[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”News Story” _builder_version=”3.0.106″ custom_margin=”0px||0px|” background_layout=”light”]<\/p>\n
For years, Botany Bay was the boneyard beach that many people didn’t know existed. It has become popular for its wild beauty and unique features, but it has also been eroding away for decades.<\/p>\n
The beach looks unlike most beaches in South Carolina. Its shoreline is covered in the silver skeletons of sun-bleached oaks, red cedars, and the trunks of old palmettos. Ancient stumps protrude from the sand, marking where an old forest once stood. Large, colorful whelk and conch shells cover the beach, which visitors pile on driftwood logs and hang like ornaments from the branches of the dead trees. Pelicans dive in and out of the surf and seabirds such as Wilson\u2019s plovers forage along the shoreline.<\/p>\n
This remarkable seascape is both eerie and breathtaking in its beauty, making it a favorite site for photographers, photoshoots, and nature-lovers.<\/p>\n
The barrier island beach is a part of Botany Bay Plantation, and it was\u00a0formed from two antebellum sea cotton plantations, Bleak Hall and Sea Cloud.\u00a0The area was given over to the state \u00a0in 2007 and became a\u00a0Wildlife Management Area and Heritage Preserve. It contains vast acres of pine-hardwood and maritime forest, agricultural fields, wetlands and a barrier island beach. It is home to a multitude of wildlife, such as sea birds, sea turtles, deer and raccoons.![\"\"](\"http:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/BotanyG1_KR2-6.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
After signing in, visitors can either head straight to the beach or take a driving tour around the property to see historic sites like the foundation of a manor house. The beach itself is not exactly easy-access; after parking, visitors must be prepared to walk half a mile over a causeway that crosses the marsh to get to the barrier island beach.<\/p>\n
The state’s goal in maintaining Botany Bay was preservation, not development, which is part of what helped it remain one of Edisto Island’s best-kept local secrets. Unlike Folly Beach and Myrtle Beach, Botany Bay is a heavily protected area and has stricter environmental regulations to safeguard the threatened species that live there. \u00a0Alcohol, dogs, and drones are not permitted on the beach, and removal of any beach artifacts- such as shells and sea grass- will result in a heavy fine.<\/p>\n
Its lack of public facilities (including restrooms and trash cans) and isolated location meant that it was often overlooked in favor of the nearby Edisto Beach.<\/p>\n
When photos of the beach’s unusual appearance and beauty surfaced on the internet, Botany Bay began drawing in a much larger crowd. It is now visited by many locals frequently, and by tourists from across the country.<\/p>\n
But erosion – helped along\u00a0by storms and rough currents – is eating away at what is left of the barrier island beach. Experts predict Botany Bay may not be a permanent fixture of the South Carolina coast line forever.<\/p>\n
But even while Botany Bay is threatened by erosion, it was erosion that formed Botany Bay in the first place. One hundred years ago, the shoreline was nearly a mile out to sea, and the area where the beach now stands was a saltwater marsh.\u00a0 This is evidenced by large strips of slick mud deposits that line areas of the beach called “marsh relicts” which mark the foundations of where the marsh once stood. \u00a0Over time, erosion caused by longshore drift currents formed a two–<\/strong>mile beach along one of the wooded barrier islands. \u00a0The saltwater poisoned the trees, and the sun turned them white.<\/p>\n The erosion that created Botany Bay is now wearing away at the current beach, accelerated by the passing of hurricanes. It was closed for nine months after Hurricane Matthew ripped away the causeway bridge. The beach took a beating again when Hurricane Irma swept through, carving a large, impassible inlet towards one end of the beach, and sweeping almost all the sand away for a period of time.<\/p>\n Botany Bay is a perfect example of beauty and destruction coinciding in nature. For many visiting beachcombers,\u00a0<\/strong>part of the beach\u2019s charm is that its striking appearance is ever-changing, its beauty transforming each day due to sweeping high tides and erosion. To some, that is also what makes the beach so special.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ custom_padding=”55.1562px|0px|0px|0px” prev_background_color=”#000000″ next_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.0.47″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” custom_padding=”27.5781px|0px|0px|0px”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text for Slider Gallery – Delete Blue Row if not needed” _builder_version=”3.0.105″ custom_margin=”0px|||” background_layout=”light”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ custom_padding=”0px|0px|55.1562px|0px” prev_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_row custom_padding=”0px|0px|0px|0px” _builder_version=”3.0.47″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_gallery admin_label=”Slider Gallery” gallery_ids=”5536,5538,5573,5533,5577,5541,5555,5539,5567,5566,5542,5565,5631″ fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”3.0.106″ pagination_font_size_tablet=”51″ pagination_line_height_tablet=”2″ auto=”on” auto_speed=”3000″ box_shadow_style=”preset2″ show_title_and_caption=”on” show_pagination=”on” orientation=”landscape” zoom_icon_color=”#77000a” hover_overlay_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.9)” background_layout=”light”]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_gallery][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For years, Botany Bay was the boneyard beach that many people didn’t know existed. It became popular recently for its wild beauty, but it has also been eroding away for decades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":5701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[67,39],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4450"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4450"}],"version-history":[{"count":124,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9615,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4450\/revisions\/9615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Beauty of Botany Bay<\/h3>\n