By Shannon Cavanaugh
Contributing Writer

To counter negative impact of the renourishment efforts, Islands West Real Estate, which handles vacation rentals on Folly Beach, is promoting a contest that encourages tourists to look for the most historic and weirdest artifacts, bring them into the office and compete for a monthly prize.

“We’re trying to put a positive spin on (renourishment efforts) and we’re encouraging people to bring their metal detectors. With the (Army Corps of Engineers) Corp dredging up and pumping sand from three miles off the island in the shipping lane, you never know what will wash up. Folly Beach was a hot spot during the Civil War. There were battles here, shipwrecks, maybe even pieces of jewelry or the Hunley might wash up. You just don’t know what you’ll find on the beach.”

A creative idea to protect the health of their business, but one that archaeologists say could violate the law and endanger Civil War burial grounds and history. The Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission prohibits the use of metal detectors on its 95 acres of property at the east end of Folly Beach and its shorelines.

The property once belonged to the U.S. Coast Guard but is now designated as a site “of endangered Civil War objects” and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Many Union soldiers fought and died here, remains have surfaced as shores have eroded. Archaeologists have found everything from leather boots to a twisted bugle. It is a felony to remove or disturb anything from a marked or unmarked grave.

The South Carolina Underwater Antiquities Act protects the Folly Beach shoreline. The state owns anything found from the low tide mean to three miles out in the ocean. To collect fossils or artifacts, a person must apply for a hobby license that is approved at the discretion of the state. Picking up an artifact from what archaeologists call “an active beach” is a gray area as state law does not make clear who owns the public recreational beach.

“Encouraging treasure hunting by non-professionals in a historically important community like Folly Beach is an unusual tourism marketing technique. I would rather seen encouragement for the protection and passive appreciation for Civil War resources which abound in Charleston County,” says archaeologist Chris Judge with the Heritage Trust in Columbia. “Development of our coast threatens cultural resources of all periods. Additional threats such as these scare me.”

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