Carolina Coal Demon

 Death in the Dark 

The Story of the Deep River Coal Demon

Deep under the North Carolina ground is a black vein of dirty decay. The Deep River coal field is an area of Triassic rocks stretching 36 miles along the river in Chatham, Lee, and Moore Counties. In the age of dinosaurs there was a vast swamp along an ancient river. As swamps tend to do, decaying plant matter formed layers of peat in the humid dense environment. Over huge amounts of time shifts in plates and other events changed the landscape and large amounts of sediment flowed down and gathered in the area. The pressure of the massive layers of sediment created the perfect situation to turn the peat into coal. For 200 years people have attempted to dig this coal out of the ground. Deep River is NC’s only commercial coal bed. 

The coal industry has always been extremely dangerous and historically, many tragedies have been associated with mines. Over time, the abundance of illness, death, and mishap creates a need for explanation in the human mind. As we often do, people created legends to place blame somewhere that would give them the opportunity to feel like they could continue working by creating superstitious ways to protect themselves. It was a way to rationalize a terrible industrial human rights travesty without placing blame on the industrialists.

 In NC's coal mines, the scapegoat came in the form of a demon. The Deep River coal field is cursed by this disturbed demon, and many have lost their lives in his clutches. 

The demon has guarded his coal through each attempt to plunder it. No one has been profitable off of the mine due to the disastrous explosions, cave ins, and flood outs. The Old Egypt mine and the Carolina mine should have been successful, they supplied coal to the railroad and the Confederate Army during the Civil War. But unfortunately the complex geology of the region made mining difficult. There was ground water and there were intrusions and veins of softer minerals that caused unexpected weakness in the tunnels. The coal itself seemed to be cursed and stories came back from the battlefields of the dreaded Deep River coal that burned yellow giving away their location to the Union soldiers. Sales to the military stopped and money owed was not paid due to the loss of life. The mines closed for almost two decades. 

A company with a new plan opened the mine to great success. The mine employed upwards of 80 miners who earned what was considered a good wage, drawing miners from the north.  A few specialized men worked as blasters, places and igniting the TNT to break loose the coal. Most of the men worked as loaders. They shoveled the freed coal into carts, which were then carried away by mule.

The first disaster struck on a winter morning. At 8:30 a.m. on  December 19, 1895 an explosion ripped through the Egypt Mine. Forty-six of the sixty-seven men in the mine at the time perished.  The cause was believed to be natural gas ignited by a flame in a miners helmet.  

The company struggled to keep going but in May of 1900 another gas explosion killed twenty-two miners. It really was too much for the already limping company.  In two years, the Egypt coal mine was closed again.

The Carolina Coal Company was formed in 1921 with the intention of developing a mine across the river from the Egypt Mine. In its first year of full-scale operation it more than doubled the best of the Old Egypt Mine's output. Again things were looking up for the Deep River Coal Bed.  But once again the profits failed to materialize.  

In the spring of 1925 at seven in the morning seventy-four miners went down into the dark of the Carolina Mine.  Fifty-three of those men did not leave the mine alive.

   

The Carolina Mine closed a few years later when the mine began to flood through an air shaft.  The water was pumped, but they made no precautions against future flooding.  So it happened again and after the mine flooded again in 1930 it was closed.

During the post WWII boom era the mines were reopened as tourist attractions but the stories of tragedy attracted night time trespassers and the mines went into disrepair with miss use and were later closed completely. The coal still sits under the earth. Tempting modern fortune seekers to risk it all and tempt their fate with the Carolina coal demon.

The Fort Fisher Hermit

Robert E. Harrill

(February 2, 1893 – June 4, 1972)

The Fort Fisher Hermit

At the age of 62 Robert Harrill hitchhiked his way to the end of the earth. If you start driving east in the foothills of North Carolina and don't stop till you run out of land you might end up there too. Fort Fisher is the tip of a peninsula called Federal Point, just before you get to the islands that make up the Cape Fear. Growing up on the coast, I heard stories about the Fort Fisher Hermit my entire life. I think the very earliest I remember learning the story was the early 1980's, I was four or five. My twin sister and I were sitting on a beach blanket in the back of our family's Carolina blue WWII Jeep.

We were holding on as we bounced along the east beach on Bald Head Island. We often went out to 'the point' where the east facing and south facing beaches come together and form the cape. This was the first trip I can recall when we headed north up the beach past Middle Island and into the 12,000 acre preserve. We went all the way to the New Inlet, which by then was not so much an inlet as a flat where the ocean reached across the sand at high tide and spilled into the marshy bay behind it. It was high tide by the time we had our picnic lunch and so going the rest of the way up the beach to Fort Fisher was not an option. Story telling was. Dad told the tale of an old hermit who had lived just up the beach from where we were. People from all over drove out on the beach from Fort Fisher to sit with him, hoping to gain wisdom from his lifestyle. The ride up the beach seemed endless and there was nothing out there but sand dunes, marsh, wind stunted junipers, and palm trees. I imagined the hermit, as a man on a deserted isle.

That is probably how popular culture has imagined him as well. The truth is, he was a troubled homeless man who opted out of the pressures of modern American society.  Harrill was raised in an abusive home, they were poor, with no electricity or indoor plumbing. He spent a lot of his childhood playing in the woods to escape the traumatic home life. In 1913 he got married and the couple had five children. It wasn't a happy home. The eldest son tragically took his own life and Harrill's mental health deteriorated. He was unable to hold a job and support his family. His marriage was failing. His wife knew he would no longer be a caregiver for their family. During the Great Depression the marriage ended and Harrill was institutionalized. In 1955 he took his fateful hitchhike ride.

Life in and out of mental facilities, jail, and, halfway houses was terrible and Harrill decided it was only making his condition worse. Life would be better by the beach. Several hundred miles later he saw the ocean. He walked from Carolina Beach down to the Confederate Fort where he camped for a while in a tent. He was considered a community nuisance, as he was collecting things off the beach and living on land he did not own. He was charged with vagrancy and trespassing but upon release went right back to life by the beach. He met another hermit who lived in the area. Empie Hewett, had lived most of his life in the marshland around Fort Fisher and taught Harrill many necessary life skills. Harrill adapted to his life by the beach with much more success than he had life in the 'real world'. He moved into a concrete bunker that had been built during WWII. He furnished it with driftwood and seashells and anything else that washed up on the nearby beach. He didn't suffer from lack of food. He planted veggies and gathered berries and nuts. He ate an abundance of seafood, crabs, shellfish, flounder, and all sorts of surf fish. He made a hat from palm frons and wore nothing but it and a pair of shorts most of the year. Because Fort Fisher is home to a military recreational facility, people came from all over the country.

They spread the word of the philosophical beach bum far and wide. Eventually, Harrill became one of the most popular tourist destinations on the coast. Beatniks, hippies, and square but curious suburbanites made pilgrimage to his sandy home. Locals partied with him around the bon fire each night. He was rarely alone. People left money in an old cast iron pan outside his home. They also brought him supplies, warm clothes in winter, and booze. Stray dogs had a way of finding him and settling down. Life by the beach was better.

In 1972 a group of college age boys went down to visit the hermit and found his body. The crime scene photographs tell a different story than the police official report. Hindsight is 20/20, but there was an obvious cover up. His death was ruled natural and his family was notified that he died of a heart attack, only learning the truth sometime in the next decade. His body had been found battered and covered in marsh mud and sand, dragged from the marsh up into his bunker, tossed on a pile of trash and then closed in with some boards. The truth shocked the community. Demands for an investigation led to release of the crime scene images and public interest reignited. Books have been written, movies, documentaries, and plays have all been produced. Fort Fisher State park and recreational area has added a well maintained trail out to the bunker, which now has a plaque, commemorating the famous man that lived there for 17 years.

Tourists from all over can still visit his home and his gravesite, where people continue to leave coins in a cast iron pan. He is buried in the historic Federal Point Cemetery, in the Dow Road Woods, just north of Fort Fisher. (Click HERE to read about the cemetery and what's hiding in those woods.)  Watch the movie below for a great look at the life and death of the Hermit of Fort Fisher. Warning: Movie contains crime scene photos, including his body.

Go Inside this Coastal South Carolina Castle

Atalaya

Huntington Beach State Park is my favorite place to camp and my favorite place to blog about! If you read my first post, you went down the rabbit hole of history with me and met the colorful cast of characters that add layers to the history of this Carolina castle. This post is meant to give you a closer look inside the beautiful castle. I searched YouTube to find the best tour to share with you because I know my pictures don't do it justice. 

This is the best video I have found of the Castle. Check it out!

My first encounter with the castle was just before dark. It was not open, so I walked around the exterior taking pictures and imagining the life of the couple who built this as their winter home. I could hear an owl in the woods. 

This is the 'front' of the home, facing out towards the ocean. The rooms on the front from left to right are; the Huntington's bedroom, the secretary's room, the library, the sunroom, the breakfast room, the dining room, a food service room, and the staff's living room. Sitting on that patio I could hear the ocean waves.

This side of the home had storage and utility rooms on the outside and staff rooms on the inside. Each staff room has a fireplace and a window looking out to the courtyard. The parts of the structure on the right side of this picture are the laundry and cold storage. 

This is in the outer courtyard at the entrance. To the left were garages and an oyster shucking room and to the right animal enclosures for the dogs, horses, and bears. Click here to read my DETAILED blog about Huntington State Park.

My mom standing with one of many giant palm trees in the inner courtyard. The water tower for which the castle is named is in the background. An extreme animal lover, Mrs. Huntington had 'bat holes' installed so the bats could roost inside the tower.

Ivy growing on a wall in the courtyard.

 Mrs. Huntington designed the signature turquoise wrought iron.

Inside the brick is exposed and cracked in places from years of settling.

Most of the windows no longer have glass in them.

I saw a bat snuggled up taking a snooze in the secretary's closet.

Make a reservation today to camp in beautiful South Carolina paradise beside the Atlantic Ocean, and check out this Castle for yourself. If you want to know more about the Huntington's check out my blog post.

Night Kayaking, Fireworks, and Margaritas

Minutes from the Grand Strand Awaits a Slower Pace

Hog Inlet

Little River, SC

Get away from the hustle and bustle of South Carolina's Grand Strand and enjoy the history and natural beauty of Little River. There is an abundance of serene places to stop and take in the coastal southern charm. The town is just north of Myrtle Beach at the North Carolina border. If you are coming from the beaches of NC it's just a quick drive south on Highway 17. 

From their Facebook Page

The first thing you see as you enter SC from the north is the Stateline Fireworks store. As a college student in Wilmington driving to Myrtle Beach to party on the weekends, the fireworks stand was the first reminder that we were entering the otherworldly beach destination known as the Grand Strand. Tacky tourist attraction overload, mega mini golf mecca, planted palm trees, high-rise lined beaches, and amusement parks for miles and miles. The first 'town' you come to as soon as you enter SC is Little River. Back in college, I didn't know it even had a waterfront, or anything other than fireworks, a place to stop and get cheap gas and lotto tickets, and then quickly go over the bridge to other places on the other side of the Intercoastal Waterway, (ICW). In NC decades ago, both fireworks and the lottery were illegal, and gas still today is taxed several cents higher than its neighbor to the south.

A Tiny Waterfront Town

Little River Waterfront

A few years ago my friend Randy moved to Little River to enjoy his retirement. At the time I was doing a lot of traveling. Most of it by myself, camping or visiting friends. It was a difficult time in my personal life and I enjoyed solitude in nature, it was cheaper than therapy and healthier than drinking. I visited my friend in Little River. He lives in a neighborhood just off 17 before the bridges over the waterway. The neighborhood had once been a massive golf course. Multiple courses actually. Only one remains and at the time of my first visit the others had long since turned into woods just behind the homes. Throughout the bramble of cedar, palmetto, and pines were giant live oaks and beautiful blooming dogwoods that the original golf course developers had saved from the old growth forest that was there before it was ever touched by bulldozers. In the woods were still paved paths, canals, waterholes, and berms from the golf course. It was a beautiful place to explore. (It has since been redeveloped.) 

Oak trees & Big M

I decided to go to the waterfront. It is tiny. A sandy grouping of seafood restaurants on a bluff above the Little River, (now part of the ICW). There are more giant old oak trees full of Spanish moss and ferns. There's a huge parking lot. In the water there are fishing boats docked and a big cruise boat that takes tourists out onto the ocean to gamble. The Big M casino is the obvious economic driver for the waterfront. I went at a time when there was no gambling cruise scheduled and the parking lot was empty, the restaurants were mostly closed but Key West Crazy's was open. I sat on the deck. They had roll up plastic walls and heaters so it was usable all year long. I had margaritas and coconut shrimp. The waterfront is beautiful. It feels a million miles away from the chaos I was used to in Myrtle Beach.

The Native People

Artifacts in the Horry County Museum

Of course there is a history to Little River as complex as any small southern town. There was an entire civilization pushed out and killed off. There is archeological evidence that the Waccamaw and Pee Dee Indians and their ancient ancestors used the Little River's inlet as fishing grounds, camping on the nearby islands during the season when the fish were plentiful and shellfish were fat. For thousands of years these people flourished. As I've written about in previous posts, they were eventually forced to take to the dense swamps away from the coast to escape violence and illness brought by invaders from across the ocean.

The European Invasion

King's Highway

Little River is one of the oldest European settlements along the South Carolina coast. Though records are sparse, artifacts and oral histories conclude that subsistence farmers and fishermen came to the area and stayed as early as the 1600's. There was a difficult swampy forest between the Carolina coastal settlements in those days. In the area Conway was the larger 'Old Town' further inland and Little River was considered the 'New Town'. To the south was Georgetown and then Charleston, with vast stretches of wetlands and wilderness between them.

The King's Highway

Highway 17 is called King's Highway for good reason, the original King's Highway still follows almost its exact route through SC. Between the mid 1600's and the 1730's the English constructed the road meant to connect the important colonies of Boston and Charleston.

A Colony Divided

The Carolina Colony was divided into North Carolina and South Carolina in 1712, though the border was a matter of disagreement politically. In 1730 an agreement was reached that put the border 30 miles to the south of Cape Fear running parallel with the river. This arrangement wouldn't last and surveyors were brought in by the north colony and the southern one and the border was drawn and redrawn over and over for the next hundred years. 

The Land Grants

Imagine the Crown as Oprah, if you will: "You get some land, and you get some land, and you, and you, and you!"

England was giving out Lord Proprietor land grants and the area that is now Horry County went to several planters, notably the Withers family, and James Minor. Waties Island is named for William Waties, the father, the son, or the grandfather, no one knows for sure, all three were surveyors. Some records show that a William Waties owned 1,150 acres in the Little River area in 1733. This acreage could have been obtained by a Lord Proprietor's grant in 1670, that was given originally to James Minor, but as the surveyors of a vast land grant the Waties may have been paid in acreage. At any rate by the mid 1700's the existence of records didn't matter, King George gave land grants to several more people, hoping for better success in settlement. After all, these land grants were given with the intention of creating additional revenue streams for the crown. A King's grant gave some of the area land to William Allston, though the island remained named Waties. (You may recognize the name Allston from previous posts, the family of politically and militarily successful rice planters who acquired vast amounts of SC land.) The land to the south was granted to William Gause, who built an Inn at Windy Hill, now North Myrtle Beach. The Wither's family held on to their land, Wither's Swash, for generations, (a swash is a creek that runs from the ocean). The Vereen's, a family of French Huguenots, who came to the colonies in 1680, had the land near Singleton Swash. The Vereen original home site is believed to be located about 2 miles north of Singleton Swash.

The Southern Tour

George Washington Visits

George Washington traveled down the King's Highway on his Southern Tour in 1791. He is said to have stayed the night in Windy Hill, had lunch in Little River, and then was guided through the wilderness area to Georgetown by Jeremiah Vereen, a indigo and rice planter, and hero of the revolution.

The Randall-Vereen House

Historic Registry 

After the War of 1812, yankee Thomas Randall built a large home overlooking the harbor in Little River. It became part of the Vareen family's plantation as they bought up more and more of the land in the area. The home stood until it burned in 2014. It was known as one of SC's oldest homes. Its charred remains sat eerily for some time, like a tombstone to the home's long history.

The War of Northern Aggression

 A Confederate battery was built at the point just behind the barrier island where Sheephead creek comes out of Dunn Sound into the area where the Little River empties into the Atlantic ocean. It defended the entrance to Little River Harbor and was called Fort Randall before being captured by Yankees in 1863.

Path through pines at Vereen Gardens

The Vereen Gift

Jackson Vereen was born in Little River in 1882, close to the end of his long life he deeded some of the family's land to the Horry County Historical Society in 1972. Today 115 acres is preserved as Vereen Memorial Historical Gardens, known for it's natural beauty and historical significance. On highway 17 south just past the fireworks store on the left. At the Vereen property there is still a section of the original highway.  At the gardens there is also a Vereen family cemetery with graves as far back as the American Revolution. 

The Island 

The coastal land known as Waties Island actually consisted of a barrier island, and behind that a marshy flat with a small sound, two tidal creeks, and a larger inland section sandwiched between the marsh and the Little River (now part of the ICW). This land changed hands often as it was not considered useful for farming or lumber, and was difficult to access. In the 1920's as a new interest in and romanization of southern plantations brought wealthy industrialist heirs to the region, Horace Tilghman bought the land. At Tilghman Point there are still the remains of the Confederate battery 

Erosion on Waties

The Tilghman Gift

Horace Tilghman's heirs, the Boyce family still own 400 acres of the the land. Tilghman's granddaughter Anne gave the Coastal Educational Foundation of Coastal Carolina University 1/3 of the island to be preserved for use as a natural laboratory. One of the heirs sold their portion to a real estate holding company from Virginia with no plans to develop their property. The handful of private owners agree on preservation but continue to disagree on the means of preservation, some want State Park status while others want it to remain protected as an untouched natural area.

From their website

Historic Horse Ride 

Currently the area of land known as, the Little River Neck area, is home to Inlet Point Plantation, a sprawling horse farm that offers rides on trails through the inland property as well as over the small causeway and onto Waties Island's beaches. If you aren't an environmental scientist or student with Coastal Carolina, or a Tilghman heir, the horse ride is your only option to access the untouched beach by land. Of course, there's always the water. That's how I arrived on Waties Island's beach.

Cherry Grove Public Boat Landing

 My Kayak Adventure

I googled kayak rentals in the area and the one that interested me offered several guided tours and even one called the Sunset and Lantern Tour. I quickly gave J and L Kayaking a call and made my reservation for that evening. It was winter but the weather was amazing. I drove over the bridge toward Cherry Grove Beach. Cherry Grove is a beach that was developed during the post WWII boom of the '50's and '60's and consists of beach front homes and rows and rows of homes on manmade channels. My mom vacationed there as a child. I drove towards the north west side of the island and met the guide and other kayakers around 3pm at the Cherry Grove Boat Landing.

Waties Island from the creek

We paddled slowly down House Creek towards Hog Inlet. It was perfect weather and the water was smooth. It was actually one of the most enjoyable kayak trips I've ever taken. A high pressure system had pushed away any clouds that morning and the bright sun was warm with a light breeze occasionally. As we passed through the homes of Cherry Grove we were greeted by a paddle boarder with a dog who was dancing and jamming out to music as he paddled downstream. Because there were two families with us and unexperienced kayakers, I was able to paddle around quite a bit by myself while they slowly made their way down the creek. It was immensely relaxing. The island has suffered erosion at both inlets due to dredging and the heirs even sued at one point for lose of property. The stand of tall trees you see in these pictures is slowly eroding into the water.

My Sand Dollar

We beached our kayaks just before the inlet at Hog Point. We had time to walk the beach before sunset and enjoy the solitude. I found a sand dollar almost immediately. The beach was huge, and serene. There were no footprints. No tracks from lifeguard vehicles or tourists dragging their stuff through the sand. I did see evidence that a couple had recently come through on horse back, at the low tide line was a pair of tracks disappearing and reappearing in the gentle waves.

Dusk on Waties Island

We enjoyed the beach until dusk when the guide called us back to the inlet. Sunset was coming. From Hog Point we would be able to see the sunset over Cherry Grove. A mist started to roll in off the ocean, it was beautiful. As the sun began to set a flock of birds flew across the inlet. The guide was handing out the lanterns, they're inflated waterproof glowing cylinders. As the sun dropped below the horizon we launched our kayaks back into the creek. 

Night Kayaking

Sunset, Hog's Inlet, & Cherry Grove

 I launched first and paddled out away from the families as they slowly got in their kayaks and were pushed out into the water by the guide. I absorbed the feeling of the air. The light moisture coming in off the Atlantic, the salt smell, the lapping of the water under me, the moments just after the sun has set when the sky is still full of a complex range of colors, I took deep breaths and soaked it all in. The lantern that J and L provided was the perfect amount of light for people to see the kayakers but still not obstruct night vision. I had never kayaked at night before. I had always wanted to and I had paddled out during sunset, but never far enough to be paddling home in the dark. It was so peaceful. 

There were bird sounds, and there were bug sounds, and there were frog sounds, and the sound of the paddles in the water, but there were no other sounds, until we were paddling through the large homes of Cherry Grove where there were sounds of laughter and music. It was obvious that it was the down season, as only a handful of homes looked occupied, most were dark, silently awaiting the return of warmer weather and weekly renters. 

I highly recommend the J and L Kayak experience, if you are in the area and want to get back in touch with nature, its a great escape. 

We are lucky that the families who inherited these properties believed in preservation. Driving away through the tightly packed homes of Cherry Grove I thought about the beautiful high marsh behind Waties and realized that is what this island looked like before it was cut up with channels and developed. Little River is a perfect place to take in nature or history and get away from the hustle and bustle. It is much more than a fireworks stand.

Are They Extraterrestrial Impact Zones, Ancient Ocean Currents, or Massive Prehistoric Alligator Holes?

Examining the Mysterious Carolina Bays

Fact or Fiction? Uncovering the origin stories of these geological anomalies.

Though they may go by different names up north, Carolina Bays dot the map in the east from New York to north Florida. They are shallow elliptical depressions in the earth, often wetlands, marshes, swamps, or lakes, named for the Bay trees that are found along their rims. North Carolina has many of these depressions and the largest forms the oldest, and biggest fresh water lake in the state, Lake Waccamaw. The origin of the Carolina Bays has long been a mystery.

Dinosaur Era Fish Spawning?

One hundred million years ago there was an ocean covering the coastal plain of the Carolinas. The Late Cretaceous period was a time of a tremendous amount of biodiversity. There were still dinosaurs, but the time of mammals had arrived. The ocean had abundant life too. Schools of fish on the scale of whales could move ocean currents with their passing. In the relatively shallow ocean above the coastal plain of the land mass that would become North America these massive schools of huge fish would swim together and procreate in a swirling sediment disturbing frenzy, circling around until they'd formed a large pond in the sandy ocean floor, where they could safely spawn. As sea levels changed the spawning grounds became inaccessible. The water receded leaving shallow, elliptical depressions behind. 

Safe Harbor for Ancient Ancestors of the Alligator? 

The sea level changes happened over time as plate tectonics gradually moved the land mass westward. Ocean life had time to adapt to these environmental changes, what happened next they did not have time to adapt to. Sixty-six million years ago, the end of the Late Cretaceous, was a terrifying time to be on earth. A massive disastrous event changed the oceans and atmosphere. Asteroid impact or volcano or both, the earth moved, tons of soot, ash, and sediment clouded the air and acidified the water. The temperature rose as the sun's heat could not escape through the cloud layer. Death and decay were everywhere. The low lying areas where there was still fresh water became vital to the life that was left. 75% of life on earth died and rotted. The only large four legged creatures to survive were ancient sea turtles and crocodillians, who kept their ectothermic bodies cool in the mud. The only dinosaurs to survive were the avian dinosaurs who could fly in search of food or water. 

Life in the Paleocene, sixty-five million years ago, was tough, but there was life. Temperatures regulated and acidity levels began to clear. Plants and animals adapted and evolved in new ways. The massive crocodillian ancestors of our american alligators survived the hard times down in the mud and they developed a unique technique to increase their availability of fresh water. They wallowed. Not just any rolling around in the mud, strategic circling to push the mud out around them, creating a small pool. These massive creatures would wallow out a space in the mud until they had their own pond. During the hundreds of years of their lives they would continue to push mud around in the bottom of their hole. Massive amounts of time pass. As the Paleocene came to an end another time of upheaval as the plate moved in a much faster way than it had before and volcanic events again raised the carbon levels in the atmosphere and raised the temperatures. Animals had to adapt again and many new species developed in the warm jungles of the Paleocene-Eocene, including primates. The earth's land was covered in plant life, the ocean had vast reefs and forests of algae. 

 More huge amounts of time passed. The abundance of plant life worked to clean the atmosphere. During the Eocene the levels of carbon in the atmosphere cleared. The earth eventually began to cool again and ice formed at the poles. Sea levels dropped and land bridges allowed the new species to travel. The first ancestors of humans evolved. Things were looking up. The cold and the low sea wasn't for everyone and there were extinctions, just not on the scale of some of the previous catastrophes. During the Oligocene the tropical forests receded to the equatorial regions and grasslands spread around the globe where there was not ice. The earth went through a series of warming and cooling. As plate shifts continued, volcanic events would increase carbon levels and temperatures would increase, as temperatures increased the plant life increased, cleaning the air and allowing for cooler temperatures. In an extended absence of any carbon increasing events, the earth cooled enough to create a series of ice ages. 

Relict Thermokarst Lakes (Glacier puddles)

Two million years ago the earth had cooled to the point of freezing. The Last Ice Age propelled a mass migration. Glaciers covered most of the northern land mass. The climate changes again increased the rate of evolution in some animal classes. Many mammals adapted with thick fur and some form of hibernation during the coldest months. The massive glacial ice sheet spread further from the poles, covering a great deal of the earth in ice. Then tens of thousands of years ago, the ice spread suddenly stopped. 

The climate began to warm again. Animals that had adapted to the cold moved further and further north, some became extinct. Equatorial animals began to spread into newly warmer regions. 

The end of the last Ice Age ushered in the Holocene, which is the geological time we are still currently experiencing.

As the ice melted left over glaciers created lakes. Depositing whatever sediment had frozen in the initial ice or had been carried along with glacial movement. Shallow elliptical ponds and lakes could be glacial remnants.  

Extraterrestrial Impact Zones

The People of the Falling Star

Ten thousand years ago people settled into a routine in the lush region that is now southeastern North Carolina. The Ice Age was over and food was no longer scarce. The people didn't have to follow herds of large animals. Instead they hunted smaller animals, gathered fruits and nuts in season, and fished on the coast. The rivers were their routes from the lush interior to the coast and this is often where they settled. The ancestors of the Waccamaw people were building a settlement in the interior along a river amongst a forest as old as time. They learned how to grow their own food. The soil in the forest was rich but there was not enough sun and too many trees and the people began to cultivate the land, taking down the trees and planting crops. They believed they had created a beautiful garden. One night as they slept in their village next to their garden, the sky lit up with a crack louder than any thunder they'd ever heard. A bright streak ran across the sky and then... Boom! Everything went silent. Then muffled screams and moans, and then men shouting, and the sound of rubble moving. Flicker of flames and choking smoke. Through the night they worked to uncover those buried and trapped and heal the hurt. At first light the scope of things came into better focus. There was dirt everywhere. Their garden, meant to feed the whole village was gone. Nothing was left but a smoldering hole. It began to rain. Mud covered everything. Water began to fill the hole. The women and children huddled together under the shelter of the trees at the edge of the village as the men worked in the rain and mud. A silver haired old woman with no teeth and a face of wrinkles came out of the woods. She had animal skins to cover the children, and a snack of blackberries and walnuts. She told them she had seen the whole thing from her spot up river. "A star fell from the sky and landed right in the middle of that enormous garden." She turned to the children and shook a crooked old finger, "you know this is because, the people forgot to be thankful. They were overlooking the gifts and abundance and destroying what is free to create a life of labor for themselves. The Creator was not happy." It would not be the last time the natural resources were abused by humans.

Who cares how it got here, lets make money!

In the mid 1600's the English King gave the Waccamaw land to a Lord as part of a large land grant, he then divided it among his heirs and others who wanted to colonize their piece of the ‘new world’. As the European invaders began settlement, the Waccamaw people retreated further into the swamps. The story historians tell involves the son of a cattle farmer from the Virginia colony who settled his grant in the 1700's and began buying up the area after the revolution. His family continued to be large landholders in the area for several generations. They were uninterested in how the lake had formed, only motivated by it's usefulness to their mercantile aspirations. For two hundred years the land was used for lumber and turpentine production. The lumber yards produced shingles from the giant cypress trees of the swamp surrounding the lake. The industry brought the railroad to the area. A depot was built in 1900. In 1926 a dam was built to prevent the lake water levels from dropping during dry weather. It was ceremoniously declared a State lake in 1929, as government interest in preserving natural resources began to increase. A YMCA boys camp was created on the banks of the lake.

A bird's eye view

With airplanes came areal photography and a renewed interest in the origin of the Carolina Bays. The extraterrestrial impact hypothesis came back with a vengeance. Truthfully the appearance from above does lend itself to this explanation. Scientists even had areal surveys commissioned, taking measurements of the angles of each ellipse. 

The Younger Dryas period is sometimes explained by the impact of material from outer space. The Carolina Bays were used as evidence of this most recent massive climate altering impact.  

The Carolina Bays and other NC wetland areas began receiving State and federal protection in the 1970's. Lake Waccamaw became a State Park. For several decades the catastrophic comet creation story was considered scientific fact.

Technology and testing today

As technology advanced, satellite imaging, core sampling, particle analysis, and radiocarbon dating disproved the theory of extraterrestrial impact. The Bays are shallow and the depression is in the superficial sandy surface, the bedrock underlying the Bays remains undisturbed.  Lake Waccamaw is located in the larger geological region known as the Pee Dee Formation, named after the river which exposed the ground underlying the area. The Pee Dee Formation is a marine deposit from the Late Cretaceous, (when the ocean covered the area). Glauconitic sand and fossiliferous limestone make up the bedrock. That means there is a dark greenish sand and  limestone rocks that contain fossils from a hundred million years ago covered in a layer of newer sediment.  Lake Waccamaw is underlain by layers containing fossils of the lower Pliocene Goose Creek Limestone and the lower Pleistocene Waccamaw Formation. The sediment layer and the underlying layer have been radiocarbon dated.  The lake is estimated to be 15,000 to 30,000 years old. In 2008 a whale fossil was found in the lake believed to be one to three million years old. All this data collection has reignited a debate about the origin of these geological anomalies. Geologists today believe terrestrial processes and repeated modification by eolian and lacustrine processes of relict thermokarst lakes created the depressions. That's geo-jargon for earth bound processes of erosion and glacier lake sediment deposits. 

The State Park

Today they offer a handful of primitive hike-in camping sites right beside the lake in the shade of the cypress trees. No frills, clean well maintained campsites for tents. There are restrooms at the visitor center.