Beaufort County Public Library
Hilton Head Island Location

Reference Desk

Reference services are available at all library branches. See Locations Countywide for your nearest Beaufort County Public Library branch.

Reference and information referral assistance is available as well as help with brief telephone queries.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
about Hilton Head Island

• This list contains some of the most frequently asked questions concerning Hitlon Head Island History.
• Choose the letter that matches the first letter of your inquiry.
  Ex. For information on hurricane history, click on the letter H.
  

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B

• BATTLE OF PORT ROYAL - On November 7, the Battle of Port Royal took place in Port Royal Sound. The Union was successful in capturing Hilton Head Island. Union troops set up the Headquarters of the Department of the South on the island.
  
• BAYNARD MAUSOLEUM - see oldest building
  

• BEAUFORT - Beaufort County and City history
  
• BOOKS-USED - The Library is not accepting used books at this time. Magazines are still welcome in the lobby.
  
• BRIDGE - The first bridge to connect the island with the mainland was the Byrnes Bridge. It opened in 1956 with a toll gate that charged $2.50. In 1978, U.S. 278 and the bridge were widened to four lanes. The bridge is actually interconnecting twin spans. The one nearest Hilton Head, crossing Skull Creek, is the J. Wilton Graves Bridge. The other, crossing MacKays Creek, is the Karl S. Bowers Bridge.

C

• CALIBOGUE SOUND - The name comes from a Creek Indian word meaning "deep spring" - calaobe.
  
• CEMETERIES - see Zion Chapel of Ease
  
• COLIGENY PLAZA - named for admiral Gaspard de Coligny of France who obtained permission from Charles IX of France to establish a colony in Carolina.

E

• ELECTED OFFICIALS - | Federal | State | County | Town |

F

• FERRY SERVICE -In 1953 the South Carolina highway department began ferry service on the Gay Time, which could carry 5 cars.
  

• FORT MITCHELL - built in 1812 overlooking Skull Creek. Served as a defense for the northern part of the island.

G

• GENEALOGY - The Heritage Library Foundation was formed in July 1997 to promote and support a library on Hilton Head Island dedicated to the study of history and genealogy. The library is located in Suite 302, 32 Office Park Road, Hilton Head Island, SC 29928. Phone - (803)689-9558. Also visit SC Historical and Genealogical Internet Resources.
  

• GHOST STORIES
  

• GOVERNOR
  
• GRANTS - The Hilton Head Foundation Library helps nonprofit organizations find public and private funding. The library's collection contains print and electronic resources. Reservations are required for use. Phone - (803)681-9100.
  

• GULLAH -The term Gullah describes the language and culture of the Black people who have inhabited the Sea Islands since the eighteenth century. Gullah is spoken chiefly on the coastal islands-the rice islands-that stretch for 160 miles along the seaboard of South Carolina and Georgia. Until recent years, these settlements were isolated, so that the Black inhabitants, who worked the rice fields, had little contact with the English languages of the communities ashore. The language was influenced both by Creole spoken by the natives of the West Indies and by the English dialects used by the overseers of plantations in the American colonies. Gullah sounds like English, but there is a certain flavor of the West African coast in its intonation. Gullah is recognized by linguists as a language rather than a dialect.
  Taken from Gullah for You! by Virginia Mixson Geraty.

H

• WILLIAM HILTON - Captain William Hilton sailed from Barbados on the Adventure in 1663. The name Hilton Head derives from a point of land he named for himself near the entrance to Port Royal Sound.
  
• HISTORY - see history of Hilton Head Island
  
• HONEY HORN PLANTATION - See Plantations
  
• HURRICANES - When is Hurricane season and what were the worst hurricanes to hit the South Carolina area? In the United States, most hurricanes affect areas near the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricanes occur in the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans from June to November - most of them in September. Hurricanes that have affected the Beaufort County area include:
  

-Big Storm of 1893- On August 27, 1893 a great hurricane swept the coast of South Carolina. The number of fatalities is estimated at 1,000. Property damage was estimated at $10,000.000. Outside help came from all quarters of the state and nation. Clara Barton, American Red Cross founder, came down to the island to lead the relief expedition.

-1954 Oct. 15, "Hazel"- This storm was most destructive in terms of lost property ever to trouble coastal S. C.; whole communities were swept away. Property losses totaled 27 million, but there was only one death reported.

-1959 Sept 29, "Gracie"- This was an extreme storm with hurricane force winds at SE 80 mph. Property loss amounted to $12 million and 11 lives were lost. The storm arrived on the lower SC coast at dead low tide which limited the amount of damage.

-1989 September 22, "Hugo"- Struck the West Indies and South Carolina. Caused 60 deaths and $7 billion in damage.

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I

• INCORPORATION - When did Hilton Head become incorporated as a town? 1983. Hilton Head was incorporated as a "limited services" town, primarily to wrest planning and development oversight from county government. There was an election of the town's first mayor and council in August of 1983.
  

• INDIAN SHELL RING - A ring of shells and bones piled several feet high that dates back to 1450 B. C. is located in the Sea Pines Forest Preserve. It was used by Indians as a refuse heap and is one of twenty shell rings still in existence. The builders are believed to have invented pottery in North America.

L

• LENGTH - How long is Hilton Head Island and what is its width? Hilton Head Island is 12 miles long and 5 miles wide.
  

• LIGHTHOUSES
  

  -Harbour Town Lighthouse-built in 1970 in Sea Pines Plantation, it is South Carolina's newest lighthouse.
  -Hilton Head Lighthouse-built in 1879 in Lemington Plantation (near Palmetto Dunes). The lighthouse was built by the United States Lighthouse Board to guide shipping to Port Royal Sound and to the Port of Savannah.

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M

• MITCHELVILLE: Commander Ormsby Mitchel, a Civil War Union commanding officer at Hilton Head constructed housing for the island's growing slave population. The community was called Mitchelville. In this town, the inhabitants demonstrated their ability to govern themselves before they were officially freed by the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Mitchelville was established along present day Beach City Road.

O

• OLDEST BUILDING- What is the oldest intact building on the island? The Baynard Mausoleum, which was built in the 1840's. It is located at the Zion Chapel of Ease.
  
• ORGANIZATIONS-Hilton Head organizations and Beaufort organizations.

P

• PLANTATIONS
  

  -HONEY HORN PLANTATION is the oldest and only surviving plantation home on Hilton Head Island. It is privately owned by the Hack family and was built before the Civil War. Part of the original land has been turned into the Cross Island Parkway.

S

• SPANISH MOSS - Spanish moss is a flowering plant that hangs from trees in the southeastern United States and in tropical South America. It is neither a true moss nor a parasite; it is deemed an "epiphyte" or air plant. The plant has no roots, it absorbs water directly from the air and obtains nutrients from airborne dust.
  
• STATE SYMBOLS AND EMBLEMS of South Carolina.
  
• STEAM POWERED CANNON - Installed in 1898 at the site of the Confederate Fort Walker in Port Royal Plantation. Its purpose was to protect the island from invasion after the Spanish American war. However, the steam cannon never fired a shot in the defense of Port Royal Harbor.

Z

• ZION CHAPEL OF EASE - Hilton Head Island's oldest cemetery, the Zion Chapel of Ease, is located on Highway 278 at the intersection of Matthew's Drive and Folly Field Road on Hilton Head Island. Buried there is Charles Davant, a prominent island planter during the Revolutionary War who was shot and killed by Daufuskie Island's Captain Martinangel in 1781.

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ELECTRONIC RESOURCES
The following electronic resources are available at the Hilton Head
Island Public Library.

• The American Business Disc: this database contains current information on over 10.5 million businesses nationwide. It is searchable by company name, SIC Code or Yellow Page heading.

• Discus: Full-text Articles and Documents & Online Encyclopedias.

• InfoTrac General Reference Center: allows researchers to draw full-text articles, abstracts and citations from popular magazines and journals, reference books and newswire services in one easy step.

• InfoTrac Health Reference Center: a multi-source database for health and wellness research. Health Reference Center draws from medical and consumer periodicals, health newsletters, reference books, referral information, topical overviews and pamphlets. It is designed especially for lay research.

• Internet: public Internet access is available to those who have signed use agreement forms. Parental signatures are required for anyone under 18.

• Newsbank Online: The Newsfile Collection provides full-text newspaper articles on a wide range of topics, plus headline and world map databases (Available from our in-house public Internet terminals only).

• NewsBank ScienceSource: a comprehensive learning resource that provides access to information on a wide variety of science topics. It contains thousands of article summaries on the Life, Earth, Physical, Medical, Health and Applied Sciences. Articles are selected based on their research value and benefit to science curriculums, then summarized to clarify complex concepts and simplify the research process.

• ProQuest BusinessLink: this resource contains full-text articles from 100 journals covering business, management, trade and industry information over the last 18 months.

• SIRS Researcher: a general reference CD-ROM with thousands of full-text articles on social, scientific, historic, economic, political and global issues. Sources include more than 1,200 newspapers, magazines, journals and government publications.

• STAT-USA/Internet: available from our in-house public Internet terminals only. A service of the US Department of Commerce, it covers export and international trade information, domestic economic news, business leads, national trade database information and much more. Users must have a reference librarian enter the password before searching.

• StreetFinder: a U.S. street atlas that finds locations by address, street, intersection, city, ZIP and area code. Also details thousands of places located on the map including hotels, restaurants, museums, historical sites and interesting places for kids.

• Word Processing: Microsoft Works 3 is available for word processing needs. A DeskJet printer is available with this resource.

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Last Revised 3/25/1999