For the past week we have been in Charleston, SC to visit friends. We have visited before, right at the start of our trip, but it was a fun stop on the way to Jacksonville, FL. We had tons of fun here because there was so much to see, even in our campground. We visited two forts, Fort Sumpter and the lesser known Fort Multree. We stayed in the same campground as last time, and right next to the spot we stayed in also. The most interesting place we visited was probably a tea plantation, although I am not really a tea person, the history and method of harvesting and processing was just interesting to me.
Fort Sumpter was built as part of a larger plan to protect America’s coast from pirates and other nations. It was built on top of a man made island, which itself took years to build. Construction started in 1837, and by 1861 it was almost finished. Unfortunately, by that time South Carolina had seceded, with many more states to follow. The day after Christmas 1860 in the middle of the night the Union commander of the troops at Fort Multree, feeling threatened by the confederacy telling him to surrender, moved his men in the middle of the night to Fort Sumpter. A few days later the confederates opened fire, and the Union troops were forced to surrender after 36 hours. For most of the rest of the war the fort was held by the Confederacy, until Sherman, threatening Charleston forced them to evacuate. After the war a new more modern fort was built in it’s ruins, but never saw action. It was decommissioned and turned into a park in 1947.
Fort Multree has a much longer history. It started as a Revolutionary fort, built to stop the British from getting into the strategically important Charleston. It was made of palmetto logs and earth, which turned out to be pretty good against cannonballs when nine British warships attempted to get through. The soft, spongy logs, instead of being shattered by the cannon balls, absorbed and deflected them until the British were forced to retreat. Unfortunately that fort was very temporary, and it was destroyed in a storm. The second fort, which the Union troops left in favor of Fort Sumpter was also destroyed in a hurricane. Like Fort Sumter, a newer battery that never saw action was built here during the 1880’s. During WW2 it functioned as a guard against German U-boats, in addition to harbor control. It was also decommissioned in 1947.
My favorite thing we saw on this trip was a tea plantation. It is the only large scale tea plantation in the United States, which was repeated many times on the tour. All the tea plants are direct descendants of a few plants brought over in the 1880’s by a doctor for his own farm. When he died the plants were forgotten until Lipton was attempting to find a cheaper way to grow Tea, so they took cuttings of the plants to see if they would actually grow. They did, but Lipton decided not to pursue it, instead they sold it. Thanks to that we were able to have an interesting tour on the process of making tea. I think the most interesting thing I learned is that all types of tea come from the same plant. What makes them different is how long they are exposed to air, with black tea being the longest and green the shortest. Despite their claim that they are primarily a commercial business, both Dad and I think that the real money is in the 15 dollars per person bus tours. Despite that it was fun and informative.
We all had a great time in Charleston, and I definitely can’t wait to visit again. Maybe we will see some cool new sights, or even stay in a different campground! All jokes aside it loved it here, the climate was very nice and Charleston has just as many cool things to see in the city as out of it. Thank you to the Dearings for inviting us to come and visit, it is always more fun to do things when you do them with friends.
I’ve never seen tea growing. The tour sounds fascinating!