Mackay Creek: The Names of History

 

“My life is shaped by the urgent need to wander and observe, and my camera is my passport.” - Steve McCurry


    It's always exciting to me to realize that the place names around us often derive from a notable person or event in the past. Do you get that same thrill? Here's an example from my post on April 15, 2023...

    Scottish trader Alexander Mackay, adventuring under the commission of the Carolina colony Lords Proprietor, sought to exercise a land grant in the southern part of the colony. Later commissioned a colonel in the Beaufort District Militia, he received a grant of 200 acres on an island which had been part of an earlier land grant to the Osbourne family.

    The island was also occupied by the Yemassee tribe as a lookout post when that native tribe was used as a buffer between the neighboring English and Spanish colonies. There was an Indian fort at the northern end of the island leading to the local name of Lookout Island.

    In 1708, the island was partly in the possession of Colonel Mackay and was known as Mackay’s Island, although various maps have slightly different spelling. It became a frontier trading post for native tribes out of Charles Town, which didn’t adopt its contracted current name until 1783.

    Mackay fought in the Yemassee War from 1715 to 1725, by which time he had also acquired the entire acreage of the island. He lived on the island until he died in 1734. His wife sold the land to an influential lawyer from Charles Town named Charles Pinckney, hence the current name.

    Today the island is a beautiful National Wildlife Refuge and is well worth the visit if you’re in the area of Hilton Head. Mackay Creek divides the island from the islands and mainland to the northwest.

Clicking on the image will open it in full screen

‘Mackay Creek,’ with a view of Buzzard and Big Harry Islands towards the west as evening draws near in beautiful Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge in coastal South Carolina.

www.johnjgiardinaphotography.com



Location: Pinckney Island, South Carolina 29910, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Interconnection: The Way Things Fit Together

Image
  “ If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff. ”  - Jim Richardson     Sometimes, the interesting stuff I'm looking for is an evening beach, a ship out at sea, an interesting cloud, and a glowing moon, all working in unison to inspire me to think about how everything works together. The moon influence the tides, affecting the ship, and also the weather, which influences the cloud, which all worked to produce this interesting composition for me to capture and share. I love the color and the light, but most especially, I love the way all the elements work together. What harmony we have when our connections are clear and valued. As I wrote in my post on March 19, 2022...      When I was much younger, there was a BBC television show called Connections starring the Sherlock Holmes of Science, Mr. James Burke, who had a way of making each episode exploring some aspect of science into a spellbinding detective story. It was fantastic how he traced th
Read more

Gatherer: A Perfect Partnership

Image
  “ I often wished I could capture and share the sudden moments of beauty that I would see around me."   - Caroline Mueller     It's been put many ways but we don't help our spouses as a nice-to-do, occasional thing. A marriage, or relationship, is best built as a complete partnership where both people, or birds in this case, work together selflessly for the good of the relationship or family. Nobody is doing a favor as both parties act without ego to help further the goals of the unit. As I wrote in my post on May 13, 2023...      Welcome back to Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge where the graceful great white egrets roost and rule. Both male and female egrets help with nest building. This elegant bird posed perfectly for me with a small stick in their beak as they prepared to fly back towards the rookery. I watched the whole congregation for a long time work on their nests together and care for their hatchlings. What a magnificent display and a prime example of wh
Read more

Cow Branch Bend: Part 2 of 3 at Carolina Sandhills NWR

Image
“ Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshot from the photograph. ”  - Matt Hardy     You probably know that President Theodore Roosevelt directed the creation of our amazing National Parks, but did you know he also founded the National Wildlife Refuge System in 1903? On March 14 of that year, he established Pelican Island NWR along Florida's Atlantic Ocean coast.      Since then,  more than 560 wildlife refuges are in place across this country, and they're all managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  Each NWR unit can be a wildlife refuge, a conservation area, a marine national monument, or a waterfowl production area. The different units help with conserving native species that depend on that land or water to thrive by using scientific management  methods. And I think they're another of our many national treasures.     As I wrote in my post on April 29, 2023...      Back in Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife R
Read more