Wadboo Creek

HISTORY When paddling Wadboo Creek, you are paddling history. This creek, like many in Berkeley County, was used to move goods and produce hundreds of years ago. It is believed that General Marion’s last engagement and victory happed near the Wadboo.

“Wadboo was a native American name given to the enormous landholding of James Colleton, a son of Sir John Colleton, who was one of the original eight Lords Proprietors of the Carolina colony. On August 29, 1782, a British foraging party, made up of white and black troops and commanded by Maj. Thomas Fraser, attacked Brig. Gen. Francis Marion and his militiamen at Wadboo, where they had camped the night before. Arranging his Brigade around the main house and slave quarters and along a lane of large cedar trees (across the creek from here), Marion beat back the British attack. During the engagement, Maj. Micajah Ganey, a former Tory who had recently come over to the Whig side in a treaty at Burch’s Mill, fought heroically with Marion. From shortly after the skirmish until the British abandoned South Carolina in December, Francis Marion made Wadboo his headquarters. Here on December 15, 1782, the day after the British evacuation of Charleston, Marion dismissed his Brigade and made for his own ruined plantation of Pond Bluff.” (Source: Historical Marker at Wadboo Creek)

Today it is used for recreation, everything from kayaking to canoeing to fishing. There is even camping off of Wadboo Creek. Wadboo Creek is part of the Berkeley Blueways, a system of 24 paddling trails in Berkeley County with over 225 miles of navigable waters. During your visit you may see osprey, bald eagles or even an alligator.

CONSERVATION In 1997 & 2002 the Lord Berkeley Conservation Trust secured two conservation easements on the approximately 3,100 acres surrounding Wadboo Creek. The easement protects a bottomland forest, unique limestone bluffs, eiqht miles of a freshwater creek and a Revolutionary War battle site. The easement preserves access to the public on a seven-mile long canoe and kayak trail through the swamp. The Wadboo is also accessible from the Palmetto Trail, where the trail's Swamp Fox Passage crosses the upper section of Wadboo on Francis Marion National Forest property. Santee Cooper acquired the Wadboo tract as part of the Santee Cooper Hydroelectric and Navigation Project constructed between 1939 and 1942. The project created lakes Marion and Moultrie, the state's largest freshwater resource.