July 3rd is National Parks Month, and in South Carolina, we are privileged to wander over lands previously walked by James Audubon and immortalized by the prose of William Faulkner. These forests sustained the physical and spiritual lives of generations of southerners who fished or hunted in the bottom land woods or were baptized in the streams by preachers of nearby Lowcountry churches.
This ETV production from the Carolina Stories series celebrates the beauty of the Congaree National Park and entails the efforts of many to save this fragile ecosystem at a time it was in peril.
Fifteen million acres of bottomland hardwood used to cover the Southern states, but the land had been cleared and drained such that less than one per cent remained of this endangered landscape. Congaree National Park is the largest intact old growth bottomland forest in the country.
This is the story of how those forests disappeared and Congaree National Park survived. In 1954 Harry Hampton suggested the first permanent protection of the Congaree Forest and he worked tirelessly over many years to make this happen. Richard Pough, Founding President of the Nature Conservancy spoke in favor of saving the unique the lands, calling the forest “the redwoods of the east,” and in 1963, the National Park Service issued a report recommending the establishment of a Congaree National Monument and noted that there was nothing like it in the park system.
The first Earth Day in 1970 raised the awareness that there were things that needed protection and in 1970, the local SC Environmental Coalition was formed. Several local groups and activists raised awareness of clear cutting in the forest and worked diligently to save the lands. In 2003, the park was renamed Congaree National Park, and it has been designated an international biosphere reserve and a globally important birding area. To learn more about the Congaree, the biosphere, and the individuals and groups whose collective efforts saved it, see Side Notes.
Whether you go on tour guided by one of the Park Rangers, or ramble along on the elevated boardwalks that meander through the park, you will see many things that you will not find in other parks. You might just fall in love with Congaree like I did.
Side Notes
- Congaree National Park https://www.nps.gov/cong/index.htm - Visit the Home of Champions! Astonishing biodiversity exists in Congaree National Park, the largest intact expanse of old growth bottomland hardwood forest remaining in the southeastern United States. Waters from the Congaree and Wateree Rivers sweep through the floodplain, carrying nutrients and sediments that nourish and rejuvenate this ecosystem and support the growth of national and state champion trees.
- Within the park, The Harry Hampton Visitors Center was named in honor of Congaree's first advocate.
- How One Biologist Drew a Hyper-Accurate, Ranger-Approved of the Congaree National Park. After 60 years of exploring the gulleys and guts of the South Carolina Swamp, John Cely drew the landscape he knew by heart. By Ashley Stimpson May 12, 2025
- Adventurers paddled the river and into the swamp to see the Synchronous Fireflies 2024. "It was an afternoon of wonder, a night of lurking creatures and challenging calls in the dark, yet all fears were forgotten when we witnessed the pulsing synchronization of a forest teeming with fireflies."
- NPR Witnessing the spectacle of synchronous fireflies is ‘like magic.’
- Hampton Wildlife Fund – “The preservation of our wildlife is of importance to every man, woman and child in this state, and this movement deserves the wholehearted support of every right-thinking individual within our borders, whether hunter, fishermen or not.”
- SC Environmental Coalition - Working with South Carolinians to ensure that current and future generations can thrive in a safe, clean, and healthy environment.
- Nature Conservancy - The Nature Conservancy advances conservation in all 50 states and U.S. territories and in more than 80 countries around the world.
- Conservation Voters of South Carolina. A coalition of organizations working with South Carolinians to ensure that current and future generations can thrive in a safe, clean, and healthy environment.
- Sierra Club - "Sierra Club is the most historic grassroots environmental organization in the country. For more than 130 years, we have gathered millions of activists and volunteers to fight for the places, people, and planet we all love."
- Congaree Swamp Stories - Knowitall. The creation of Congaree Swamp Stories coincided with the release of the Ken Burns’ film series The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.
- American Forests - Congaree – Where the Trees are Still Tall.
- Friends of the Congaree Swamp - Journals of John Cely.
- Congaree – Biosphere Region - Congaree National Park is proud to be part of a voluntary, collaborative partnership framework called the Congaree Biosphere Region. Congaree Biosphere Region's (ARCGIS) mission is to “foster a future that celebrates, values, and sustains the rich natural and cultural legacies of the SC Midlands in concert with opportunities to promote healthy, vibrant, and prosperous communities.”
- UNESCO - The Congaree Biosphere Reserve comprises the last vestiges of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest in the eastern United States. The biosphere reserve is in the gently undulating flat floodplain of the Congaree River, representing a range of natural ecosystems which are typical of this vast coastal region. This forest, which is the largest, contiguous, in-tact expanse of such forest remaining in North America, supports an astonishing diversity of champion-sized trees. While the Congaree and Wateree rivers are fed by immense, multi-state watersheds, the Congaree Biosphere Reserve also encompasses the local watersheds that are crucial to sustaining the old-growth forest. These same watersheds and forests also provide ecosystem services, such as clean air and clean water, with benefits far beyond the border of the biosphere region.
- SCETV The National Parks (Passport) - Filmed over the course of more than six years at some of nature's most spectacular locales, the film is a story of people from every conceivable background—rich and poor, soldiers and scientists, natives and newcomers—who were willing to devote themselves to saving some precious portion of the land they loved and in doing so reminded their fellow citizens of the full meaning of democracy.
