Visiting the Old Santee Canal Park

If you stop at the Welcome Center along Interstate 95 at exit 98 in Santee, South Carolina the ladies there will ply you with handfuls of brochures of places to see in the area. One that they recommended was the Old Santee Canal Park in Moncks Corner, SC.

What those nice ladies didn't tell us was that it was actually a 45 mile drive to the park, but Monday was a pretty day and it was our last day in the area so we shrugged it off. Entry to the park was $3 each since the young lady apparently thought Denny was too young to be a senior (no one believes he's 67, ever). On the grounds is the Interpretive Center and the Berkeley Museum along with a few miles of hiking trails and the option of canoing the waters of Biggin Creek or the canal itself.

Unfortunately for us, budget cuts caused the management of the park to close the Berkeley Museum on Mondays, which is a recent development. The Interpretive Center has information regarding the building of the canal and several film clips to watch that explain the history of the canal, preserving Native American heritage and others. There is also a model of the Confederate semi-submersible called the Little David, built here at Stony Landing, which was used to torpedo the warship USS New Ironsides during the Civil War.

Cotton plantations in the 1800s had to ship their wares by boat down the Santee River which ended at the Atlantic Ocean about 50 miles north of Charleston. That meant that the cotton then had to be loaded onto sea-going vessels for the trip to Charleston, making it a time-consuming, dangerous and expensive propositions. By building a canal that connected the Santee River with the Cooper River, the water route was all inland but still ended at Charleston.

The Santee canal itself was the first canal and lock system built in the United States. It was designed by a Swedish engineer, Colonel J. Christian Senf, and took seven years to complete at a cost of about $650,000--well over the original budge of $250,000 (some things never change). Consisting of three locks to handle a 34 foot rise and seven locks that adjusted for a 69 foot fall, the canal system was 22 miles long, 30 feet wide and only 5 1/2 feet deep. The canal was used for about 50 years until the railroad system was completed between Columbia and Charleston and Camden, which proved to be a faster, more efficient manner of moving goods. The state's General Assembly revoked the charter for the canal at the request of its shareholders.

Wandering the nature trails (for there are geocaches in the woods, albeit ones that are not for the faint-at-heart), there are several observation points and shady resting spots. According to interpretive signs on display there are alligators, ospreys, turtles, herons, egrets and other wildlife, although we just saw turtles and herons on this day. We were the only ones on the trails that day and it was a peaceful, enjoyable day for us.

Visit this park, but not on a Monday. Take a picnic lunch, binoculars and your imagination as you envision mules pulling barges downriver loaded with cotton and other goods. It's worth the price.