By: Dannye Bragdon

Dannye Bragdon — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:13:10 +0000

My wife and I literally grabbed a few things, put them away in our small RV and took off from Florence on Sunday to go to “the beach”–in this case, Huntington Beach and the State Park–even though we could only stay one night. Huntington Beach has been a point of reference in our lives, beginning before there was ever a state park there: having grown up in Georgetown, we visited Huntington Beach (and the accompanying “Brookgreen Gardens”) many times. Our church used to have its annual family picnic at Atalaya. The inner courtyard is where the feast was spread and it looked very much as it did last weekend (well, today there is evidence of more intentional care!). But being part of the younger set of picnicers, we often went exploring inside “the castle” and found old rusting cots, window shutters flapping in the ocean breezes, broken windows and remnants of an old phone system used by the Huntingtons as an in-house communication system. (There was no telephone service connecting Atalaya to the outside world, even when the Huntingtons lived in the house.) My wife was one of the Girl Scouts whose troop occassionally used Atalaya for activities and events; undoubtedly the most memorable were the “camp-outs” or “sleep-overs” within the walls of this fearsome (at least, it was fearsome for these young teenaged girls!) building. After the state park opened and our own children came along, we visited Huntington Beach and used the spacious and beautiful campground. Seeing the damage caused by hurricanes Hazel (in the 1950’s) and Hugo (in the 1990’s) one would wonder if anything could ever again use the land for anything except to provide homes and feeding areas for birds and other wildlife. Without the benefit of knowing the history of this part of the Grand Strand, looking at the state park last weekend, I would not have known that after the hurricanes most of the large trees were broken off or blown over and the few things that were left in the ground and managed to keep any leaves, needles or fronds had all turned brown from being so near the blowing salt water spray. On your visit to Huntington Beach State Park, look at Atalaya, enjoy the walks on the beach and maybe wetting a hook, take a walk on some of the trails or on the boardwalk out over the salt marsh to the edge of an open creek; talk with the staff and volunteers of the Park, at Atalaya, in the Education Center and Visitor’s Center. Do what you can to make this your park, too, as I have made it mine.

Comments on: Huntington Beach State Park

By: Dannye Bragdon