Joining the list of EIOLT-conserved properties is
Sunny Side Plantation. Rich in history, the property
is just as valuable for the varied habitat it provides
to birds, mammals, reptiles and estuarine life.
Sunny Side Plantation: Taking Care of History
Edisto Island is wealthy in historic properties, many with their essential structures intact. And, increasingly, these voices from a fascinating past are being permanently safeguarded through conservation easements. Plantations and the years when conservation easements were completed:
Oak Island Plantation (1995)
Seabrook Plantation (1997)
Prospect Hill Plantation (2000)
Windsor Plantation (1999, 2007) |
Brookland Plantation (2007)
Botany Bay Plantation (via estate, 2007)
Cassina Point Plantation (2008)
|
Recently welcomed to that honored roll is Sunny Side Plantation, soon to be preserved by EIOLT via a conservation easement purchased with Charleston County Greenbelt funds. Now 62.5 acres along Store Creek, Sunny Side has been owned and farmed by the same family since the 1860s.
Sunny Side Plantation got its name when, soon after the Civil War, these lands were given by Isaac Jenkins Mikell to his son, Townsend Mikell. Sunny Side quickly became a successful Sea Island cotton plantation. Today, the property includes Sunny Side Plantation house (1875), a barn and the ruins of a cotton gin house (circa early 1870’s).
At Sunny Side, a slice of Edisto's history and agricultural heritage has been "frozen in time," Just as important is the family’s commitment to preserving Sunny Side's fields, woods and salt marsh as critical habitat for the precious diversity of island life.
Sand Creek Farms in the Spotlight
Some of the most scenic views from Edisto’s Highway
174 are of Sand Creek Farms, which stretches between Sand and Russell creeks. Views of the cattle grazing
in green pastures are interspersed with egrets
perching in island-bound trees in the middle of the
ponds and lazy alligators sunning on the banks. This
200-plus-acre waterfront farm has been in the family
for generations and has remained in agricultural production since Colonial times.
It is owned by EIOLT Board Vice President Lex Crawford and his wife Anne.
The Crawford family wanted to preserve this historic working farm nestled in a wildlife paradise as a legacy for future generations. So, in 2007 Sand Creek Farms was preserved by conservation easement via a collaborative effort between
EIOLT and The Nature Conservancy. TNC currently holds the easement, which will be transferred to EIOLT’s
stewardship by
year end.
Two conservation Easements
on Edisto's Historic
Thomas Seabrook Plantation
Late last year, EIOLT
purchased conservation
easements on two side-by-side farms using Charleston County
Greenbelt Bank funds.
Nothing encapsulates Edisto’s past or defines Edisto’s future better than the
conservation of two historic farms: the Keefe Farm and the Polk Farm.
These two tracts, 140 acres total, front Highway 174 on the north and Milton Creek
on the south. They comprise a major portion of the historic Thomas Seabrook Plantation. The Keefes (Willia, Jimmy, Robert, Harrell, Mary, and Susan) and the Polks (Sarah
and Larry) are 10th generation descendents of the family that has owned and
continuously farmed this land for over 300 years.
The earliest known owner of this land was Thomas Bannister Seabrook, whose circa 1740 plantation house was burned to the ground in 1940. It was one of about 60 Edisto plantations that cultivated Sea Island Cotton. Today, this land – which is home to
King’s Farm Market, vegetable and flower fields, and Barnyard Bay recreation area – is
a model for sustainability and the “eat local” trend.
The two tracts also fill in critical pieces of Edisto’s “conservation jigsaw puzzle.” This wooded waterfront and farmland acreage will be preserved forever, linking with other preserved tracts that support tremendous biodiversity. Think your property could be a piece of the puzzle, too? Call EIOLT at (843)869-9004 for an information package.
