This American Beech, which is located near the Hart House at Kalmia Gardens, is the biggest recorded tree of its kind in South Carolina.

The 35-acre home and gardens are owned and operated by Coker College in Hartsville and are open to the public.

Kalmia Gardens’ botanical beauty attracts all kinds of visitors throughout the year.

The Francis Beidler Forest has a nice boardwalk to stretch your legs during a road trip.

Indian Field Methodist Campground just outside of St. George was built in 1848 as the location for a collective religious service.

Indian Field Methodist Campground was built with 99 wooden cabins around the wooden pavilion, where services were held.

The wooden pavilion features a raised platform with seating for a choir and a podium for the minister.

According to the state Department of Archives and History, the campground’s simple construction attracted large crowds during the revivalism movement of the early 1800s.

Visitors to the St. George Visitor and Information Center and Town Museum in the the Klauber Building will find information about Heritage Corridor attractions at their fingertips with the new interactive kiosk.

Visitors to the St. George Town Museum will be introduced to the story of the town’s founding as told through selected artifacts and documents.

Tonya Browder is archivist for the S.C. Genealogical Society and executive director of the Old Edgefield District Genealogical Society. She oversees an extensive collection of research materials and has helped countless people begin their genealogy research.

Old newspapers are an invaluable resource for researching your ancestors.

Colonial Dorchester State Historical Site is operated by the state park service and is favorite location for archaeologists digging into South Carolina’s past.

St. George’s Anglican Church was built in 1720. Only the structure’s bell tower remains.

Walls made of tabby -- a concrete made of oyster shells that some trace back to Western Africa -- provided protection for the settlement.

Headstones near St. George’s church mark the graves of early settlement residents.

Being so close to the Ashley River helped Dorchester prosper from 1697 through the Revolutionary War, after which residents and commerce moved to nearby Summerville.

Richly historical, the former village of Chesterville was incorporated as the town of Chester in 1849 and experienced rapid growth after the Charlotte and South Carolina Railroad arrived two years later.

Chester caught Hollywood’s eye in the early 1980s when it became the filming location for the television miniseries Chiefs.

The Chester County Historical Society has published A Walking Tour of Historical Chester that’s available at City Hall at no charge.

The original Kilburnie home was rescued from dilapidation and decay in 1999 and moved from its site on North White Street in Lancaster to the Craig Farm on the outskirts of town, where it was completely restored.

The house, which now serves as a bed and breakfast inn, was added to the National Register of Historical Places in 1979.

Kensington Mansion in Eastover is an Italianate Revival structure built in 1854 by Matthew Singleton with slave labor.

The Kershaw-Cornwallis House in Camden, built in 1777 but reconstructed in 1977, will be the site of many of the Revolutionary War Field Days activities on Nov. 5-6.

Sweet Catherine’s sassy southern cafe is located at 111 S. Main St. in Fountain Inn.

The 2011 Fall Festival of House and Gardens is Friday, Oct. 21 through Sunday, Oct. 23.

The city of Fountain Inn in Greenville County is undergoing an exciting rebirth. The beautiful Fountain Inn History Center is located at 102 Depot St.

The History Center displays artifacts and an oral history documentary that tell the story of Fountain Inn’s founding and growth.

Journalist Robert Quillen put Fountain Inn on the map with the columns he penned for the Fountain Inn Tribune in the 1920s and ’30s.

Legendary tap dancer Clayton “Peg Leg” Bates might be Fountain Inn most famous native son, having appeared on the Ed Sullivan show about 60 times.

Harold and Josephine Hatcher’s private garden project eventually grew to become a public woodland preserve. The Hatcher Garden and Woodland Preserve is located at 820 John B. White Sr. Blvd. in Spartanburg.

The Woodland Preserve cultivates many varieties of plant life.

This box turtle is one of the many permanent residents of the Hatcher Garden and Woodland Preserve.

Hatcher Garden and Woodland Preserve is a non-profit organization that is sustained by memberships, rentals, plant sales and donations.

Josephine Hatcher’s love of flowers is on display year-round in the garden.

This observation deck offers a beautiful view of the park.

This distinctive arched gate is the only remaining structure of Camden’s Boylan-Haven-Mather Academy, which taught African-American children for nearly 100 years.

In 2005, the Kershaw County Clean Community Commission created this interpretive garden memorial “to resurrect and preserve the memory of this eminent educational institution and its prominent role in the African-American history.”

Boylan-Haven-Mather Academy is at the intersection of Campbell and West Dekalb streets in Camden.

Stephen Swails was a member of the first all-black volunteer company in the Civil War. Affer the war he settled in Kingstree, where he practiced law. He was an officer in the state militia, a newspaper editor and a state senator during Reconstruction.

Shorty Hall bought this Ferris wheel about 15 years ago and assembled it himself on his farm on Old Jackson Highway.

Shorty Hall says he’s told the story of the Ferris wheel many times over the years to folks who spied it while driving down Old Jackson Highway.

The cruise-in during the town of Salem’s Fourth of July party was such a success that folks decided to give the vehicle show an event of its own.

The Diakonia Retreat Center is located in near the tiny town of Salem in foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Diakonia can house up to 150 people in the beautiful eco-friendly lodges that face center’s lake.

During the summer, hundreds of youths affiliated with the Greek Orthodox Church come to Diakonia for recreation and fellowship.

The retreat center comprises 200 acres of fields and hills for contemplation and exploration.

The center is home to goats, chicken, peacocks, guinea fowl, pheasants, donkeys and soon a cow.

Michael’s Restaurant, 301 E. Main St. in Pickens, serves delicious sandwiches and salads, home-cooked meat and three meals and even a quiche of the day.

Barney Barnwell, caught here in a moonshiner pose, founded the Moonshiners Reunion and Mountain Music Festival.

The 19th annual festival will be a weekend of bluegrass, grunge and rock ’n’ roll music and good food and fellowship.

The iron chandelier in the Colonial-style barn was designed and forged by volunteers. The entire barn was built primarily with volunteer labor and supplies.

The authentic meeting house features an inclined walk (not an original colonial feature) to allow access to those who use wheelchairs.

The forge is used by volunteer blacksmiths to create ironworks for the park.

The woodwork and brickwork are on full display throughout the park, which also features these stocks … a photo opportunity waiting to happen.

The beautiful and industrious cedar waxwing is commonly seen at Silver Bluff in the spring, fall and winter. Photo by Bob Stocker/National Audubon Society

Though bashful, the pied-billed grebe is a fairly common sight during the fall, though the numbers will vary. Photo by Terry Thormin/National Audubon Society

This painting of the ruby-crowned kinglet is by John James Audubon, after whom the society is named. The ruby-crowned kinglet is seen in abundance through most of the year at Silver Bluff.

A monument to Tuskegee Airmen of World War II was placed in the old Walterboro Army Airfield, now the Lowcountry Regional Airport, in 1997.

This bust sits atop the memorial that reads in part that the airmen had a “reputation for not losing any aircraft to enemy fighters as they provided fighter coverage for missions over strategic targets in Europe.”

The town of Yemassee celebrates its 18th Shrimp Festival from Sept. 16 to 18.

The Yemassee Revitalization Corp. has been leading the town’s efforts to restore its once-bustling downtown area that surrounds the train station.

The Yemassee Train Station is considered by many residents to be the welcome center for visitors to three counties -- Beaufort, Hampton and Jasper.

Businesses that are neighbors of the train station are hopeful that business will boom during and after the upcoming Shrimp Festival.

MACK is one of the leaders of a cultural revitalization in McCormick County.

McCormick was founded in 1869 and named for Cyrus McCormick, who owned the local gold mine. The town was incorporated in 1882. The town’s motto is “We’re Sitting on a Gold Mine.”

The posted sign in the corner of the Allene Able’s garden west of Saluda on the McCormick Highway reads:

The kiss of the sun for pardon
The song of the birds for mirth
One is nearer to God's heart in the garden
Than anywhere else on earth

Allene Able has been growing roses for nearly 50 years.

Uncle Joe is specialty rose that Allene Able has had success growing.

These climbers are especially hardy.

Louise Estes is favorite among the dozens of varieties Allene Able grows.

Burrows’s Service Station was built in 1937 after U.S. 521 was finished from Georgetown to Manning. It was a combination gasoline station and grocery store.

Burrows’s was renamed Cooper’s Country Store in 1973. The two-story structure had living quarters on the second floor.

The store sells staple goods, fresh meat, clothing, farm and automotive supplies.

The store’s motto: “We serve the needs of the neighborhood.”

This helicopter from the Vietnam War era is on prominent display in the memorial park.

Crosses draped with simulated dog tags are silent sentries in one corner of the park.

The six-acre park was dedicated on Memorial Day 2005.

The memorial to Lake City native Dr. Ron McNair is one of Lake City’s most prized attractions.

Dr. Ron McNair, who died in the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster of Jan. 28, 1986, is entombed between the McNair Memorial and the Lake City Public Library.

Visitors from miles around come to the town of Blackville to collect to cool, clear water that trickles out of the faucets at Healing Springs.

The waters at Healing Springs have mysterious properties, locals say.

Town leaders are hoping that public support will help restore the town’s historical attractions like the once stately Shamrock Hotel.

For more than a century, Branchville’s economy was based on railroad passenger service.

Though destroyed by fire in 1995, the historic depot was restored and is now a museum and restaurant.

Branchville remembers its rich railroad history each September during the Raylrode Daze Festivul.

The town of Branchville boasts a colorful history that dates back to the 1830s, when a railroad line was first laid.

Cheraw boasts a charming downtown area of shops and down-home restaurants. The town’s annual Jazz Festival is named in honor native son Dizzy Gillespie.

Cheraw is well known as the birthplace of jazz great Dizzy Gillespie.

The fence around Dizzy Gillespie park is a musical staff with notes. One section features a peanut in a shell, reminiscent of Gillespie’s famous tune “Salt Peanuts.”

The shape of Gillespie’s distinctive trumpet is on display at the center of the park that bears the great musician’s name.

Trains carrying produce for Main Street merchants pulled into the depot and unloaded wares onto waiting carts.

The carts were wheeled down the street, followed by so many cats that someone once said: “You couldn’t ram another cat into the alley.”

Main Street was officially renamed Ram Cat Alley in the mid 1990s.

H. Cooper Black Recreation Area has three waterfowl ponds used to train retrievers.

H. Cooper Black Recreation Area is a popular destination for horseback riders from all over the Southeast.

Giant fiberglass roosters give passersby something to crow about at Bethune Pottery, located on U.S. 1 just south of the town of Bethune.

Hundreds of clay and concrete ornamental items are on display and for purchase.

Owners Leroy and Joyce Stephens have created virtual armies of decorative figures for lawns.

These concrete plates bear welcoming messages.

This 20-foot fiberglass giraffe is a signal to motorists on U.S. 1 that something unusual is up ahead.

A gorilla much like this was purchased along with an elephant for display in a homeowner’s backyard.

The Oconee Heritage Center in Walhalla is an archive, educational facility and museum for Oconee County history.

This photocopy of the Oct. 8, 1944, issue of the high school newspaper, The Echo, includes descriptions of what senior students did during their summer vacations. Several worked at local business, some helped on the family farm or worked in area mills, one student worked on a fire tower in Idaho and another “was an efficient saleslady.”

These birdhouses were built by bluegrass icon Bill Lowe and are sold at the center. The center carries many products made by area artisans and musicians. Lowe and his group, The Heritage String Band, perform at the center on the second Saturday of the month.

Hitchcock Woods is about 2,000 acres of forest in the middle of Aiken.

The Houghton’s have invested lots of TLC into their wildlife habitat.

This metal sculpture of a raven sits near the center of the Houghton’s front yard.

These feeders have been set out for Houghton’s woodland friends.

David and Holly Houghton’s home near South Boundary entrance to the Hitchcock Woods is a certified wildlife habitat.

The beautiful grounds at the Cooper House have been the site of many weddings and receptions.

The renovated and restored early 20th century home exudes rustic charm.

In addition to parties, receptions and weddings, the Event Center stages dinner theater once a month.

Rita Gray, formerly of Austin, Texas, is the proprietor of the Cooper House Event Center.

The Prosperity Depot is the last remaining train depot in Newberry County.

The citizens of Prosperity have rallied around the preservation of the depot as part of the town’s revitalization efforts.

Though currently located near the town square on property owned by Norfolk Southern Railroad, the depot might be relocated to a site owned by the town.

This painstakingly restored service station has become a big attraction for visitors with an interest in vintage automobiles and popular culture.

Restoring and enhancing the station has been a nine-year project and the work continues.

Rich and Cindy Kuhnel bought the station and the house next to it in 2002 and immediately began working on stripping old pain and varnish, replacing old wood and hanging signs that would have been common in service stations in the 1950s and 1960s.

The Kuhnels have been collecting memorabilia for years, some of which is on display in the filling station.

On the first Friday of the month, classic car owners gather at Nostalgic Filling Station for talk, bottled soft drinks served from an old-time cooler and tunes from 1950s and 1960s.

This hunting and conservation organization is headquartered in Edgefield and boasts 2,000 local chapters across the United States, Canada and most recently Mexico.

Visitors to the Wild Turkey Center’s Winchester Museum would be surprised how much else is going on behind the scenes.

This critter greets visitors at the entrance to Brick Pond Park on Center Avenue in North Augusta.

This waterfall near the East Pond circulates and oxygenates storm water.

The water features in Brick Pond Park are homes to a wide variety of aquatic plants.

This duck waits peacefully on the banks of the West Pond.

Following the trails in Brick Pond Park is splendid way of taking in the scenic beauty.

This historic marker greets visitors at the entrance to Freewoods.

Produce grown at Freewoods Farm is sold out of this structure. A tree was planted into front of market in memory of one of the original area farmers.

Retired Law School Professor O’Neal Smalls works the land at Freewoods Farm as he did when he was a boy.

The farmhouse at Freewoods, like many of the structures on the site, is an authentic replica of buildings found on farms from the post-Civil War era.

Freewoods Farm uses two mules to plow the fields and run the cane mill.

The farmhouse at Freewoods is used for small group meetings and fireside chats where the stories of the original farmers (some of whose photographs hang on the farmhouse walls) are retold.

Lisa, a young loggerhead turtle, was rescued by workers from the S.C. Department of Natural Resources on June 6, having lost the protective outer layer of flipper skin.

Lady Lisa was healed at the S.C. Aquarium's Sea Turtle Hospital and returned to the sea July 12.

Workers help Lisa ease her way back into the ocean after being healed at the Sea Turtle Hospital.

The crowd cheers as Lisa makes way to the ocean.

Three rescued and rehabilitated sea turtles are released into open waters from Beachwalker County Park on Kiawah Island on Tuesday.

About 200 onlookers lined up along a corridor that led to the surf to watch the turtles return to the ocean.

The first of the three rescued turtles, the loggerhead Grice, is introduced to the crowd before heading for the familiar waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

Twice an hour, the Socastee Swing Bridge that stretches across the Intracoastal Waterway opens to water traffic.

About 40 watercraft pass through the opening each day.

The bridge was built in 1935 and substantially renovated in 2003.

This fountain at the entrance to the gardens commemorates those to lost to war.

The gardens are publicly owned and maintained and open to visitors year-round.

Even in late June, Edisto Memorial Gardens are filled with color.

Denmark, S.C., played a pivotal role in early long-distance telecommunications.

This is the entrance to one of the largest collections of antiques in the Southeast.

Vintage furnishings and ornaments are on every floor of the building and in four adjacent buildings, as well.

Kennedy envisions the Arthur Rose Museum as the catalyst to ignite interest in the visual arts in Orangeburg.

This Native American saying summarizes much of the philosophy of Springbank Retreat.

Many Indians believe the Creator gave lodges to people as a way to directly talk to the Creator.

Some believe that studying medicine wheels lends insight into the nature of the universe.

One of many stone statues at Springbank Retreat.

Visitors are invited to carry wind chimes with the as they walk through the cemetery where African American slaves were buried.

This live oak is believed to be between 800 and 1,100 years old.

This is one of the few marked graves at Springbank Retreat.

This is one of the markers along the trail that recounts the creation of the universe and the Earth from the beginning to the present.

This year’s festival will include special programs to honor the teachers of Hampton County.

The Guardian newspaper was founded in 1879, 60 years before the first Watermelon Festival, but both are proud Hampton County traditions.

Storefronts in Hampton’s historic downtown district will be greeting visitors as they arrive for the festival.

This colorful corner tribute to watermelons is inside Julienn’s Espresso Cafe on Lee Avenue.

The famous boutique product can be bought for a buck and change at convenience stores and gourmet shops all over the country.

The company’s famous eagle emblem and earlier promise of “pure spring water” is still on display on delivery trucks.

The new plant was built at South of the Border shortly after Alan Schafer bought the company in the early 1990s.

This marker at the corner of Main Street and Railroad Avenue just outside the train depot tells the story of the founding of the town.

Very near the train depot on North MacArthur Avenue is the Dillon County Theatre. Built in 1919 and renovated in 1935, the theater is one of the few remaining examples of Spanish Colonial architecture in the state.

This beautifully restored one-room school house was moved to a location near the Dillon County Museum from a farm outside of town.

This general store was operated by Robert Bethea, a black merchant who was appointed postmaster by President Grover Cleveland. The office was housed in the store.

Keith Fields, left, and Dave Horne breathe life into the stories about Brattonsville Plantation

Interpreters like blacksmith Robert McLeod actually do the work of previous Brattonsville residents

A visit to Historic Brattonsville is a great way to see history up close.

Workers at Historic Brattonsville look and act like they're living in 18th Century South Carolina.

Brattonsville highlights buildings and artifacts from the late 1700s and 1800s.

This small Calhoun County destination lives up to its billing as a “pretty little town.”

The facade of Resurrection Lutheran Church bears the date 1916, which is nearly as old as the town itself.

Dan Daniels, 71, is a lively denizen of Lone Star, a town that isn’t nearly as “dead” as some folks believe.

Daniels’ stuffed bear greets visitors to the Low Falls bait shop

Daniels has received his share of press coverage for his artistry.

In addition to his array of stuffed critters, Daniels also carries fishing supplies for those heading down to Lake Marion

The fishing supplies battle for shelf space with Daniels stuffed creations.

Visitors to Lone Star might see ghostly signs around abandoned warehouses but there’s more to the town than meets the eye.

A historical marker erected in 2008 lets the world know that Lone Star community has put on a party to celebrate the end of planting season since 1915.

The Good Hope Picnic, held on the second Friday of August, seems to ring out with optimism.

The Rock Hill Oratory was founded in 1934, the first center of its kind in the United States. York County residents say the Oratorians have given much to the community since then.

A dozen or so members of the Friends of the Oratory pitch in to remove a tree that had been split by a storm earlier in the week. The priests and brothers who live and work at the Oratory rely on the support of friends all over York County to manage and maintain their property.

The Oratorians say the Labyrinth Prayer Garden is open to members of all faiths and to anyone seeking a place for quiet reflection.

Etched marble in the brick gateway marks the entrance to the old rice plantation that dates back to the early 1700s.

Built in the 1730s, the Comingtee Plantation House was a two-story brick structure with two large rooms on the first floor, three rooms on the second and a large basement.

The Department of Natural Resources prohibits trespassing onto the property and urges visitors not to take away bricks or in any other way disturb the structure.

The structure holds endless fascination for historians, history buffs and all of those interested in the stories that are contained in unexpected places.

Built in the early 1800s, the Stoke Rice Mill is on the banks of the west branch of the Cooper River and was orginially water powered.

The Forty Acre Rock hiking trail is a mile and a half through thick forests of cedar and hardwood trees, along flat creek and around a beaver pond.

Travelers leaving Forty Acre Rock along S.C. 601 who pass through the town of Kershaw will be greeted by this mural, created by area students who participate in a summer program to renovate or beautify structures in the town. Youth Serve is affiliated with Kershaw Area Resource Exchange (K.A.R.E.), a community outreach program that’s affiliated with Kershaw area churches. A new mural will be created this summer.