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Pawleys Island claims to be the oldest resort area in America. Whether or not that's true, early vacationers were distinguished. South Carolina Lowcountry was home to the most affluent planters on the continent. They didn't grow tobacco, or even cotton. Rice and indigo (used for a blue dye) were the crops of choice. To escape the heat and malaria of their mainland plantations, the rice royalty moved their families to cottages on Pawleys Island for the summer.
Remarkably, some of the cottages are still in use. Nine of them comprise the Pawleys Island "Historic District". The rest of the narrow island barely keeps some 600 houses (no stores) out of the water. They're used, just as in the planters' days, mostly by summer dwellers.
