Things to Do in Socastee

Though built only in 2011, the nonprofit Redux Contemporary Art Center’s new 12,000-square-foot facility stays bustling all year, hosting six to eight free exhibitions in two galleries. After taking in the artwork, visitors can attend numerous free events, such as artist talks, film screenings, panels, and concerts. More than 100 classes foster artistic inclinations throughout the year as local qualified instructors help students master disciplines such as painting, drawing, and printmaking.

Redux's galleries stay full thanks in part to its 22 private artist studios, which accommodate emerging and mid-career artists with up to 240 square feet of creative space. Twenty-four-hour studio passes grant access to Redux’s darkroom, print studio, and woodshop. To encourage a sense of community, artists can participate in quarterly critiques, attend visiting-artist lectures, and debate their studio neighbors on artistic controversies such as whether Michelangelo’s David is as good as the earlier one he sculpted from Play-Doh.

When the Charleston Museum was founded in 1773, South Carolina was still a British colony. Today, the museum is itself a historical gem, surviving both the American Revolution and Civil War and acquiring an astounding collection of South Carolinian artifacts along the way. Nine permanent exhibits include the Armory, brimming with antique weaponry, and the Lowcountry History Hall, which chronicles the land's metamorphosis from a tribal society into an agricultural empire, telling the story with early trading goods, slave badges, and pottery. Temporary exhibits change regularly, keeping visitors on their toes in the same way changing cell phone numbers every 24 hours does.

The museum extends its history-preserving mission to two area homes: the 19th-century Joseph Manigault House, once home to a wealthy rice plantation owner, and the Heyward-Washington House, where George Washington once stayed during a weeklong visit to the city. Restored rooms, period pieces, and loudly snoring grandfather clocks await guests during scheduled tours.

It was February 17, 1864. The USS Housatonic floated in Charleston Harbor atop calm, cold waters. Below the surface, a group of Confederate soldiers sweated bullets as they cranked the propellers of the H. L. Hunley, speeding toward the Union's Housatonic on a historic mission: they would become the first submarine crew ever to sink an enemy ship. A 135-pound torpedo struck the Housatonic's stern, detonating a fiery explosion that sank the vessel within minutes. The Hunley then surfaced just long enough for the crew to flash a blue magnesium light, signaling to fellow forces on the shore that the mission succeeded and the submarine would return. And it did—but not until almost 140 years later, when it was raised from the harbor's sandy bottom on August 8, 2000, after author Clive Cussler discovered the wreck intact.

Today, the leaders of the nonprofit H. L. Hunley Submarine seek to conserve, restore, and ultimately exhibit this historic vessel, as well as solve the mystery of how it completed its mission only to vanish moments later. They welcome visitors to see the submarine in its current condition—within a 90,000-gallon conservation tank—and educate guests on the vessel's many details. Guides walk guests through features such as the manual-propulsion system and automatic moon roof, and illuminate exhibits such as a lifesize model from the TNT movie The Hunley.

Since its founding by Marion Reid in 1969—and through its adoption by current owners Michelle and David Folden—Stono River Riding Academy has helped riders connect with temperate steeds and with their natural surroundings on 360 acres of trees and pastures. During classes and leisurely rides, trainers lead mounted explorers through the labyrinthine passageways of Johns Island, passing beneath billowing drapes of Spanish moss and escaping the cacophony of urban areas. Stono River’s staff always keeps safety in mind, ensuring that pupils wear proper equipment and familiarize themselves with all the confusing controls on the horses' dashboards.

Repeating a tradition that went back to their high-school days, three college friends sat on a Capers Island beach, roasting oysters over a cedar fire. They looked out at all the undeveloped land of the barrier islands and the low country, feeling like the sole witnesses to the beauty of pristine nature—and recognized that was a problem. Understanding that both tourists and locals were overlooking these untouched salt marshes and tidal pools, they decided to launch Barrier Island Eco Tours to help instill a greater respect and appreciation in the greater population. After receiving permission from the Department of Natural Resources, and with just a six-passenger boat, they began taking guests out on eco tours, fishing trips, and beach cookouts.

Today, Barrier Island’s naturalists have a fleet of boats for their six eco-friendly adventures such as sunset cruises to see bottlenose dolphins, a wildlife tours of Capers Island, and guided fishing trips for trophies such as redfish, shark, and stealth submarines. They also organize group and special events, from weddings to school fieldtrips.

Purchased by philanthropist Archer Huntington and his wife, Anna Hyatt Huntington, in 1929, the 9,127 acres of forest, swamp, rice fields and beachfront that became Brookgreen Gardens were originally intended to become the couple’s winter home. Instead, they created a nonprofit institution in 1931 that transformed the property into the first sculpture garden in the United States. Brookgreen Gardens now adorns more than 300 acres of gardens and facilities with more than 1,400 works. A National Historic Landmark, Brookgreen Gardens fields a staff that edifies guests on the property’s plantation history and its gardens’ evolution during seasonally shifting programs, exhibitions, and tours. A medieval, seven-circuit Chartres labyrinth lures visitors with its serene quietude, an exhibit chronicles the narrative of the land from Native American occupation through the present, archeological sites unearth information about life on rice plantations, and the museum’s zoo beckons the intellectually curious with its critters.