Hilton Head Island (sometimes referred to as simply Hilton Head) is a resort town in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. It is a barrier island within the South Carolina Lowcountry, located northeast of Savannah, Georgia, and southwest of Charleston. The year-round population was 37,661 at the 2020 census, although during the peak of summer vacation season the population can swell to 150,000. It is the principal city of the Hilton Head Island metropolitan area, which had an estimated population of 232,523 in 2023.
The island is named after Captain William Hilton, who in 1663 identified a headland near the entrance to Port Royal Sound, which mapmakers named "Hilton's Headland." The island has a rich history that started with seasonal occupation by Native Americans thousands of years ago and continued with European exploration and the sea island cotton trade. It became an important base of operations for the Union blockade of the Southern ports during the Civil War. Once the island fell to Union troops, hundreds of ex-slaves flocked to Hilton Head, which is still home to many of their descendants, who are known as the Gullah (or Geechee). They have managed to hold on to much of their ethnic and cultural identity."Snapshots," Sky Magazine (Delta), December 2007. Accessed December 24, 2007.
The island features of beachfront on the Atlantic Ocean and is a popular vacation destination for 2.5 million visitors each year. Hilton Head Island offers an unusual number of cultural opportunities for a community its size, including plays at the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina, the 120-member full chorus of the Hilton Head Choral Society, the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, an annual outdoor, tented wine tasting event on the east coast, and several other annual community festivals. It also hosts the RBC Heritage, a PGA Tour tournament played on the Harbour Town Golf Links in Sea Pines Resort."Hilton Head Island an unquestionable golfing mecca," CBS Sportsline.com, April 9, 2007. Accessed May 8, 2007
Hilton Head Island was incorporated as a municipality in 1983 and is well known for its eco-friendly development.William W. Starr, "Graceful Growth," Sky Magazine (Delta), December 2007. Accessed December 20, 2007. The town's Natural Resources Division enforces the Land Management Ordinance which minimizes the impact of development and governs the style of buildings and how they are situated amongst existing trees."20 Who Made a Difference," Lowcountry Now (Savannah Morning News), 2003 – Accessed February 16, 2007. As a result, Hilton Head Island enjoys an unusual amount of tree cover relative to the amount of development.
Approximately 70% of the island, including most of the tourist areas, is located inside gated communities."Hilton Head, way ahead of its time," USA Today, September 1, 2006 – Accessed February 14, 2007. However, the town maintains several public beach access points, including one for the exclusive use of town residents, who have approved several multimillion-dollar land-buying bond referendums to control commercial growth.Whitney T. and Gordon J. "An Investigation of Sprawl Development and Its Effect on Transportation Planning: The Lower Savannah Region of Government," South Carolina State University — School of Engineering Technology and Sciences, 2001 – Accessed February 15, 2007.
History New World discovery
The Sea Pines shell ring can be seen near the east entrance to the Sea Pines Forest Preserve. The ring, one of at least 50 known to exist, is in diameter and is believed to be over 4,000 years old. Archeologists believe that the ring was a refuse heap created by Indigenous people who lived in the interior of the ring. It was kept clear and used as a common area. Two other shell rings on Hilton Head were destroyed when the shells were removed and used to make tabby for roads and buildings. The Green's Shell Enclosure, Sea Pines, and Skull Creek shell rings are listed in the National Register of Historic Places and are protected by law.
Since the beginning of recorded history in the New World, the waters around Hilton Head Island have been known, occupied and fought for in turn by the English, Spanish, French, and Scots.Carse R. (1981) Hilton Head in the Civil War: Department of the South (20th Anniv. Ed.), p. 1. Columbia, SC: The State Printing Company,
A Spanish expedition led by Francisco Cordillo explored the area in 1521, initiating European contact with local tribes."A History Timeline of Hilton Head Island," Town of Hilton Head Island Official Municipal Website, Accessed July 6, 2007. In 1663, Captain William Hilton sailed on the Adventure from Barbados to explore lands granted by King Charles II of England to the eight Lords Proprietor. In his travels, he identified a headland near the entrance to Port Royal Sound. He named it "Hilton's Head" after himself."Reference Desk," Beaufort County Public Library — Hilton Head Island, Accessed May 19, 2007. He stayed for several days, making note of the trees, crops, "sweet water", and "clear sweet air"."Island History," HiltonHeadIsland.com, Accessed May 19, 2007.
17th to 19th centuries
In 1698, Hilton Head Island was granted as part of a barony to John Bayley of Ballingclough, County of Tipperary, Kingdom of Ireland. Another John Bayley, son of the first, appointed Alexander Trench as the island's first retail agent. For a time, Hilton Head was known as Trench's Island. In 1729, Trench sold some land to John Gascoine which Gascoine named "John's Island" after himself. The land later came to be known as Jenkin's Island after another owner.Margaret Greer (1989) The Sands of Time — A History of Hilton Head Island, pp. 20–21. Hilton Head Island, SC: SouthArt, Inc., .
In the mid-1740s, the South Carolina provincial half-galley Beaufort was stationed in a cove at the southern tip of Hilton Head to guard against intrusions by the Spanish of St. Augustine. The point and cove are named after Captain David Cutler Braddock, commander of the Beaufort. Captain Braddock was a mariner and privateer of note in Colonial times. Earlier, he had been placed in command of the Georgia schooner Norfolk by James Oglethorpe, founder of Georgia, and helped chase the Spanish back to St. Augustine after their failed 1742 invasion of St. Simons Island. After relocating to Savannah in 1746, he served two terms in the Georgia Commons House of Assembly while earning a living as a highly active privateer. He drew a well-known chart of the Florida Keys while on a privateering venture in 1756. The chart is in the Library of Congress.
During the revolution there was only a very small population of farmers living on Hilton Head Island. This population was exclusively Loyalist, remaining allied to Parliament and the King throughout the entirety of the revolution. However, after the revolution they chose to simply "stay on" in South Carolina and make the best of living under the new republican form of government.South Carolina Loyalists in the American Revolution by Robert Stansbury Lambert: University of South Carolina Press, 1987 - pg. 95 In 1788, a small Episcopal church called the Zion Chapel of Ease was constructed for plantation owners. The chapel's old cemetery, located near the corner of William Hilton Parkway and Mathews Drive (Folly Field), is all that remains. Charles Davant, a prominent island planter during the Revolutionary War, is memorialized there. Davant was shot by Captain Martinangel of Daufuskie Island in 1781. This location is also home to the oldest intact structure on Hilton Head Island, the Baynard Mausoleum, which was built in 1846.
William Elliott II of Myrtle Bank Plantation grew the first crop of Sea Island Cotton in South Carolina on Hilton Head Island in 1790.
During the Civil War, Fort Walker was a Confederate fort in what is now Port Royal Plantation. The fort was a station for Confederate troops, and its guns helped protect the entrance to Port Royal Sound, which is fed by two slow-moving and navigable rivers, the Broad River and the Beaufort River. It was vital to the Sea Island Cotton trade and the southern economy. On October 29, 1861, the largest fleet ever assembled in North America moved south to seize it. In the Battle of Port Royal, the fort came under attack by the U.S. Navy, and on November 7, 1861, it fell to over 12,000 Union troops. The fort was renamed Fort Welles, in honor of Gideon Welles, the Secretary of the Navy.
Hilton Head Island had tremendous significance in the Civil War and became an important base of operations for the Union blockade of the Southern ports, particularly Savannah and Charleston. The Union also built a military hospital on Hilton Head Island with a frontage and a floor area of .
Hundreds of ex-slaves flocked to Hilton Head Island, where they could buy land, go to school, live in government housing, and serve in what was called the First Regiment of South Carolina Volunteers (although in the beginning, many were "recruited" at the point of a bayonet). A community called Mitchelville (in honor of General Ormsby M. Mitchel) was constructed on the north end of the island to house them.
In an order from May 15, 1865, Major General Quincy Adams Gillmore, who was commanding the Department of the South with headquarters at Hilton Head declared that "the people of the black race are free citizens of the United States," whose rights must be respected accordingly. He issued an additional order while based in Hilton Head saying that any plantation owners who were found to have not informed African-Americans of their new status as free people would be "made liable to the pains and penalties of disloyalty, and their lands subject to confiscation" under the act establishing the Freedmen's Bureau.Reconstruction in South Carolina, 1865-1877 by John Schreiner Reynolds pg. 4 Martin Delany, the only black officer to reach the rank of major in the United States military during the Civil War, was also stationed at Hilton Head during this time.
The Leamington Lighthouse, also known as the Hilton Head Rear Range Lighthouse, was built in the 1870s on the southern edge of what is now Palmetto Dunes Oceanfront Resort.
In 1890, the wealthy shipping magnate William P. Clyde purchased 9,000 acres on Hilton Head Island for use as a private hunting preserve.
On August 27, 1893, the Sea Islands Hurricane made landfall near Savannah, with a storm surge of , and swept north across South Carolina, killing over 1,000 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless."The Sea Islands Hurricane" , The Victorian Era Online, Accessed May 19, 2007.
20th and 21st centuries
An experimental steam cannon guarding Port Royal Sound was built around 1900, in what is now Port Royal Plantation. The cannon was fixed but its propulsion system allowed for long-range shots for the time.
In 1931, Wall Street tycoon, physicist, and patron of scientific research Alfred Lee Loomis, along with his brother-in-law and partner Landon K. Thorne, purchased on the island (over 63% of the total landmass) for about $120,000 to be used as a private game reserve.Ragland R., "Landowner changed course of history," Carolina Morning News, May 3, 2002. Accessed June 13, 2007.Herbert W., "Palace of Science," Prism Magazine, March 2003; Vol 20, No 7. Accessed June 13, 2007. On the Atlantic coast of the island, large concrete gun platforms were built to defend against a possible invasion by the Axis powers of World War II. Platforms like these can be found all along the Eastern Seaboard. The Mounted Beach Patrol and Dog Training Center on Hilton Head Island trained U.S. Coast Guard Beach Patrol personnel to use horses and dogs to protect the southeastern coastline of the U.S.Coast Guard Beach Patrol During World War II, A Historic Photo Gallery, Accessed May 7, 2007.