Original subtitles

(wind whistling)

(dramatic orchestral music)

(bright orchestral music)

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] Our journey begins at Myrtle Beach

in the northeast corner of the state

where we follow the resort coastline

before turning inland across forest and farmland

towards one of America's best-known roadhouses,

South of the Border.

From there we fly to the Congaree National Park

and neighboring Columbia, the capital of South Carolina.

Along the north of the state towards Greenville,

new industries have replaced what was once the center

for cotton manufacture.

Then it is on to Table Rock State Park

before heading southwest along the edge

of the Appalachian Mountains to Lake Keowee.

From there we take a look at Woodburn Plantation,

an historic fort at Ninety Six,

before ending our journey

at the beautiful Strom Thurmond Lake.

(gentle twinkling music)

South Carolina begins here at Myrtle Beach,

a major tourist destination in the southeast of America.

Today, literally hundreds of hotels line the sandy beach

which runs for an amazing 60 miles.

The resort attracts around 15 million visitors a year

and has earned the title of the number one

family beach in America.

Just over a hundred years ago, the whole area

was a forested wilderness, but all that changed

with the arrival of a railway line to take wood

from the coast inland.

Employees of the railway and lumber company

would go to the beach after work,

and they became the first people to enjoy

what was to become known as the Grand Strand.

The idea of a resort was planted and Myrtle Beach was born.

Inland from the coast is Broadway at the Beach,

a shopping mall opened in 1996

which has since grown into the resort's

premier shopping destination.

The empty car parks show how late in the season

this is being filmed, but during the summer months,

this complex attracts millions of visitors.

The center offers three theaters,

17 restaurants, a hundred shops, nightclubs and hotels,

all surrounding the lake.

In addition are a whole host of activities

for children of all ages.

Myrtle Beach has 460 hotels

with a total of around 90,000 rooms.

Most overlook the sea along the 60-mile beachfront

where nine wooden piers jut out into the Atlantic Ocean.

For many people, this resort offers

some of the best sea fishing in South Carolina

where black sea bass, groupers, bluefish, sea trout,

and king mackerel can be caught.

Fishing from the piers is a popular pastime

and does not need a license.

However, you have to follow the local rules

which say you can not bring alcohol or pets

and you are regulated in the size and number

of fish you can catch.

You also have to wear shoes, which is a fairly sensible rule

on a wooden pier with the fear of splinters.

Inland from the resort is a sparsely populated landscape

of woods and rivers before it gives way to farmland.

Interstate 95 is the main route

up the East Coast of America and runs from Miami

in Florida to Portland in Maine.

It is the longest north-south route in the highway system

and passes through 15 states.

Along the way are some interesting

road stops and attractions.

This one is called South of the Border.

(upbeat mariachi music)

In 1949, Alan Schafer built a small beer stand

here on the state line, where he also sold Mexican trinkets.

This was a shrewd move because at the time

the county just over the border in North Carolina was dry,

meaning it was illegal to sell alcohol.

Business boomed.

By the mid-1950s, he was expanding the site

with a restaurant, motel, and shops,

and as you can see, all with a Mexican theme,

which certainly veers towards the kitsch.

South of the Border is one

of the most popular road stops in America.

It is also helped by being on the intersection

for the main road off to Myrtle Beach.

(bright music)

At the same time that South of the Border

opened for business, so too did Darlington Raceway.

This is a track for the NASCAR racing, which stands

for the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing.

Usually, the circuits are oval, but here at Darlington,

it is egg-shaped and the story goes that the land owner

at one end of the track refused to relocate his minnow pond,

so the raceway had to adapt accordingly.

This makes it very challenging for the crews

to set up their cars' handling in a way

that will be effective for both ends.

Perhaps this is why Darlington is known

as the track too tough to tame.

With a population of only five million

and the state the size of Belgium,

South Carolina has been able to retain a great deal

of its forested areas and these have been

a major source of business since the late 19th century.

Once, highly labor-intensive with trees cut

by two-man crosscut saws, today it is all

much more efficient, with modern machinery

cutting, stripping, and preparing wood for the timber yard.

On either side of the Congaree River,

is the largest tract of old-growth,

bottomland hardwood forest left in the United States.

This type of habitat can be found on floodplains

alongside rivers which occasionally overflow.

It is an ideal growing environment for several types

of trees, including oaks, bald cypresses, and gum trees.

Here, in the Congaree National Park,

are some of the tallest trees in the eastern part

of America and forming one

of the highest deciduous forest canopies in the world.

(gentle piano music)

The national park was eventually formed in 2003

after a long grassroots campaign starting back in 1969.

A century ago, there were roughly 24 million acres

of this type of forest in America.

But, due to the expansion of foresting and farming,

there are only around four million left today.

But at least this beautiful 26,000-acre wilderness

is now protected for future generations.

20 miles to the northwest is Columbia,

the capital of South Carolina, with a population

of around 130,000 people.

It is a relatively new city, being founded

after the American War of Independence in 1786.

A grid plan of 400 blocks in a two-mile square

by the river was laid out.

During the Civil War of the 1860s,

much of the city was burned to the ground.

But the wealth of the cotton industry

and the arrival of the railway saw Columbia prosper again.

The University of South Carolina was founded back in 1801.

It was closed during the Civil War

and turned by the Confederate forces into a hospital.

When the city was attacked and burned by the Union Army,

they took over the hospital and the buildings

were spared from the flames.

In 1869, the university added an amendment

to its constitution that would prevent

racial discrimination.

It then elected two black trustees to the governing board.

Today, the university welcomes undergraduates

from around the world and has close to 30,000 students.

(triumphant music)

In 1851, a new classical-style state capital building

was designed, but no sooner had work begun

than the architect was found to be fraudulent and dismissed.

The building we see today is similar in style

to those original designs and work began in 1855.

During the Civil War, the building escaped

being put to the torch but did sustain some damage

due to burning buildings close by.

It was not finally finished until 1907

due to a lack of funds in the post-war period.

It is now a national historic landmark.

A landmark of a very different sort

is a restaurant complex on the outskirts of Columbia

which takes you straight back to a 1950s diner.

We saw a rather kitsch Mexican-style restaurant earlier on.

This one is Piggie Park and based around barbecue pork.

It was opened in 1953 by the Bessinger family

who still run it today.

Their popular mustard-based yellow barbecue sauce

has remained unchanged for over 50 years.

The industrial heartland of South Carolina

is to the north where small cities like Gaffney grew up.

Like so many other cities, it has seen both

good times and bad, and the abandoned sites

of old factories tell their story.

But by the 1980s, Gaffney's economy was becoming reliant

on peach growing, and to emphasize this,

the Peachoid was built.

This is a 50-meter high water tower

in the shape of a giant peach.

The state of Georgia to the south may be known

as the Peach State, but here in Cherokee County

where Gaffney is located, more peaches are produced

than in the entire state of Georgia.

It has to be said, though, that for a lot of people

it does look rather like a human posterior,

which can be seen from miles around.

It's certainly not something which can be missed.

(bright orchestral music)

An important freeway runs through Gaffney, Interstate 85,

which goes from Virginia in the north

to Alabama in the south.

This area of South Carolina is the industrial heartland

of the state and has a rising population.

One of the consequences is an increase

in the amount of waste produced.

And so, on the outskirts of Spartanburg,

there is a large landfill site where all the rubbish

from the local area, which can not be recycled, is put.

Nowadays, great care is taken to prevent any pollution

by laying down a liner before any waste is added.

This means any hazardous materials

such as household cleaners and pesticides

will not find their way into the groundwater system.

Each day a layer of soil is added to prevent

any noxious smells escaping.

And when the landfill site has reached

an agreed maximum level with the state officials,

it is capped with a layer of clay and a deep layer

of soil so that grass can be sewn on the top.

Under state law, the site then

has to be continuously monitored for 30 years.

(gentle music)

In 1992, the German car manufacturer BMW,

which stands for Bavarian Motor Works,

decided to open its first plant in the United States.

The first initial complex was opened in 1994,

and in 2000, a $300 million expansion was begun.

In 2009, the plant at Spartanburg had produced

1,500,000 cars and shipped them

in double-decker railway wagons across the country

as well as container ports for export.

But this total is a drop in the ocean

compared with the estimated 150 million cars

on the U.S. roads today,

with five million or so new cars sold each year.

Ahead of us is Table Rock State Park,

which covers just over 3,000 acres,

and it's on the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

(gentle music)

Beside Table Rock itself, the park offers visitors

lakes, woods, waterfalls, and a whole host

of trails to explore.

Over 200 years ago, all the land

belonged to the Cherokee Nation.

The Native Americans called the area Sahkanaga,

meaning the Great Blue Hills of God,

and they had many hunting camps in the area.

In 1785, they signed the Hopewell Treaties

with the U.S. government, which over time

laid out a western boundary for white settlement.

But it gave rise to the mocking Cherokee phrase

of talking leaves, as they claimed that when

the treaties no longer suited the Americans

they would blow away like talking leaves.

And they were right because by the beginning

of the 19th century, white settlers had moved in,

and within a decade or so, tourists began to arrive.

The Civil War brought a halt to visitors

and it was only later in the century

after new hotels had been built

that the popularity of Table Rock increased.

It may be small in comparison to other U.S. parks,

but it is one of South Carolina's most visited places

and draws people from far and wide who come

to see the great granite dome of Table Rock

and explore the network of trails.

The mountain itself got its name

from an old Cherokee legend.

It was believed that the Great Spirit

used Table Rock as a dining table,

and the shorter mountain close by was his stool.

To the south is the Nantahala National Forest,

which was established in 1930.

Nantahala comes from a Cherokee word

meaning Land of the Noonday Sun,

as in places the sun only reaches

into the deep valleys at midday.

Further on into the Blue Ridge Mountains

is the Sumter National Forest, which is riven

with deep-sided, wooded valleys and many waterfalls.

(somber music)

These are the Issaqueena Falls.

Many legends have grown up about them.

In one a young Oconee Indian girl called Issaqueena

discovered that her tribe planned an attack

on a nearby community of white settlers.

She rode out to warn them, and on her way,

named the places she passed:

Six Mile, Twelve Mile, Eighteen Mile,

until she reached Ninety Six Mile,

which we will discover later on.

Learning of her betrayal, the Oconee braves

chased Issaqueena to the falls

where she pretended to jump from the top

but hid on a ledge behind the wall of water.

Assuming she had fallen to her death,

the tribe called off the pursuit

and Issaqueena made her escape through the woods.

To the south of Sumter National Forest is Lake Keowee.

This is a manmade reservoir which took 10 years

to complete, starting back in 1963.

The water is used in the production

of hydroelectric power at three dams and also cools

the reactors of nearby nuclear power stations.

The lake was also planned to be a public amenity

with houses built around a 300-mile shoreline.

The project involved clearing an enormous area of forest

and digging out the valleys to increase

the eventual depth of water in the reservoir,

which would be filled by three rivers

flowing out of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

To the south of Lake Keowee is the city of Clemson,

which is dominated by the university,

and in turn, dominated by the football stadium,

home to the Clemson University Fighting Tigers.

Even though this is only a college team,

they are supported by an enormous number of people

because the stadium, with its paw print on the grass,

holds just over 80,000 people.

It is the same size as the Olympic stadium

in Beijing, which hosted the Games in 2008.

(bright orchestral music)

Clemson University was named after the statesman

and politician Thomas Green Clemson,

who on his death in 1888, left most of his estate

to be used to establish

the Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina.

It opened in 1889 with 446 students

as an all-white-male military college.

It changed to a civilian status

and became coeducational in 1955, and in 1963,

admitted its first African American student.

A year later, it became just Clemson University,

and today, just over 15,000 undergraduates study here.

Three miles outside the city at Pendleton

is the Woodburn Plantation house.

It is built in the style known as Antebellum.

This is a term used for houses in the Southern states

constructed in a neoclassical style

before the Civil War of the 1860s.

Woodburn was built in the 1830s for the Pinckney family

and then enlarged during the 1850s.

The weather in South Carolina during the summer months

is hot and humid, so the long verandas

which go round half the house could take advantage

of any breeze, and they also help

keep the main rooms in the shade.

It's an early practical form of air conditioning.

Close by are a group of buildings including the cookhouse,

which was separated from the main building in case of fire.

In 1966, Woodburn was given

to the Pendleton Historic Foundation,

who restored the house and opened it to the public.

Ahead of us is the Ninety Six National Historic Site,

which also goes by the name of Old Ninety Six and Star Fort,

one of South Carolina's most important places

of historical interest.

The Old Ninety Six village was where

the Oconee girl Issaqueena went to warn settlers

of an Indian attack.

Little of the original village remains

except the star-shaped earthen fort

which was the scene of the first battle

in the Southern states during the War of Independence.

It was also the scene of the longest siege

of the entire war at 28 days.

When the war arrived at the village of Ninety Six,

it became a loyalist stronghold and the British

built a star-shaped, earth-banked fort.

It was more difficult to construct

than a regular square one, but it meant

that muskets and cannon could fire from more angles

around the eight stars.

The Continental Army of a thousand patriots

under Major General Nathanael Greene,

built siege trenches around the fort

in preparation for an attack against 550 loyalists

led by Colonel John Cruger.

And, on May the 22nd, the assault began.

Cannon fired into the compound from a wooden tower

as the soldiers tried to scale the earth banks,

which were covered with wooden spikes.

After 45 minutes, the attack was called off.

This went on for 28 days before the siege

was finally abandoned after reports

of an advancing British Army.

Within weeks, the fort was burned and abandoned

as the loyalist defenses were severely weakened.

Unlike many other strongholds of the period,

Star Fort itself had almost no restoration

and is very much as it would have been in 1781.

Much of South Carolina is given over

to farming and a way of life

that has remained unchanged for generations.

(upbeat music)

The iconic shape of this barn can be seen

across much of America.

This example is close to the town of Edgefield.

It was founded back in 1785 and the main square

still retains its early appearance.

On the west side is the classical courthouse built in 1839.

In front of it is a statue of Strom Thurmond

who was born and died in the town,

but also served as governor of the state

and later elected as a senator for South Carolina.

His name lives on in our final location,

which was named after him during his lifetime,

the Strom Thurmond Lake.

It was built in the 1950s

by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

They dammed the Savannah River,

which acts as the border between South Carolina

and Georgia to the south.

The state boundary now runs down

the center of the reservoir.

It is the striking appearance of the almost orange

iron-rich soil which gives this enormous artificial lake

such a distinctive appearance.

(upbeat music)

The reservoir has been formed by the Strom Thurmond Dam

across the Savannah River.

The span is just over 300 meters.

It rises 62 meters above the riverbed,

and housed within is a hydroelectric plant,

a powerful and dramatic place to end this journey.

(gentle orchestral music)

(logo whooshing)