or so families still living on the island.
The boat also takes residents to and from the island at various times throughout the day. Johnny Weaver, one captain who does morning and afternoon ferries, started the shuttle service alongside three other captains for residents.
“The people over there are just absolutely wonderful. And it’s just a real pleasure for me to do it because I’ve gotten to know them. Just wonderful people,” Weaver said.
