house tours

     The Colleton County Historical and Preservation Society holds a Plantation Tour in October to showcase some of the plantations in Colleton County.  They never visit the same plantation when people come, each year visitors go to different places.  The Society provides lunch since the event takes place on a Sunday after church.  The visitors can buy their tickets in advance or at the first Plantation on the list.

lunch at Beech Hill Plantation

     Some of the Plantations will have people portraying a living history, but this actors normally do not talk to you while in character, they just keep doing what they are doing.  At every site they are people to director on where to park and docents to tell you about the house or shed you are looking at.  These places are always beautiful and well kept.  Sometimes people ask if they can go into the houses, most of the time the answer is no because the owners will not allow it.

     One of the professors at Salkehatchie is a member of the Society and she gets some the students to help at the event each year.  Mostly by saying they will get extra credit for her, some because they want to.  I helped one year, because I wanted to, and I went to two locations that day and helped her collect things afterwards.  At the first location the professor was nice enough to bring us some lunch while we were sitting there directing traffic.  We were also being eaten by bugs and no one could find us some bug spray for the longest time.  At the second location the bugs were worse because we were by water, and we were still directing people where to park and marking on booklets they visited the site.

     At the end of the day when we helped take things down we saw some alligators at one of the Plantations.  We were told that they stayed by the rice gates all day.  It was a fun experience for me, and hopefully I will be able to go back on the Plantation tour and help again.  Tours like this help to show how the upper class lived in the early days of America. 

Alligator by the Rice Gate