Hilton Head

There is history here

The guy who named Hilton Head in 1663 (named Hilton, of course) never set foot on it. He was looking for a location to raise cattle to feed the enslaved people working the sugar cane fields on Barbados. He didn't find it suitable, but others did 70 years later.

We did a history tour of this island today that revealed so much about it that the millions of golfers and beachgoers who come here every year never see or likely care about.

There are thousands of years of native American culture here, including ring structures that are unique on this continent and only occur in two other places on the planet. Pirates holding English letters of marque used this as a favorite operating base in the early 18th century, including Captain Kidd and Blackbeard.

Enslaved Africans were initially brought here to grow and produce indigo, which was a huge export commodity to Europe and made the plantation owners incredibly wealthy. Then in the late 1700's someone came with a new variety of cotton that grew well here. The new strain created longer, softer threads and was an immediate hit in Europe.

Growers on the island all switched to it and cut down nearly every tree on the island to grow it. That required thousands of slaves, because that was the abhorrent culture present in South Carolina in that time. Some don't want us to think about that history today, but it happened and must be acknowledged.

There is more of that sad history here.

Thousands of the descendants of those enslaved people - called the Gullah people - still live on the island. Their neighborhoods are rarely seen by the tourists who come here. But they are here nonetheless. We drove through many of them today, and visited the initial community they established after emancipation, called Mitchelville. Fascinating and inspiring.

Hilton Head Today

Having just come from Myrtle Beach, it's hard not to compare the two places. They are so different. If Myrtle is country rock, Hilton Head is smooth jazz. If Myrtle is bikers and spring breakers and annual big family reunions, Hilton Head is old southern style and individual families. We enjoy Myrtle, but it is way more developed and in your face than Hilton Head, which makes it a very different experience.

They look very different and feel very different. So much of Hilton Head is behind gates and security checkpoints. It's very wooded, with care taken to preserve the old live oaks and other trees. There are no big signs outside stores, no billboards anywhere. It's more expensive. Even though its development came later than Myrtle Beach, this feels like where the old money was and is being spent.

The beaches at low tide are the widest and more of a gradual slope than any we've ever experienced on the Atlantic coast. Plenty of room to pitch your umbrella or shibumi and spread out.

And the golf. There aren't as many golf courses here as there are in Myrtle Beach, but they are by and large of better quality. Not all of them, of course, but the overall quality is better here. So is the cost.

Lastly, the food. This is "low country" cooking, with emphasis on fin fish, shellfish and mollusks. There are several really excellent places to eat here, and not many of the huge restaurants designed to turn out hundreds of meals every night that one sees in Myrtle Beach and many other coastal resorts. We ate at a place called Red Fish, which was quite good with a great wine selection. We ate there the last time we were here four years ago and wanted to go back.

We'll be coming back to Hilton Head, and loving it. And we'll also be going back to Myrtle Beach, and loving it.