Plantations

US Highway 17 is the main drag, running parallel to the great Atlantic, along the Grand Strand's coastal communities. When you're ready for a little exploring, you can follow it south out of Myrtle Beach and straight into history. Down past Murrells Inlet, the old ocean highway runs right through the middle of what were once vast plantations stretching from the river to the sea. This was rice country. That's right, rice. Only true history buffs know it, but this coastal area provided some 75% of the world's rice between the American Revolution and the Civil War. Here thrived the wealthiest aristocracy in early America. On tiny Pawleys Island, you can still see their summer homes, some dating from the 1700s.

A few of the old rice-producing giants still stand and are open to visitors, offering mute testimony to a time when a small golden grain and the chains of human bondage created a society doomed to tragedy.