"We are honored to host our community and collectively reflect on our park's founding and how our impact has grown since 1976." That is how Superintendent Gregory Hauburger described the anniversary weekend in the National Park Service announcement released in September. The weekend took place October 17 and 18 at the Harry Hampton Visitor Center on National Park Road, and the timing lined up with the date itself. Congaree Swamp National Monument was signed into law on October 18, 1976.
In the days leading up to it, the water was high. A Park Service alert dated October 14 said the Congaree River and Cedar Creek were above flood stage, and that Sims, Weston Lake, Oakridge, Boggy Gut, Kingsnake, Bates Ferry and Fork Swamp trails were underwater, along with parts of the low boardwalk. The floodwater that closes the backcountry is what grew the trees a group of South Carolinians spent the 1970s trying to save.
The campaign took two decades to start and one year to finish
People in Hopkins drive past the visitor center so often that it's easy to forget the park came out of a political campaign, and a quick one once it got going. The Park Service's own administrative history of Congaree and SCETV's Roots in the River lay out the sequence between them:
- 1954. Harry Hampton, a nature writer and longtime associate editor at The State, raises the idea of permanently protecting the forest.
- 1959. Hampton brings Park Service and Nature Conservancy representatives into the forest.
- 1963. The Park Service recommends a national monument. Nothing happens.
- 1972. As logging resumes, supporters form the Congaree Swamp National Preserve Association. They work alongside local Sierra Club groups and run tours of the Beidler Tract for potential backers.
- September 20, 1975. The association's "Congaree Action Now!" rally in Columbia draws about 700 people.
- September 21, 1976. Congress passes the act establishing the monument, a year and a day after the rally. It's signed on October 18.
- 2003. A new law expands the unit and renames it Congaree National Park.
The same history notes that the campaign moved fast compared with the Redwoods effort, which took about 50 years. In an October 8 commentary for the SC Daily Gazette, John Kupfer, who has researched Congaree for more than 20 years, wrote that the park exists "because a group of South Carolinians in the 1970s refused to let it disappear," at a time when "timber prices were climbing, and the old-growth giants of the Congaree floodplain were at risk of being logged."
Some of the push came from much closer to the ground. SCETV's Roots in the River tells of a school-bus trip by children that moved owner Frank Beidler, who afterward said he was willing to sell the property. Another part of the same series records area residents remembering the swamp, and those memories came before the wider public interest in preserving it.
What the weekend was built around
Most of the anniversary program looked back at that campaign. Ranger talks carried titles like "Congaree Action Now! The Effort to Preserve the Green Heart of South Carolina" and "Tall & Stately as the Trees: Congaree & the Enduring Legacy of Harry Hampton." The Voices of Congaree speaker series ran on both days, and the formal anniversary ceremony was Sunday at 12:15 p.m.
The program that tied the weekend most directly to 1976 was Sunday's 9 a.m. Big Tree Hike, led by John Cely. The Park Service history includes a 1974 photo of Cely counting tree rings with Jim Elder and Dr. James Tanner, captioned as park proponents researching the floodplain "as they built a case for national significance." More than fifty years after that photo, he was leading the public through the same forest.
Saturday featured a "50 for 50 BioBlitz," programs from Carolina Wildlife Center and Riverbanks Zoo, and a 5:45 p.m. Owl Prowl. Every program was free and either took place at the Harry Hampton Visitor Center or started from it.
The floodwater is what made the forest worth saving
The Park Service sums up the place this way: almost 80% of the park sits in the Congaree River floodplain, and it floods about ten times a year. The team behind a new anthology about the park describes what that water does. The Congaree and Wateree rivers "sweep through the floodplain, carrying nutrients and sediments that nourish and rejuvenate this ecosystem and support the growth of national and state champion trees."
So a backcountry trail going underwater is the process that built the forest Hampton started defending in 1954. For anyone living a few miles away, the useful question is which parts of the park stay open while it happens. The October 14 alert answered that:
| During a flood | Trails and sections |
|---|---|
| Open and accessible | All elevated boardwalk sections, Bluff Trail, Firefly Trail, Longleaf Trail |
| Underwater, inaccessible | Sims, Weston Lake, Oakridge, Boggy Gut, Kingsnake, Bates Ferry, Fork Swamp, low boardwalk sections |
The Park Service links two USGS gauges from its current conditions page. Flood stage is about 8 feet on the Cedar Creek gauge and about 15 feet on the Congaree River gauge at the park's west boundary. Water levels can change from one day to the next, so check those readings and the alert on the morning you go. Don't count on the October 14 status still holding.
The same page has a few other cautions. Trees down across Cedar Creek between Bannister's Bridge and South Cedar Creek can mean long portages for paddlers, depending on the water level. Oakridge, Boggy Gut and Kingsnake can be hard to follow even when they're dry, and the Park Service says GPS is necessary on them. Leashed dogs are welcome on every trail in the park. And mosquitoes hang on from mid-spring until mid-fall, so late October may still call for repellent.
What stays after the weekend
The anniversary was two days long. Here's what's still around now that it's over.
A book. Old Growth: An Anthology Inspired by Congaree National Park, from Liberation Is Lit Press, gathers poems, essays, paintings and photographs by people who spent time in and around the park. The project site says many of the pieces take up the region's history "as a place of rest and refuge for Native and African Americans," along with the UNESCO-designated Congaree Biosphere Reserve. The cover art is Swamp Knees by Mary Edna Fraser. The project team includes Cassie Premo Steele, Catalina Zavala Olvera, Julie K. Hansard, Kat Martin, Maggie Olszewski and Tayler Simon, and proceeds benefit Friends of Congaree Swamp. You can order it through the Congaree Anthology project site.
A year of looking back. The anniversary year began well before October. Friends of Congaree Swamp held a research symposium on January 30 under the title "50 Years of Research at Congaree Swamp." Cely spoke about how Congaree has changed, and the souvenir posters reproduced the cover of the original Congaree Action Now brochure.
A calmer calendar. These are the next programs on the park calendar:
- Saturday, October 24, 10 a.m. Fall Forest Wellness Journaling
- Saturday, November 14, 10 a.m. Forest Wellness Yoga
- Saturday, December 12, 10 a.m. Forest Wellness Yoga
The journaling session is this Saturday, two days from now. These aren't billed as anniversary programs, and park calendars change, so confirm the listing or call the Harry Hampton Visitor Center before you head out.
A reminder about getting home. The Park Service warns that taxis and rideshares rarely come out to Congaree and the bus may not be running. If someone is dropping you off for a morning program, set up the ride back first.
The anniversary ceremony is over and the low trails reopen whenever the water drops. The Bluff, Firefly and Longleaf trails and the elevated boardwalk stay open through most floods, and the floodwater keeps feeding the forest Harry Hampton started defending in 1954.
At Bowen & Associates Realty, we're glad to share what we know about Hopkins and the rest of Lower Richland, from Congaree's trails to the details that matter when you decide to buy or sell nearby. If you'd like to know what your Hopkins home is worth, request an Instant Home Valuation or schedule a free consultation with our broker-led team.
