We Call It "The Waterway"

We call it “the waterway”

Is the Intra-coastal Waterway (ICW) the great divide in Horry County?

The ICW is a 3,000-mile water-way corridor from Maine to Texas to move goods, commodities, and military assets.

The east-coast portion was conceived in the early 1800’s to connect natural inland waterways with man-made portions for safe and secure shipping along the Atlantic coast but not in the open sea. The man-made portion in Horry County, which is the longest and one of the last links of the ICW, connects 22 miles from Little River Inlet to Enterprise Landing at the southern portion of the Waccamaw River just south of the Socastee swing bridge. Built in the mid-1930’s as a part of President Roosevelt’s public works programs, many describe it as one of the most important infrastructure projects ever in Horry County and claim that it drained about 15,000 acres of low-lying wet areas for farming and future development.

Sounds great, right! Well, the folks in the greater Conway area argued a better and less expensive approach was to dig a 7-mile canal from Little River to the Waccamaw River and dredging the Waccamaw making it navigable for larger watercraft which would have benefitted the Conway area economically.

That’ when divide began between the west side of the waterway and the east side of the waterway and we continue to see it today as a divider and separator of our communities economically, socially, and politically.

Until Next Time,

Jimmy Crack Corn: I Don’t Care

Saturday Cartoon 3-16-24

It's pronounced Or-ree!!!

This first edition offers some insights into this weekly article and provides a brief history of Horry County. Our readers can expect an array of subjects, topics, and stories, both current and past, that have opinion, fact, and some stories passed down over time with no collaboration aka Horry County lure. No subject will be off-limits, and the goal is to be entertaining, informative, thought provoking, and simply a fun read. Horry County: Pronounced (OR-ree), was occupied primarily by the Chicora Indian before English settlement in the early 1700’s. Not named Horry County until 1801, initial settlement was in 1732 by English settlers that made their way up the Waccamaw River from Georgetown to settle on a high bluff area overlooking the river where history claims the group of explores killed a bear eventually naming the area Kings Town in honor of the English King to later be named Conway. Located in the easternmost region of the State, fr...

Rankin Out of Touch

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