Soutwest Boundary Dike

The Southwest Boundary Dike is significant for its ability to yield information about settlement patterns in the region. Beginning in 1730, small farmers moved into the backcountry of South Carolina to find fertile farmland and to create “buffer zones” between the backcountry and the heavy coastal settlement centered around the city of Charleston. After the end of the Cherokee War in 1761 and the establishment of the state capital at Columbia in 1786, wealthy planters moved into the Congaree River valley to introduce the plantation system to the region. Settlers built dikes in an effort to control the periodic flooding of the Congaree River and utilize the fertile swampland on its border to grow crops. The cost of building and maintaining large earthen dike systems using slave labor in the disease-ridden swamp discouraged the efforts of most land owners and led to the decline of large-scale farming in the area. The dike is a 3-to-4-foot high earthen dike running northwest to southeast for approximately 650 feet, interrupted by a gut of water, and continuing for approximately 1300 to 1400 feet. The structure is covered with mature hardwood trees and other vegetation. Listed in the National Register November 25, 1996.

View the complete text of the nomination form for this National Register property. In addition, the Historic Agricultural Resources of Congaree Swamp National Monument, 1740-1900 includes historical background information for this and other related National Register properties.

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