Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 2821 Local History Spotlight Summer 2016 | HTCinc.net The river, like our collective memory of Conway, is not perfect; it’s unique, mysterious and not without secrets, but it radiates pride — a quiet confidence mirrored in the people who have the honor of calling it theirs. The town’s identity seems bound to the river for reasons beyond the romance of feeling a "sense of place." “sense of Dr. Daniel Cross Turner, associate professor of English at Coastal Carolina University and faculty adviser for its Southern studies minor, explains that remaining elements of past places impact us physiologically as well as psychologically, blurring the line between the physical body and nonhuman ecological elements — elements like a river. In other words, where you live impacts how you live and who you are. Turner speaks of Appalachian writer and scholar Casey Clabough, who gave a reading at Coastal Carolina University a few years ago. While in the area, Clabough took a canoe trip down the Waccamaw River, and he discussed this idea that elements of ecology can keep us connected to a place long after we depart. “Clabough noted how our very biological makeup is made up in part of particles of our habitat absorbed into our bodies,” Turner explains. “In Horry County, we have done a lot to control or influence the Waccamaw River and its environs, but we can also say, quite literally, that the river runs through us. The river conditioned where the town was settled, and how it grew and changed over time.” And change it has. The area’s first occupants were the ancient Waccamaw, a river-dwelling Native American tribe that lived, fished and farmed from Lake Waccamaw, North Carolina, to Winyah Bay near today’s Georgetown. Their respect and passion for life by the river certainly set an enduring model of life here; some might even argue that today’s inhabitants are a subsequent form of river dwellers. Arrowheads have been exchanged for a rod and reel, and hand- carved canoes have been substituted with aluminum and fiberglass — still, the black lengths of the river are alive with movement on any given Saturday. That deep- seated respect for the river’s beauty and bounty would be impossible to erase from this area. place.” Boat traveling on the Waccamaw River near Bucksport, S.C. Photo provided by Michael Slear. Wacca Wache Marina, Murrells Inlet, S.C. Photo provided by Austin Bond Photography.