Subject: Coosawhatchie River Area
Resent-Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 01:33:09 -0700 (PDT)
Resent-From: [email protected]
Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 04:32:15 -0400
From: "Steven J. Coker"
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Source:
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Charleston District
Navigability Study 1977
COOSAWHATCHIE RIVER AREA
Report No. 01 of 18
SECTION 2 - PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
The Coosawhatchie River has a drainage area of approximately 590 square miles
and is the principal tributary to the Broad River in southeast South Carolina.
The stream flows for approximately 50 miles in a southeast direction from its
headwaters in Allendale County through Hampton, Jasper, and finally Beaufort
County where it meets the Broad River. Plate 01-1 shows the entire drainage
basin of the Coosawhatchie River and its tributaries.
The Coosawhatchie is a gentle meandering river having marsh and swamp-like
conditions throughout. Elevations range in the basin from 130 feet above mean
sea level at its headwaters to mean sea level at its mouth on the Broad River.
Approximately 9 miles of the Coosawhatchie are considered tidally influenced.
Plates 01-2 and 01-3 are detailed maps indicating the significant features
found in the basin....
SECTION 4 - INTERSTATE COMMERCE
Past
In the late 17th and early 18th Centuries, English settlement in South
Carolina spread inland to the northwest and southwest from Charleston, while
settlers from Scotland, under Lord Cardross, had attempted to settle at Port
Royal. Wherever possible, these settlers used the most efficient means of
transportation then available; riverine transportation. By the 1830's, the
rice growing culture spawned the great plantations along the lower tidewater
reaches of the Broad-Colleton-Coosawhatchie River system. Rice, naval stores,
surplus grains, and various timber products could be moved down that system to
the deep-water port of Beaufort, S. C. These products could then be
distributed by ship from Beaufort to other British colonies or to England
itself. In addition to the staves and lumber shipped to the West Indies and
the furs and pelts transported to England, South Carolina exported directly to
the mother country some 264,488 pounds of rice between 1720 and 1729; and some
429,525 pounds of rice between 1730 and 1739. (6) A significant portion of
these totals came from the Coosawhatchie River basin, as the coastal region
"had always been ... dependent on foreign markets to which it exported rice,
indigo, lumber, naval stores, cotton, and other relatively minor items. (7)
In order to improve the various watercourses which made such exportation
possible, the General Assembly of the colony of South Carolina sought to clear
several of the key streams. To that end, various acts were passed after 1714
which called for specified kinds of improvements to a number of streams. One
such act, passed in 1756, intended to make navigable a tributary of the
Coosawhatchie-Broad network, "the Chechessey Creek." (8) An act passed in 1778
was for "clearing and making navigable Tulifiny Creek, from the bridge known
by the name Tulifiny Bridge, to the Mill-dam of Barnard Elliott, Esq." (9)
Nine years later, in 1787, another act sought to clear and make navigable the
same Chechessey Creek mentioned above. (10)
The extent of success to which these and similar efforts -- mounted during the
time that South Carolina was a royal colony of Great Britain is not clear from
the evidence available. It is clear, however, that Beaufort and Port Royal
were significant ports during the period, and so they remained after American
independence had been won. The Coosawhatchie-Broad River network did not --
relative to the other river basins in the state -- profit from the funds which
South Carolina devoted to inland navigation in the period 1820-30. (11)
Nonetheless, by 1818 John Wilson, the state's Civil and Military Engineer, was
charged with the task of cataloging the major rivers. The report which he
submitted indicates something of the Coosawhatchie's usefulness. "The Tulifiny
and Coosawhatchie unite," noted Wilson, "a little above their junction with
Broad River, and the navigation is good from the ocean to where the influence
of the tide ceases, about 30 miles." Wilson's report continues, indicating
that "The only obstructions to the navigation ... from the line, where the
influence of the tide ceases, to the Granite ridge, are sand bars and logs."
(12)
Eight years later, in 1826, Robert Mills, architect and inland navigation
advocate, described the Coosawhatchie and its several tributaries. The
Coosawhatchie, he wrote in Statistics of South Carolina, 1826, is navigable
"for vessels of considerable burden." (13) Both the Chechessee River and the
Colleton River, he noted, were also navigable "for vessels of considerable
burden" (14) Still another tributary, the Pocotaligo River, which feeds into
the Broad River, was also "navigable for vessels of considerable burden."
Although the Pocotaligo River had "a considerable trading place before the
(American] Revolution," it now "contains only a few houses." (15) During the
Civil War, the U. S. Navy, under Admiral DuPont, captured Port Royal in 1861,
and thus denied the Confederates an outlet for these crops or products
produced inland along the Coosawhatchie. In the years following the Civil War,
the Coosawhatchie-Broad River system was slow to recover its old prominence.
Various examinations of the waterbodies of that system were mounted by the U.
S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1880 and 1888. Regarding the traffic typical of
the region in 1880, Colonel Quincy Gillmore wrote that "all freights arriving
from the interior for transportation to foreign or domestic ports ... [are]
transferred to oceangoing vessels at the [Port Royal] railroad wharves, and
all freight arriving by vessels at Port Royal Sound for transfer to the
Interior would be loaded into railroad cars at the same place." (16)
In the decade and a half following Gillmore's 1880 report, the "water commerce
of Beaufort increased with the increase of the phosphate interests and with
the establishment of the Port Royal naval station on the Beaufort River about
6 miles below the Town of Beaufort." However, the rise of competition from
Florida-based phosphate mines hurt those near Beaufort; although, in 1903 the
Virginia-Carolina Chemical Company continued to operate a fertilizer factory
on the Beaufort River. (17) Yet by 1901, for example, it was reported that the
value of exports at Beaufort had dwindled from some $4,939,417 in 1894 to only
$166,189 only seven years later. (18) In 1902, the commercial statistics for
the region indicated that 29,333 tons of fertilizer, 90,873 tons of phosphate
rock, plus additional amounts of timber, coal, and cement had been moved
across the bar at Port Royal, amounting to a total of 148,547 tons. These
commodities were moved in that year of 1902 in 112 merchant vessels. (19)
By the second and third decades of the 20th Century, the channel at Port Royal
had "a 43-foot depth available at mile 12.6, the junction of the Cheechessee
and Broad Rivers." As for the Broad, it was navigable as far up as mile 24.5*,
and the Beaufort River joins it at mile 14*. (20) The usefulness of the
waterbodies forming the Broad-Coosawhatchie network was potentially expanded
after the passage of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 26 August 1927. This and
other acts provided for the "Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway between Norfolk,
Va., and St. Johns River, Fla.," which project was completed in 1940. This
allowed for a considerable movement of "petroleum products, pulpwood, paper,
oysters, oyster shells and agricultural products." (21)
A second development, which appeared to place the potential of the
Broad-Coosawhatchie Basin in a markedly different perspective, was South
Carolina's creation, in 1942, of a unified State Ports Authority system. The
first institution of its type, the State Ports Authority had as its goal the
improvement of South Carolina's principal port of Charleston, but also of the
lesser ports of Georgetown and Beaufort-Port Royal as well. (22)
Even with the creation of the Ports Authority, while considerable amounts of
material were being moved up and down the coast via the inland waterway,
neither Beaufort nor Port Royal appeared particularly to enjoy any major
expansion of commercial activity of a waterborne, interstate variety. Indeed,
as of 1950, it was stated that "no deepdraft commercial vessels have used the
harbor during the last 45 years." (23) Three years later, Waterborne Commerce
of the United States, 1953 contained no listing for the Coosawhatchie-Broad
River network, and did not specify any waterborne commercial activity for that
stream. (24)
Present
The Coosawhatchie-Broad River network is not currently being used for purposes
of waterborne interstate commerce. (25)
As noted by Wilson, in the early 19th Century, the Coosawhatchie was navigable
to the poleboats and perriaugers** then in use as far up as "where the
influence of the tide ceases, about 30 miles." It and several of its
tributaries seem also to have been "navigable for vessels of considerable
burden."
In 1965, the Coosawhatchie River was described as follows: "Navigable length
in miles (7 miles*); trib. of Broad River, U. S. Highway 17 limit of practical
navigation." The Broad River was described as being navigable for 18 miles.
(5)
Future Potential
Comprehensive analysis of the regional economics (income, education,
employment, community facilities, transportation systems and similar factors),
which would indicate growth patterns and the services needed to sustain
various types of Industrial and commercial activities, Is beyond the scope of
this study. Thus, the potential use of the Coosawhatchie River and its
tributaries for interstate commerce in future years is difficult to predict.
The river has the potential to be utilized for shipment of goods into other
states since it is connected to the Broad River, Intracoastal Waterway, and
the Atlantic Ocean at Port Royal Sound. However, future potential interstate
commerce is not anticipated to be significant in the basin due in part to
heavy dependence by industrial and commercial establishments on other forms of
transportation, including the interstate highway system, railroads, and air
transport.
* This distance does not correspond to river miling developed as a part of
this study.
** Perriauger - A vessel used during the early development period of the
United States (1700's-1800's) for the transportation of supplies. The vessel
was sometimes oared, poled, or pulled and was occasionally fitted with mast
and sail.
-=-=-=-=-
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cited References
1. Water Resources Data for South Carolina Water Year 1975, Water Data Report
75-1, U. S. Geological Survey, Columbia, South Carolina, 1976.
2. Summary Report, Navigability Study, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers,
Charleston District, by Stanley Consultants, 1977.
3. South Carolina Streamflow Characteristics Low-Flow Frequency and Flow
Duration, U. S. Geological Survey, Columbia, South Carolina, 1967.
4. Project Maps - Charleston District 1975, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers,
Office of the District Engineer, Charleston, South Carolina, 1975.
5. Incomplete List of Navigable Waters, RCS ENGCW-ON (OT), U. S. Army Corps of
Engineers, Charleston, South Carolina, 1965.
6. Mills, Robert, Statistics of South Carolina, 1826, Reprint Co., reprint
ed., Spartanburg, 1972, p. 160; Corkran, Davis H., The Carolina Indian
Frontier (Tricentennial Booklet 4), USC Press, Columbia, 1970, P. 7.
7. Smith, Alfred G., The Economic Readjustment of an Old Cotton State: South
Carolina 1820-1860, USC Press, Columbia, 1958, pp. 1-2.
8. McCord, David J., The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, A. S. Johnston,
Columbia, 1840, Vol. VII, p. 510.
9. Ibid., P. 523.
10. Ibid., P. 548.
11. Phillips, Ulrich B., A History of Transportation in the Eastern Cotton
Belt to 1806, Columbia UP, New York, 1908, P. 95, table and notes.
12. Kohn, David and Glenn, Bess, eds., Internal Improvement in South Carolina
1817-1828 USGPO, Washington, 1938 p. A16.
13. Mills, P. 371.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid., P. 370.
16. On the Port Royal operation, see E. B. Potter, ed., Sea Power: A Naval
History (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1960), pp. 252-254; U. S. Congress,
House, Beaufort River, South Carolina, H. Doc. No. 199, 58th Cong., 2d Sess.,
1903, p. 2.
17. Ibid., P. 3.
18. U. S. Congress, House, Port Royal Bar, South Carolina, H. Doc. No. 221,
58th Cong., 2d Sess., 1903, P. 5.
19. Ibid., p. 6.
20. U. S. Congress, House, Channel Port Royal Sound to Beaufort, S. C., H.
Doc. No. 469, 81st Cong., 2d Sess., 1950, PP. 3-4.
21. U. S. Department of the Army, Water Resources Development ... in South
Carolina 1973, U. S. Army Engineering Division, South Atlantic, 1973, P. 36.
22. S. C. State Planning Board, Port Survey: Beaufort-Charleston-Georgetown:
Economic and Statistical Study, S. C. State Ports Authority, 1944, pp. 1-6.
23. H. Doc., No. 469, p. 16.
24. U. S. Department of the Army, Waterborne Commerce of the United States,
1953, Pt. I, Waterways and Harbors: Atlantic Coast, P. 324.
25. U. S. Department of the Army, Waterborne Commerce of the United States,
1975, Pt. I, Waterways and Harbors: Atlantic Coast, p. 124.
26. Legal Documentation for Navigability Study, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers,
Charleston District, Charleston, South Carolina, 1977.
OTHER BACKGROUND INFORMATION.
Clark, Thomas D., South Carolina: The Grand Tour 1780-1865, USC Press,
Columbia, 1973.
Glover, Beulah, Narratives of Colleton County, np.: 1963 ed.
Meriwether, Robert L., The Expansion of South Carolina 1729-1765, Southern
Publishers, Kingsport, 1940.
S. C. Department of Agriculture, Commerce and Immigration, The Developed and
Undeveloped Water Powers of South Carolina, Handbook of South Carolina,
Columbia, 1907.
State Board of Agriculture, South Carolina: Resources and Population, 1883,
Reprint Co., reprint ed., Spartanburg, 1972.
Writers' Program, WPA, South Carolina: A Guide to the Palmetto State, Oxford
UP, New York, 1949, ed.
The Intracoastal Waterway: Norfolk to Key West, USGPO, Washington, 1937.
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