Just a short walk over the draw ridge which spans the Beaufort River and connects Beaufort to Lady's Island and beyond to St. Helena, Hunting Island and Fripp. And the view is stunning.
To the north is the waterfront park and behind that the old buildings on Bay Street which are now filled with restaurants and shops, the steeples of two churches, the marina with small boats.
To the south is the bridge connector to Parris Island. Below are the oyster beds and the green spartina grass now turning golden. I breathe in the wonderful fishy smell of the pluff mud and am bathed in fragrant sea breezes.
Beaufort was the home of Robert Smalls, the African American slave who commandeered a ship out of the harbor in the Civil War and the childhood home of Pat Conroy, who wrote so eloquently of this corner of the south, of Dafuski Island, Charleston and the people who inhabit the low country.
It was also the home of J.E. McTeer, sheriff for 37 years in the decades between the 1920's and 60's.
His book, The High Sheriff of the Low Country is a classic of the period, recounting wild tales of rumrunners, murders and various crimes. He also has a unique understanding and connection to the cultural issues of voodoo and conjuring of the time.
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