Tag: Pee Dee River

Wikipedia says: The Pee Dee River, also known as the Great Pee Dee River, is a river in the Carolinas of the United States. It originates in the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina, where its upper course, above the mouth of the Uwharrie River, is known as the Yadkin River. The lower part of the river is named Pee Dee (in colonial times written Pedee) after the Pee Dee Indian Tribe. The Pee Dee region of South Carolina, composed of the northeastern counties of the state, was also named after the tribe. In fact, today the Pee Dee Indian Tribe still occupies some of their ancestral lands, although the tribe only consists of just over 200 enrolled members. The first Europeans believed to have navigated part of the river was a party sent by Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón in 1521. They named it “River of St. John the Baptist.”

Navigable up to the Fall Line at Cheraw, the river was an important trade route through the Low Country from colonial times. The largest lumber company in the world existed at the turn of the 20th century near the river’s mouth at Georgetown. The virgin pine forests of the Pee Dee region were cut over, and the logs floated in rafts downriver to be sawn into lumber and exported to the northern United States and Europe.

The lower part of the river flood plain was extensively developed for rice culture in colonial time; rice was the major export of the area from the port at Georgetown. Rice culture declined with the freedom of slave labor after the Civil War, and increased overseas competition.

Some tributaries are the Lumber, the Little Pee Dee, Lynches, Black and Waccamaw rivers. The river empties into Winyah Bay, and then into the Atlantic Ocean near Georgetown.

Snow’s Island is a large island at the junction of the Pee Dee and Lynches rivers. This was the headquarters of General Francis Marion for several months during the American Revolution. It proved a safe haven for him and his militia troops, as the British were unable to find the camp until it was abandoned.