Slow Water at Givhan’s Ferry
A Little bit of History…
Before it was a park, it was a crossing. The name comes from Phillip Givhan, a ferry master on the Edisto who ran the ferry that connected Augusta and Charleston. The Edisto is the longest free-flowing blackwater river in North America. Until a bridge was built in 1852, travelers crossed the Edisto River in a fashion similar to the photo below.
This land was originally a plantation with a two-story plantation house with small dwellings scattered about housing the enslaved men and women who worked the fields. The grave of Mr. Givhan’s granddaughter still sits on the bank beside the river, not far from the house.
In 1934, the City of Charleston donated the land, and the CCC went to work. The cabins and the River House on the bluff are theirs, which is why they have that sturdy, hand-built look that you just can’t be fake. The camp store and office are located in the River House which also has a vast porch on the river with tables and chairs that make you want to stay if only for a short while.
Look for the FREEZER
The camp store has this wonderful little freezer full of all kinds of delectable goodies - from biscuits to fancy ice cream sandwiches and even fried chicken ice cream cones, which I have yet to have the courage to try. Something for everybody and I can’t help but wonder who might be the “Foodie” responsible for stocking the freezer.
The oldest part of the story is under your feet. The copper marl limestone bluffs along the river were formed by prehistoric ocean deposits and are protected as a Heritage Trust Site. So the same ground that was once the floor of an ocean, now has a pair of dogs sniffing it.
We arrived at Givhan’s Ferry with the first few drops of rain from hurricane Isaias. Sadly, we chose to leave Edisto a day early so we wouldn’t be traveling in high winds. We were grateful to have made it to our next scheduled destination without incident. As the storms stirred by the hurricane moved from the Gulf to the Atlantic, the skies opened up with a healthy downpour of rain for our first couple of days and nights.
The Camping
The campground is not particularly large, but it is comfortable and the sites appear kind of close together upon first impression. After settling in, though, we found both of the sites we stayed in to be quite comfortable. Our first two nights were spent in campsite #2 - a nice corner site with open forest floor space to the left and campsite #3 to our right. A great site, except for the heavy canopy of trees that prevented our Skylink from working at all. Our cell signal was not much better and I have to admit that not having signal when there are storms is quite unsettling. There was no way to access Weatherbug, and certainly not our most reliable source of weather information, “Ryan Hall Y’all.”
On our third day, we had a site change from #2 to #12, and were back in business with Starlink. Thank goodness. We really enjoyed site #12 with plenty of outdoor space to set up a comfortable outdoor living area. Full hookups, but also right across from the bathhouse. It’s a good spot.
Enjoying the last of the boiled peanuts from Edisto.
The River Bluff Nature Trail
Walk the 1.5 mile trail that starts along the Edisto River and winds around to see the small cemetery and then leads passes through gated-off limestone sinkholes
