Charleston South Carolina

MAGNOLIA PLANTATION 

We spent the last four days in Charleston South Carolina.  The first day here we toured the Magnolia Plantation.  It's a little early for many flowers to be in bloom but there were camellia, azaleas and a few others I never got the name of.  They have a small petting zoo but it was not very nice.  We took a trolley ride around the entire plantation and did see a lot of water birds and many alligators.  

The plantation also had several slave cabins and we were able to go through one of them.  The one we went through looked like a two room cabin in the U.P. with a fireplace in the middle but the furnishings were bare minimum to say the least.   This was a rice plantation and our guide said many slaves died from malaria; and some from alligators as well.  

We learned a lot about the history of Magnolia Plantation on a boat tour of the Ashley River and the marshes that were once the rice fields.  The rice fields these days are filled with cattails and grasses as well as MANY alligators.  We saw many laying in the sun and jumping in the water. An interesting bird identified to us is the American Coot.  They are commonly mistaken for ducks but have feet like chickens.  When they take off from the water it looks like they are walking on water. Our boat captain made many of them 'walk on water' as he channeled through the marsh. 

Boardwalks running through the Swamp Garden was very pretty because of all the duck weed making it a beautiful green.  Alligators, turtles, swans and cranes were everywhere.  Cypress and tupelo gum trees were beautifully decorated with long strands of spanish moss, which by the way is neither Spanish nor a moss but is similar to an air plant.  :-)

Magnolia Plantation