Life on Paws and Wheels

Simba and I visited the Edisto Mystery Tree on Edisto Island, South Carolina , one of the strangest, quirkiest, and most beloved roadside landmarks in the Lowcountry. Standing by itself in the marsh beside South Carolina Highway 174 , directly across from the entrance to Botany Bay Road, the scraggly dead cedar probably wouldn't attract much attention if someone wasn't continually covering it with an ever-changing collection of bizarre decorations. That's where things get interesting. For decades, an unknown person — or perhaps several people — has been secretly decorating the tree for holidays, seasons, special occasions, and seemingly whatever other theme inspires them. The decorations constantly change, yet the identity of the person behind them has remained part of the mystery. 🌳 A Strange Little Tree in the Marsh There isn't anything particularly majestic about the Edisto Mystery Tree itself. This isn't a giant live oak or an ancient tree towering over the sur...

I visited the Hutchinson House on Edisto Island, South Carolina , a remarkably important surviving home that tells a much larger story than its weatherboard walls and Victorian details might suggest. Built around 1885 by Henry Hutchinson , a man who had been born into slavery only 25 years earlier, the house stands as tangible evidence of freedom, Black landownership, entrepreneurship, family, and economic independence during the decades following the Civil War. The Hutchinson House is one of the oldest surviving Reconstruction-era homes on Edisto Island built by an African American family. Its story stretches back to Henry's father, James “Jim” Hutchinson , whose efforts to secure land and political rights for formerly enslaved people helped establish the foundation upon which Henry and other Black Edistonians could build independent lives. ⛓️ Born Into Slavery on Edisto Island Henry Hutchinson was born enslaved on Edisto Island in 1860 , just before the Civil War transformed life...

Simba and I visited the Forrest Gump Gate near Yemassee, South Carolina , the real entrance used for Forrest Gump’s childhood home in the classic 1994 movie Forrest Gump . At first glance, it might look like an ordinary gate beside a quiet Lowcountry road, but for fans of the movie, this unassuming spot is instantly connected to some of the film’s most memorable scenes. Although Forrest tells us that he comes from the fictional town of Greenbow, Alabama , filmmakers found much of the movie’s Southern scenery hundreds of miles away in the South Carolina Lowcountry and nearby Savannah, Georgia. The entrance to Forrest’s fictional family property was created at Bluff Plantation along Combahee Road near Yemassee , where the landscape provided exactly the tree-lined Southern setting filmmakers needed. 🎥 Greenbow, Alabama Was Really South Carolina Forrest Gump takes viewers across decades of American history and sends Forrest to locations throughout the country and around the world. Yet ma...

Simba and I visited the Old Sheldon Church Ruins near Yemassee, South Carolina , one of the most beautiful and atmospheric historic sites in the Lowcountry. Surrounded by enormous live oaks, Spanish moss, old graves, and weathered brick walls, the ruins preserve the remains of an 18th-century church that survived war, rebuilding, abandonment, and more than two centuries of change. Originally known as Prince William’s Parish Church , the building was constructed between approximately 1745 and 1755. Its grand classical design was unusually ambitious for a rural colonial parish, and even in ruins, the towering columns and arched openings still convey how impressive the church must have been when it was complete. 🏛️ A Grand Colonial Church in the Lowcountry Prince William’s Parish Church was built to serve a wealthy Anglican parish in the South Carolina Lowcountry. The surrounding region was dominated by plantations, rivers, marshes, and agricultural land, and the church became an importa...

Simba and I visited the Chapel of Ease Ruins on St. Helena Island, South Carolina , a haunting historic site where roofless tabby walls, moss-draped live oaks, and old burial grounds preserve centuries of Lowcountry history. Built around 1740, the chapel once served plantation families who lived too far from the main parish church in Beaufort to make regular worship convenient. Today, the chapel is one of the most atmospheric historic ruins in the South Carolina Lowcountry. Thick tabby walls still rise beneath enormous live oaks, while arched openings, exposed oyster shells, and nearby cemetery monuments create a powerful sense of age and loss. The peaceful setting can feel almost timeless, but the history connected to the site is much more complicated. ⛪ Why the Chapel Was Built The chapel was constructed around 1740 as a chapel of ease for residents of St. Helena Island. In colonial Anglican parishes, chapels of ease were smaller churches built to serve people who lived too far from...