South Carolina |
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| Entered the Union: May 23, 1788 (8) | Capital: Columbia | |
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Origin of Name: Carolina was named to honor Charles IX of France
and then Charles I and Charles II of England. |
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State Nicknames: Palmetto State • Keystone of the South Atlantic Seaboard
• The Iodine State • The Rice State |
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| State Flower: Carolina Yellow Jessamine | State Bird: Carolina Wren | |
| State Animal: White-tailed Deer | State Tree: Cabbage Palmetto | |
| State Reptile: Loggerhead Sea Turtle | State Wildflower: Goldenrod | |
| State Amphibian: Spotted Salamander | State Dog: Boykin Spaniel | |
| State Butterfly: Eastern Tiger Swallowtail | State Gem Stone: Amethyst | |
| State Game Bird: Wild Turkey | State Song: “Carolina” | |
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State Mottos: Animis opibusque parati (Prepared in mind and resources) •
Dum spiro spero (While I breathe, I hope) |
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| National Forest: 1 • State Forests: 4 • State Parks: 47 | ||
| Famous For: Myrtle Beach, Magnolia & Cypress Gardens, Hilton Head Resorts | ||
| Famous South Carolinians: John C. Calhoun (statesman), Mark Clark (general), Joe Frazier (boxer), Athea Gibson (tennis), Dizzy Gillespie (jazz trumpeter), Andrew Jackson (President), Francis Marion "Swamp Fox" (Revolutionary general), Ronald McNair (astronaut), John Rutledge (US Supreme Court), William Westmoreland (general), Vanna White (TV personality), Charles Townes (Nobel Prize-physicist) | ||
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Birds & Animals: Click on the photos to find out more about them
and hear the sounds they make. |
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| Several Native American groups lived in South Carolina. Largest among these were the Cherokee, Catawba, and Yamasee. | ||||||||||||||
| The Spanish tried unsuccessfully to establish a colony near present-day Georgetown in 1526, and the French also failed to colonize Parris Island near Fort Royal in 1562. The first English settlement was made in 1670 at Albemarle Point on the Ashley River, but poor conditions drove the settlers to the site of Charleston. | ||||||||||||||
| King Charles I of England granted the land on which South Carolina is located to Sir Robert Heath in 1629. The region was named Carolina, a word derived from the Latin form of Charles, in reference to King Charles. | ||||||||||||||
| During the Revolutionary War, the almost legendary figure Francis Marion (the Swamp Fox), contributed to the British retreat. Marion and his men would hide in the swamps and strike out in surprise at British troops, only to vanish again into the unwelcoming swampland. British forces finally withdrew from Charleston in 1782. | ||||||||||||||
| The walls of the American fort on Sullivan Island, in Charleston Harbor, were made of spongy Palmetto logs. This was helpful in protecting the fort because the British cannonballs bounced off the logs. | ||||||||||||||
| South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union. The Civil War began in 1861 at Fort Sumter as South Carolinan troops fired on Federal troops. | ||||||||||||||
| The City of Myrtle Beach is in the center of the Grand Strand, a 60-mile crescent of beach on the South Carolina coast. In the last 25 years, Myrtle Beach has developed into the premier resort destination on the East Coast. | ||||||||||||||
| There are more than 300 public and private golf courses in South Carolina. | ||||||||||||||
| The Saint Cecilia Society, organized in 1766, was America's first musical society and sponsored the country's earliest ongoing concert series. | ||||||||||||||
| South Carolina grows more peaches than any other state except California. | ||||||||||||||
| Johnston is known as the Peach Capital of the World. | ||||||||||||||
| The only commercial tea plantation in America is in South Carolina on Wadmalaw Island. | ||||||||||||||
| The Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame features champion thoroughbred flat racers and steeplechase horses trained in Aiken. | ||||||||||||||
| A noble Catawba Indian who befriended early Camden settlers, King Haiglar is often called "The Patron Saint of Camden." | ||||||||||||||
| Sumter has the largest Gingko farm in the world. | ||||||||||||||
| The Lake City tobacco market was established in 1898, and has grown to become one of the two largest markets in South Carolina during the 20th-century auction era. | ||||||||||||||
| Sweetgrass basket making has been a part of the Mount Pleasant community for more than 300 years. Basket making is a traditional art form that has been passed on from generation to generation. | ||||||||||||||
| Each year thousands of Purple Martins return to Bomb island on Lake Murray to roost for the spring and summer. It is quite a sight to watch these birds return to Bomb Island each day around sunset. | ||||||||||||||
| The Edisto Memorial Gardens in Orangeburg displays past and current award winning roses from the All-American Rose Selections. | ||||||||||||||
| Summerville is the "The Flower Town in the Pines." Since the early 1900s tourists have flocked to the town during early spring to enjoy millions of spring blossoms, particularly azaleas. | ||||||||||||||
| The Upper Whitewater Falls is the highest cascade in eastern America; it descends for nearly 411 feet. | ||||||||||||||
| On Nov 2, 1954 Strom Thurmond (R) became the first US senator elected by write-in vote. Thurmond received 139,106 write-in votes to win his seat. | ||||||||||||||
| South Carolina's Ethnic Roots: African American 29.5%, American 13.9%, German 8.4%, English 8.4%, Irish 7.9%. "Americans" are likely descendents of Scots-Irish settlers. | ||||||||||||||
| Religion in South Carolina: 92% Christian (84% Protestant, 7% Catholic, 1% Other), 7% No Religion, 1% Other Religions | ||||||||||||||
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South Carolina has some towns with funny/unusual names like Coward, Due West, Ninetimes, Ninety Six, Southern Shops, South of the Border, and Welcome. |
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| The palmetto, South Carolina's state tree, grows in coastal areas of North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. |
At a Glance
South Carolina Quick Facts
| Entered the Union | May 23, 1788 (8) |
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| Capital | Columbia |
| Nickname | Palmetto State • Keystone of the South Atlantic Seaboard |
| State Bird | Carolina Wren |
| State Flower | Carolina Yellow Jessamine |
| State Tree | Cabbage Palmetto |
New for 2026
More South Carolina Facts & Photos
Congaree, redesignated a national park in 2003, protects the largest intact tract of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest left in the United States, beneath one of the tallest deciduous canopies in the world.
South Carolina's state fossil is the Columbian mammoth, adopted in 2014 after an 8-year-old girl wrote to lawmakers. She pointed out that mammoth teeth dug up by enslaved workers on a lowcountry plantation in 1725 were among the earliest fossils identified in North America.
In February 1864 the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley sank the USS Housatonic outside Charleston Harbor, becoming the first submarine ever to sink an enemy warship. Lost that same night, the Hunley was finally raised from the seafloor in 2000.
The Angel Oak on Johns Island, estimated at 400 to 500 years old, stands about 66 feet tall and casts 17,200 square feet of shade. Its longest limb stretches 187 feet.
Sassafras Mountain, the state's highest point at 3,553 feet, straddles the North Carolina line. An observation tower opened at the summit in 2019 with views into three states.
Brookgreen Gardens near Murrells Inlet, founded by Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington in 1931, was America's first public sculpture garden and holds the country's largest collection of American figurative sculpture.
Voices of America
In Their Own Words
Andrew Jackson
"The Bible is the rock on which this Republic rests."
President
John C. Calhoun
"It is harder to preserve than to obtain liberty."
Statesman
Andrew Jackson
"Every good citizen makes his country's honor his own, and cherishes it not only as precious but as sacred. He is willing to risk his life in its defense and its conscious that he gains protection while he gives it."
President
John Rutledge
"By doing good with his money, a man, as it were, stamps the image of God upon it, and makes it pass, current for the merchandise of heaven."
Supreme Court
Robert E. Lee
"The gentleman does not needlessly and unnecessarily remind an offender of a wrong he may have committed against him. He can not only forgive; he can forget; and he strives for that nobleness of self and mildness of character which imparts sufficient strength to let the past be put the past."
Confederate General
Thomas Jefferson
"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."
President
George Washington
"Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company."
President
Last updated: July 2026