Women's Clothing Boutique Near Me Yemassee, NC

YEMASSEE — Avid metal detector Bobbie Stasa prospected for the better part of two days on a plot of mostly wooded land in southern South Carolina without any luck.

“I hadn’t found a thing all weekend,” Stasa said, thinking her fortunes wouldn’t change with summer thunderstorms predicted for the next steamy day in August.

She was about to call it a day while walking on a dirt path not too far behind her husband, Brett, when she noticed an old brick beside the trail on a piece of property where they had been given permission to metal detect.

After kneeling for a better look, she glanced over to her left and saw an unusual object blending in with some browning leaves and natural ground cover.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Stasa said. “Is that real? It looked like an arrowhead.”

She picked it up, turned it over and marveled at what turned out to be a prehistoric find. Almost immediately, questions raced through her head: “What was it used for?” “Was it used for hunting?” “Was it part of how someone made a living a long time ago?”

Fascinated, Stasa sent a picture to a friend who forwarded it to an arrowhead enthusiast in Charleston. Amateur collector Darryl Beardsley rushed down U.S. Highway 17 to Yemassee to see it for himself.

“If she was finding stuff like that, I wanted to find something myself,” the amateur collector said with a chuckle.

Once Beardsley saw it, he immediately said it was not an arrowhead.

“It’s too big,” he said. “It’s about two inches long. Arrowheads are generally smaller than that, about one inch or so.”

‘Pretty incredible’

He believed it to be a stone most likely fashioned into a knife or a spear point and used by Native Americans eons ago.

“It’s pretty incredible,” Beardsley said. “You don’t find a whole lot like that.”

Stasa wanted more information about the discovery, so she reached out to a couple of specialists — one in Charleston and another at a magazine for metal detecting that aims to be a bridge between professional archaeologists and amateur historians.

Charleston Museum archaeologist Ron Anthony told The Post and Courier he believes her find dates to the Early Archaic Period around 6000 B.C. That would put it about 8,000 years old.

He said it looks most like a Kirk-style point, a name given to a group of triangular-looking stones possibly used as blades or darts.

What’s a Kirk?

“Kirk” is the name of a family who owned a farm in North Carolina where the objects were found and first categorized in 1964 by archaeologist Joffre Coe.

Kirk-type points are commonly found throughout the Eastern U.S., from the lower Great Lakes to north Florida.

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Anthony said Native Americans are believed to have been nomadic hunters-gatherers during the Early Archaic period and traveled in groups of 30 to 40. They didn’t stay in one place too long, so there is not a lot of debris fields from their seasonal camping sites.

“It’s not unusual to find isolated remains of a projectile point and nothing else that could have gotten there for any other reason,” Anthony said.

It’s difficult to say exactly what Stasa’s find was used for, but Anthony believes it was either a cutting tool attached to a handle at some point because of its stem at the base, or a dart point launched by a spear-thrower or atlatl.

He called it a cryptocrystalline, or microcystalline rock, with very fine granular structure that breaks in a predictable way, something Native Americans would have found practical to fashion into hunting tools.

Native Americans could have used the point of a deer antler for pressure flaking of the stone and used the base of the antler as a mallet to strike off parts of the rock to form the blade, Anthony said.

He also said it is not an arrowhead and doesn’t appear to be local.

‘Really a gem’

Agreeing with Anthony is a columnist with a background in archaeology at American Digger magazine.

Pete Schichtel, a New Jersey furniture restorer, has a passion for Native American artifacts and a knowledge of the stone tool culture of North America, according to American Digger’s biography of Schichtel.

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After Stasa contacted the Georgia-based journal and the publisher reached out to Schichtel, he said the agatized coral-like stone Stasa found is rare in South Carolina and could have been traded into what is now the Palmetto State.

Schichtel said it’s most likely a Hillsborough-type point, a name given to the objects from the area in north Florida where they are most commonly found.

But, he added, the exact type of point is “a little clouded” because Stasa’s find has features of similar objects found in north Florida that date back roughly to the Early and Middle Archaic periods as well as the characteristic stem of a “Kirk” variety.

He also said it’s possible the object started out for one use and, after resharpening over time, it took on qualities of another type of blade.

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How the object made its way to lower South Carolina is anyone’s guess, but Beardsley noted earth had been removed from a nearby creek during the past few years and it’s possible the object could have been dug up and the rain washed it to where Stasa found it.

“Nothing is wrapped up into a nice little package like most collectors and dealers want,” Schichtel said. “It’s really a gem though.”

As an aside, Schichtel’s past high-profile restoration projects include Woodrow Wilson’s pool table, Cole Porter’s piano and Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s desk, but he said a visitor is more likely to find grandma’s sewing machine being restored.

Reach Warren L. Wise at 843-937-5524. Follow him on Twitter @warrenlancewise.

A factory near Spartanburg that was the scene of a horrific explosion two years ago will shut down before Christmas.

The closure follows findings by state investigators that the company knew plastic dust and pellets in the plant could explode but didn’t tell its employees of the danger.

The blast at the Innovative Fibers plant on Nov. 1, 2021, badly burned three cleanup contractors and led to a $15,936 fine by the S.C. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Innovative Fibers and its parent company, Stein Fibers, declined to comment about the plant closure and fine.

State OSHA officials originally cited Stein for four violations and fined the company $21,250 but later reduced it to $15,936, records show.

Innovative Fibers recently notified the state that it would permanently shut down the plant Dec. 23, a loss of 71 jobs. Company representatives have said the plant is closing in part because of overseas competition.

The three workers were flown by helicopter to a burn center in Augusta. Their medical charges have since eclipsed $55 million, according to court documents and their attorneys. In a recent account, The Post and Courier chronicled one of the workers’ memories of what happened and its aftermath on his life and his family.

“I was in the intensive care unit for 144 days,” said Riley Draper. “I don’t remember anything about that time in the ICU, but I remember everything about the the explosion.”

The Innovative Fibers plant makes fiber fill and other plastic textiles from recycled plastic. As part of that process, conveyor belts of plastic pellets move through drying ovens, OSHA inspectors found. The explosion happened around those ovens as Draper and his colleagues cleaned dust in the rafters above.

BEAUFORT — Alpha Genesis Inc., a company that breeds thousands of monkeys in Yemassee for research, recently landed a new federal contract to run another large monkey colony on Morgan Island in the ACE Basin.

The move highlights Alpha Genesis’ status as one of the world’s largest breeders of monkeys for research and medical testing. It also makes it a bigger target for animal rights groups who say their work is inhumane.

Morgan Island is home to about 3,500 rhesus monkeys. It sits on some 400 acres of high ground at the mouth of the Combahee River, one of three rivers that form the ACE Basin estuary. Passing boaters can often spot monkeys lounging on the shore and scampering up the island’s pines. Locals call it “Monkey Island.”

The S.C. Department of Natural Resources owns Morgan Island, but the federal National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is responsible for the colony itself.

Alpha Genesis Inc. will be responsible for feeding the monkeys, providing veterinary aid and any other care services.

Government researchers typically pluck between 400 and 600 monkeys a year from the island. No testing is done on the island itself. Instead, monkeys are sent to researchers working on vaccines and medical treatments.

The federal government established the colony in the late 1970s, moving monkeys from another operation in Puerto Rico.

“Upon arrival, each animal was uncrated and given a complete physical exam, and then released to the wilds of ‘Monkey Island,’ as Morgan Island was immediately christened,” David Taub, former mayor of Beaufort who helped start the colony in the 1970s, later wrote in a column for The Island News.

Despite its remote location, at least seven monkeys escaped between 1980 and 1996, DNR reported in 2002. All were recaptured, including one on Lady’s Island more than 6 miles away.

A factory near Spartanburg that was the scene of a horrific explosion two years ago will shut down before Christmas.

The closure follows findings by state investigators that the company knew plastic dust and pellets in the plant could explode but didn’t tell its employees of the danger.

The blast at the Innovative Fibers plant on Nov. 1, 2021, badly burned three cleanup contractors and led to a $15,936 fine by the S.C. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Innovative Fibers and its parent company, Stein Fibers, declined to comment about the plant closure and fine.

State OSHA officials originally cited Stein for four violations and fined the company $21,250 but later reduced it to $15,936, records show.

Innovative Fibers recently notified the state that it would permanently shut down the plant Dec. 23, a loss of 71 jobs. Company representatives have said the plant is closing in part because of overseas competition.

The three workers were flown by helicopter to a burn center in Augusta. Their medical charges have since eclipsed $55 million, according to court documents and their attorneys. In a recent account, The Post and Courier chronicled one of the workers’ memories of what happened and its aftermath on his life and his family.

“I was in the intensive care unit for 144 days,” said Riley Draper. “I don’t remember anything about that time in the ICU, but I remember everything about the the explosion.”

The Innovative Fibers plant makes fiber fill and other plastic textiles from recycled plastic. As part of that process, conveyor belts of plastic pellets move through drying ovens, OSHA inspectors found. The explosion happened around those ovens as Draper and his colleagues cleaned dust in the rafters above.

A group that organizes pilgrimages to the only Frank Lloyd Wright home in South Carolina’s Lowcountry says it won’t offer any tours at all in 2020.

Auldbrass Plantation, built by Wright in 1939 for Michigan industrialist C. Leigh Stevens, is located just outside Yemassee in the northern reaches of Beaufort County.

Visitors come from all over the world for the event that has, for the past several years, been a fundraiser for the Beaufort County Open Land Trust.

Tickets are still available for this year’s tour weekend, set for Nov. 1 and 2, said a news release from Beaufort-based event planner Ashley Rhodes. They are $175 per person.

About 500 tickets are being sold for each day.

The tours are primarily self-guided, but small groups will be ushered through the inside of the home. Ticket-holders may tour the inside of the home once, either in the morning or the afternoon. The gates will close at 6 p.m.

Tickets are available through eventbrite.com by searching Auldbrass Tours 2019 or following the link on the Open County Land Trust’s website.

The property was bought by movie producer Joel Silver in 1987 and restored during the past three decades.

The 4,000-acre property on the Combahee River, is “one of the largest and most complex residential projects Wright ever undertook,” according to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.

Architectural Digest has featured Auldbrass, explaining that Wright worked on the home for nearly 20 years until his death in 1959.

Buildings on the property include a main house, caretaker’s house, kennels and stables.

There will be no food or beverages available on the site, Rhodes previously told The Island Packet. Parking will be along the street, and golf cart shuttles will bring visitors to the home.

Photos of the inside of the home are not allowed because it is a private residence containing Silver’s personal belongings.

This story was originally published June 28, 2019, 2:43 PM.

David Paul Murray of Yemassee was on his way to work Friday morning when an unusual white animal stopped him in the middle of the street.

“I thought it was an escaped ferret,” he said. “I thought, ‘Oh no, somebody’s pet got loose.’”

But then the animal moved, and he realized it was a white squirrel.

He pulled his work van to the side of Salkehatchie Road near the town’s municipal complex and took a few photos and some video as proof.

“Nobody’s going to believe I saw a white squirrel,” he said. “I’ve never seen a white squirrel in all my life.”

Yemassee Town Clerk Matt Garnes confirmed that a white squirrel lives in the area around Town Hall.

“It’s famous around here,” Garnes said. “He’s a fixture in Yemassee.”

Mayor Colin Moore said the squirrel has lived in the area around the town’s municipal complex and the nearby Baptist church for around two years and seems to be “street smart” enough to stay out of the road and away from harm.

Murray said that, before the squirrel darted farther from him Friday morning, he saw its red eyes. He used to own an albino rabbit, he said, so he knew what to look for.

“I wish I could have gotten closer,” he said.

The color of the animals eyes is important because that would distinguish the squirrel as an albino as opposed to an Eastern Gray squirrel with a white coat, according to the White Squirrel Research Institute. The latter would have dark eyes.

The institute is in Brevard, N.C., which is known for its large numbers of white squirrels.

Neither Garnes nor Moore could confirm the color of the Yemassee squirrel’s eyes.

“We’ve never gotten close enough to him to tell,” Garnes said.

In 2014, a reader shared photos of an albino squirrel — with the distinct pink eyes — on St. Helena Island with The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette.

Both albino squirrels and white-coated squirrels are rare sights.

Biologist Rob Nelson tracks sightings of white squirrels, both albinos and “morphs,” as white-coated squirrels are categorized, at untamedscience.com.

In a video on the website, he talks about the first time he saw a white squirrel in his neighborhood.

“I was like hoooooooooo-ly moly. That’s a white squirrel. And I had never seen a white squirrel. It was pretty cool,” he says in the video.

Nelson’s website includes a form people can fill in to report sightings. A map created from those reports indicates both albino squirrels and morphs have been seen before in the Lowcountry.

This story was originally published May 3, 2019, 2:27 PM.

Unlike a box of chocolates, you can know what you’re going to get with these places from Gump’s epic life

Twenty years have passed since Forrest Gump first regaled strangers on a Savannah park bench with tales of American history and boxes of chocolate, but the film remains an iconic part of our nation's film canon. Perhaps equally iconic are the film's locations—sweeping in breadth, the movie transports viewers from the American South to Vietnam.

For a taste of Forrest Gump's version of American history, skip the line at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and take a trip to one of these locations instead:

Chippewa Square, Savannah, GA

It's hard to imagine Forrest Gump without the scenes in Chippewa Square, where Gump dispenses wisdom about life to perfect strangers on a park bench (everything from "stupid is as stupid does" to "life is like a box of chocolates"). You can visit the square today—but don't expect to sit on the bench. The film's famed bench was placed in the square only for filming, and then moved to the nearby Savannah History Museum.

Yemassee, South Carolina

Many of the scenes from Forrest's youth in the fictional town of Greenbow, Alabama, were actually filmed in South Carolina, among the small towns of Yemassee and Beaufort. Many of the structures for the film—like Jenny's farmhouse and Forrest's family boarding house—were built specifically for the film and torn down when production wrapped, but a few remnants of the film remain visible around the towns. The road where Forrest was chased in a pickup truck by high school bullies is located at 3547 Combahee Road, Yemassee, South Carolina—though it leads to a private property, so it's probably best not to recreate the famous chase-scene on your own.

Hunting Island State Park, South Carolina

Forrest's time fighting in the Vietnam War lends the movie some of its most heartrending moments—but they weren't filmed on the beaches of Vietnam. Instead, movie officials chose Hunting Island State Park, in South Carolina, as the setting for many of the film's war scenes. Today, Hunting Island is one of the most popular state parks in South Carolina, welcoming more than a million visitors each year.

Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Washington, DC

In another iconic scene, Forrest attends a rally in Washington, D.C., only to catch a glimpse of his childhood best friend Jenny across the reflecting pool between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. All three are, of course, free and open to the public, and attract a huge number of visitors each year. The National Park Service reports that some 24 million people come to the National Mall annually.

Watergate Hotel, Washington, DC

Forrest Gump manages to witness a lot of monumental moments in American history simply by being in the right place at the right time—and his night spent in the Watergate Hotel is no exception. When he calls the front desk about a few men across the courtyard rummaging through a room with flashlights, he has no idea that he has spotted the scandal that will lead to President Nixon's resignation. Today, the Watergate complex still stands near Washington, D.C.'s waterfront, and serves as a mixed-use complex with office buildings, residential spaces and various cafes.

Marshall Point Lighthouse, Maine

Forrest spends a lot of his time running—throughout the course of the film, he manages to cross the country completely on foot, amassing a following along the way. To reach the Atlantic Ocean, Forrest runs to Marshall Point Lighthouse, one of over 60 lighthouses that dot Maine's rocky coastline. The lighthouse is open to visitors daily from sunrise to sunset.

Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina

While on a three-year, coast-to-coast run, Forrest claims that he only stopped to eat and sleep. In real life, actor Tom Hanks didn't have to suffer the same fate: in the scenes that show Forrest running, it's actually Hanks' brother acting as a stunt double. Some beautiful shots show Forrest running along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, especially around Grandfather Mountain.

Twin Arrows Trading Post, Arizona

On his run across America, Forrest helps create an American pop-culture icon when a truck driving by splashes mud on his face and a running mate gives him a t-shirt to clean the mud off—an imprint of Gump's face remains on the shirt, and the famous "Smiley" is born. During the scene, viewers can catch two arrows behind Gump's running route—this is the Twin Arrows Trading Post, about 20 miles east of Flagstaff. Once a famous stop along Route 66, the arrows have fallen into disrepair since I-40 became the main route of transportation; so make sure you get down to see them before they're gone for good.

Monument Valley, Utah and Arizona

One day, three years into his journey, Forrest suddenly decides to stop running. It's unclear exactly where in Monument Valley Forrest felt the urge to return home, but don't let that stop you from visiting the beautiful region, which extends into Utah and Arizona. The valley, peppered with dramatic sandstone buttes, is one of the most photographed spots on Earth.

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