South Carolina

Congaree National Park preserves the largest tract of old growth bottomland hardwood forest left in the United States. Located in South Carolina, the... 26,546-acre national park received that designation in 2003 as the culmination of a grassroots campaign which had started in 1969. The lush trees growing in this floodplain forest are some of the tallest in the Eastern U.S., forming one of the highest temperate deciduous forest canopies remaining in the world. The Congaree River flows through the park. 15,000 acres or about 57 percent of the park is designated wilderness area. In 1969, the Sierra Club launched a grassroots campaign to save this area of old growth forest from private landowners interested in relatively high timber prices. The result of this campaign was the establishment by Congress of Congaree Swamp National Monument on October 18, 1976. The national monument became an International Biosphere Reserve on June 30, 1983. Over two-thirds of the national monument was designated a wilderness area on October 24, 1988, and it became an Important Bird Area on July 26, 2001.
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The Columbia Canal is the surviving canal of a series of canals built by the State of South Carolina in 1824 using the labor of Irish immigrants to... provide a direct water routes between the upstate settlements and the towns on the fall line. It is on the Congaree and Broad Rivers in Columbia, South Carolina. It is the focal point of the Riverfront Park in Columbia. The canal is now used to generate hydroelectric power by the South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. The Columbia Canal is on the National Register of Historic Places, No. 79002392. The South Carolina Department of Archives and History has additional pictures and information, and copies of the nomination forms. There are additional pictures, and information available from the Historic American Engineering Record at the Library of Congress. In 1820, construction started on a canal to navigate the rapids where the Broad River and the Saluda River form the Congaree River. It used a natural ravine that was between the City of Columbia and the Congaree and Broad Rivers. The canal started between Lumber and Richland Streets. It ran along the Congaree for about 3.1 mi .
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The Landford Canal was the farthest upstream of a series of canals built on the Catawba and Wateree Rivers to provide a direct water route between... the upstate settlements and the towns on the fall line. It is located along the Catawba River in Chester County and Lancaster County west of Lancaster. It is named for an early settler, Thomas Land, who owned the land with a ford across the Catawba River. It is the centerpiece of the Landsford Canal State Park. In 1820, construction of the canal, which was designed by Robert Mills, began using slave labor and skilled laborers from the northern United States under the supervision of Robert Leckie. It was 2 mi long. It was 12 ft wide and ten ft deep. It had five locks for the 32 ft descent of the river. The canal was not a financial success. In 1824, one of the locks collapsed due to a poor foundation. Canal traffic, which was never high, had apparently ceased by 1840. The granite locks and the lock keeper's house survive. The Landsford Canal is on the National Register of Historic Places, No. 69000163.
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The South Carolina Governor's Mansion is a historic U.S. governor's mansion in the Arsenal Hill neighborhood of Columbia, South Carolina and the... official residence of the Governor of South Carolina. It is a Federal style home influenced by British Colonial plantations. The building has a white stucco exterior and was originally part of Arsenal Academy, a state military school. The academy closed because of the American Civil War, the city of Columbia burned in 1865 and the mansion was the only surviving building of the school. The house became South Carolina's executive mansion in 1868. On June 5, 1970, the building was registered with the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The mansion is located on a single city block, and is surrounded by magnolia plants, elm and oak trees, and various other plants. It is accessed by a circular driveway around a fountain in front on the residence's main entrance. The building has a flat roof and a large central pavilion around the main entrance. The mansion has 15 rooms .
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Mary-Louise Parker is an American actress, known for her current lead role on Showtime's television series Weeds portraying Nancy Botwin, for which she has received several nominations and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in 2006. Parker has appeared in films and series such as RED, Fried... Green Tomatoes, Boys on the Side, The West Wing, and Angels in America, for which she received a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Parker is also the recipient of the 2001 Tony Award for Best Actress for the Broadway play Proof. Parker was born in Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Her mother, Caroline Louise , was of part Swedish descent, and her father, John Morgan Parker, was a judge who served in the U.S. Army. Because of her father's career, Parker spent parts of her childhood in Tennessee and Texas, as well as in Thailand, Germany, and France. Parker majored in drama at the North Carolina School of the Arts. Parker got her start in a bit part on the soap opera Ryan's Hope. In the late 1980s, Parker moved to New York, where she got a job measuring feet at ECCO.
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Kimilee Karyn Bryant is an American actress, singer and former Miss South Carolina. Bryant is best known for playing the role of Christine Daae in the Broadway and other productions of The Phantom of the Opera, and later the role of Carlotta in the same musical. She has sung at Lincoln Center's... Avery Fisher Hall and played many roles in U. S. regional theatres and opera, including at New York City Center with the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players. Bryant grew up in Berea near Greenville, South Carolina, the daughter of dance teacher Karen C. Bryant. She attended Travelers Rest High School and Converse College, where she earned a Bachelor of Music degree, and then the Manhattan School of Music, where she earned a Master's Degree in vocal performance in 1992 and studied with Mignon Dunn. Bryant also studied voice at Greenville's Fine Arts Center and the South Carolina Governor's School of the Arts. She studied dance at Broadway Dance Center and acting with Terry Schreiber at the T. Schreiber Studio in New York City. Bryant was a regional Metropolitan Opera Auditions winner .
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Ronnie Free is an American jazz drummer. His recording credits date back to the 1950s, and has collaborated with several notable session musicians, including Mose Allison, Oscar Pettiford, pianist Sonny Clark, and Woody Herman.

Jacob E. "Jake" Scott III is a former American football free safety and punt returner who played from 1970 to 1978 for the Miami Dolphins and Washington Redskins of the National Football League. Scott went to the Pro Bowl five consecutive times between 1971, and 1975. He recorded 35 interceptions... in his six seasons as a Dolphin, and another 14 in his three years with the Redskins. He was also a five-time All-Pro. Scott wore number 13 throughout his career , which was later made famous in Miami by Dan Marino, and has since been retired in Marino's honor. After growing up in Athens, Georgia, Scott played college football at the University of Georgia, where he led Georgia in interceptions in 1967 with six interceptions and 1968 with ten interceptions. In 1967, Scott was named first-team All-SEC defensive back by the Associated Press, and in 1968 again in both the AP and the UPI. The ten interceptions in a season is now second-most in Georgia history behind Terry Hoage’s 12 in 1982. Scott’s 175 return yards on interceptions in 1968 is also second all-time for Georgia.
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Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. Named after... King George II of Great Britain, Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788. It declared its secession from the Union on January 21, 1861, and was one of the original seven Confederate states. It was the last state to be restored to the Union, on July 15, 1870. Georgia is the 24th most extensive and the 9th most populous of the 50 United States. From 2007 to 2008, 14 of Georgia's counties ranked among the nation's 100 fastest-growing, second only to Texas. Georgia is known as the Peach State and the Empire State of the South. Atlanta is the state's capital and its most populous city. Georgia is bordered on the south by Florida; on the east by the Atlantic Ocean and South Carolina; on the west by Alabama; and on the north by Tennessee and North Carolina. The northern part of the state is in the Blue Ridge Mountains, a mountain range in the vast Appalachian Mountains system.
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