CONWAY, SC: Little Town, Big History (a photo tour)

Tour Guide Note:  Ample apologies to my devoted tour attendees.  Your regular tour guide Streaker won't be with us on today's tour.  She spent the day at Ted's Spa enjoying a bathe, dip and pedicure.  Then she wanted to go to Saks for a new doggie-backpack but she was reminded we are broke.  She settled for a Slim Jim.  [concerned about the canine? - see the first comment]

CONWAY, SOUTH CAROLINA

Historic Riverport City on the Waccamaw

©2009 Robert C Burnham

Welcome to small town, Norman Rockwell, America.  Welcome to Conway, SC, the historic, picturesque river-port town on the Waccamaw River, just thirteen miles inland from world-famous Myrtle Beach and the Atlantic Ocean.  In the early 1700s, surveyors had sent their maps back to England where the Crown recognized the advantages of having an inland river port to move produce and lumber down to the coast.  The British Crown decreed the building of a township where a bluff grew up out of the lowlands near the western bend of the Waccamaw River.  The township was built and in 1735 opened to settlers.  In 1803 the township was officially named Conwayborough.  The name was officially shortened to Conway, SC in 1883 and was incorporated and made the county seat in 1898 with a then population of 705.

During the Civil War, the still named Conwayborough Township garnered regional attention when it was noted that every able-bodied man, every one of them noted in the township's records, left hearth and home and joined the war effort under General Lee Hampton and the Confederacy.  Many did not return but those who did became skilled in the harvesting, processing, marketing and transporting (via river) of lumber.  Moving the lumber along the slow moving Waccamaw was tedious at best and it held many perils.

In 1887, the railroad came to town to carry the vast quantity of lumber being harvest to the outside world.  The railroad greatly reduced the time from cutting the tree down to loading it on ships bound for the ports of Europe and other nations.  Eventually the demand for lumber exports decreased and around 1899 Conway turned its attention to its next cash cow, tobacco.  The railroad went from hauling timbers to hauling leaves, continuing to thrive.  Even today, trains leave Conway on a regular, though lessened basis, but not towards the coast.  Their destinations now lie in America's interior.    [continues below...]

Today, the pattern of declining cigarette smokers and thus tobacco buyers, local farmers are being force to experiment with new crops, looking for their next cash cow.  They haven't found it yet and the area was already experiencing economic downturn before 'economic downturn' became the new American catch-phrase.  But these people, farmers of the Waccamaw basin are made of tough, resilient, modest stock and they survive. 

They do their jobs and on Sunday the majority of them can be found in the area's little country church's dropping a portion of their modest earnings into an assortment of offering plates.  My very sister works at a Conway Christian Academy, teaching third grade.  Conway residents for the most part are Bible believing, law-abiding, country folk - gentlemen and ladies with a still intact heritage from yesteryear.  They are a hearty bunch.

The historic downtown district shown in my photographs are centered by the old City hall and Courthouse whose main portion dates back to 1824.  The façade is more modern as is the new courthouse further down along Fourth Avenue.  Many of the downtown buildings date back a hundred years to the early 1900s and the Main Street Theatre still produces live shows on a monthly basis.  It is a quiet community with just a couple of nightspot for the area singles and night owls but even they are hard-pressed to be out past midnight.  Most of the town closes between 8:00pm and 9:00pm.  The newly constructed library closes promptly each night at 8:00pm, earlier on the weekends.

Artifacts around the City hall reflect the history of the town.  The town clock, which stands at the Main Street and Third Avenue corner, is as much as any landmark the symbol of the town.  Back in 1938 the mayor, Dr. Carl Busbee, wanted to assure farmers who came into town each fall to sell tobacco that the town appreciated their traditions and custom.  Farmer's Day became an annual event.  The serving City Council would name a farmer-mayor and a farmer-council for a day.  All festival attendees who failed to wear the official dress ('overhauls') were hailed into court where legitimate fines were levied.  Today, from the railroad station to the river-walk, farmers can still be seen driving their pick-ups through town in full 'overhauls' regalia with their left arm farmer's tan showing out the window and a look of humble determination on their faces.  

Of course the twenty-first century has arrived but has miraculously been relegated towards the northern edge of town along the US501 corridor.  A decade and a half hasn't passed since a Walmart Supercenter came to town with its bright lights and 24/7 shopping.  I was here then, and I noticed the folks made the conversion patiently, slowly but yet inevitably.  

In my humble estimation, the city's fathers and leaders deserve applause for keeping the riverfront and downtown as original as possible and a true, direct and viewable link to the past.  Personally, for a town that sentenced me to jail for a year, I enjoy visiting.

                             Thanks for visiting!!!