This guide is part of the Semiquincentennial Series. Inside, you’ll find 100 destinations across the Palmetto State—some familiar, some forgotten—all brought to life through rhyming riddles, historic tales, and the spirit of discovery.

Say hello to South Carolina, where the longleaf pines whisper secrets of rebellion, revival, and reinvention. Here in the Palmetto State, history seeps from cobblestones in Charleston and cotton fields in the Upstate, where Lowcountry tides have shaped both the shoreline and the soul of a people. It was here that the first shots of the Civil War rang out at Fort Sumter, and it was here that the earliest Gullah settlements preserved West African traditions that still echo in language, cuisine, and culture.

In South Carolina, stories do not lie dormant—they gallop across polo fields, glide across Gothic steeples, rumble down speedways, and rocket into the neon glow of roadside attractions. This is a land where elite resort towns and simple mill villages coexist in the pages of time, where a covered bridge in the Upcountry and a concrete dome in Columbia hold equal historical weight.

You will trace the footprints of enslaved children learning to read at Penn Center and the staccato steps of vaudeville performers beneath grand opera house domes. From Frank Lloyd Wright’s plantation retreat to a sweet-tea capital under the glow of a giant peach, each stop in South Carolina is a study in contrasts—and in character. These are clues not just to places, but to the people who dared to build, teach, create, and endure.

The photos and stories collected here are a fast and fun way to learn the explanations behind the quirks, the traditions and the secrets that make South Carolina uniquely South Carolina. Why did state farmers say “Blood Will Tell”? Solved. What building ruined Charleston’s skyline? A mystery no more. The one-time longest railroad in the world? Identified. The oldest bridge in South Carolina? Revealed.