In June 2001, the Georgetown County Historical Society, the Coastal Conservation League and several landowners along the Pee Dee requested that the S.C. Department of Natural Resources seek State Scenic River designation for the Great Pee Dee River.
In 2002, the governor signed a bill designating approximately 70 miles of the Great Pee Dee as a Scenic River from the US 378 Bridge between Florence and Marion Counties to the US 17 Bridge at Winyah Bay.
Most of the land bordering the river is flood-plain forest. The corridor is a 70-mile by three-mile swath of high-quality wildlife habitat, boasting 120 species of fish, at least 25 rare plant species, several endangered and threatened species, nearly every species of duck home to the state, a number of wading birds and fur-bearing species, and typical South Carolina game species, such as whitetail deer and turkey.
River travelers notice a distinct change in the Great Pee Dee’s character as they go from the U.S. 378 bridge to Winyah Bay. Cypress-tupelo and bottomland hardwood forests, sandy point bars and many interconnected oxbow lakes surround the upper portions of the river. Abandoned channels of the river, (e.g., Jordan Lake, Thomas Lake), can be explored in small boats.
Below the confluence with the Little Pee Dee, another adjoining State Scenic River, the sandy point bars and banks disappear. The surrounding forest becomes tidal swamp. The main forest species are still present, but some, like the swamp and black willows that dominate sandy banks upstream, vanish completely. A final transition occurs below Thoroughfare Creek, where the freshwater tidal marshes, once cultivated as part of antebellum rice plantations, begin to displace the tidal swamp forest.
For more information on the Great Pee Dee Scenic River project, contact Bill Marshall, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources at 803-734-9096.
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