The

State of South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

has a group of protected areas managed by the South Carolina State Park Service (often abbreviated to SCPRT or Park Service). Formed in 1933 in conjunction with the formalization of the federal

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government unemployment, work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was ...

program, the State Park Service is administered by the state's Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism (SCPRT). There are a total of 48 facilities that the State Park Service administers, protecting more than 90,000 acres of sensitive, attractive, and/or historically significant lands in South Carolina. The facilities fall under four types of classifications: * 38 State Parks * 8 State Historic Sites * 1 State Resort Park * 1 State Recreational Area Cheraw State Park was the first park to be proposed within the system in 1934 with Myrtle Beach State Park becoming the first park to open in 1936. Within six years, the State of South Carolina and the CCC opened 17 state parks. Originally under the jurisdiction of the South Carolina Forestry Commission, the Park Service has been a unit within the Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism since its formation in 1967.

Hunting Island State Park Hunting Island is a secluded semitropical barrier island located east of Beaufort, South Carolina, United States in between Harbor Island and Fripp Island. Since 1935, it has been classified as a state park. It is the most-visited state ...

in Beaufort County is the most popular state park in South Carolina and among the most popular in the United States, attracting 1.2 million visitors per year. Following the

Nukegate scandal The Nukegate scandal was a political and legal scandal that arose from the abandonment of the Virgil C. Summer nuclear expansion project in South Carolina by South Carolina Electric & Gas (SCE&G) and the South Carolina Public Service Authority ...

Dominion Energy Dominion Energy, Inc., commonly referred to as Dominion, is an American energy company headquartered in Richmond, Virginia that supplies electricity in parts of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina and supplies natural gas to parts of Ut ...

settled with the South Carolina tax agency on $165 million in unpaid taxes owed due to an unfinished nuclear project in Fairfield County. As part of that settlement, the state agency and Dominion Energy agreed that Dominion would offset approximately a third of the unpaid taxes by turning over more than 2,900 acres of land which will ultimately become six new state parks in the coming years. The first state park expected to open from the settlement is Pine Island on Lake Murray.

References

External links

Official website

Official S.C. Parks Guide (2013)
{{Lists of state parks by U.S. state

State parks State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural ...

South Carolina state parks