FEATURED DESTINATION Hilton Head, South Carolina History A little history now - to provide a better feel for the island's roots and put all the green space into perspective: Hilton Head is named for Captain William Hilton, an English explorer who discovered the island in 1663 and named it after himself: Hilton Head ("head" referring to the "headlands" he first saw as he was exploring the coast). Indians had of course settled on HHI from very early on, followed by English settlers in the early 1700's. Not to gloss over historical significance, but the short story is that the Island figured prominently in the Civil war, being used as a landing point for forces, transfer point for POWs and at the end of the war, when all the troops departed, it became home to communities of freed slaves who began farming and harvesting oysters for sustenance. In the late 1800's Northerners began to hunt and fish on the island, eventually purchasing plantations and Federal land for hunt clubs. Electricity reached the island in 1951; the first bridge, completed in 1956, made the island more accessible; then the first phone was installed in 1960. During this time, Charles Fraser, son of the family who owned the land at the south end of HHI, began an aggressive development called Sea Pines, the first planned community on the island. This new resort destination was the first to preserve the island's natural beauty and environment. This revolutionary idea struck a chord with island leaders and actually set the ground work for the island's master plan. Development continued on HHI, but under strict guidelines many based on Fraser's extraordinarily forward thinking environmental covenants, thus creating the series of communities coexisting with nature and ecology that you see here today. Map of Hilton Head Island Recommended Reading in association with Amazon.com
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