The Sinister Story Behind This Popular South Carolina Park Will Give You Chills
South Carolina is home to the number one city in the U.S. and Canada, ranked in the 2017 Travel & Leisure World’s Best Awards – and we couldn’t be more proud of the Palmetto State’s oldest city, Charleston. Founded in 1670 as “Charles Town,” the city has grown exponentially over the centuries to become not only a favorite destination for visitors but also the city of choice for many Americans living the dream of relocating somewhere beautiful. But Charleston may have a dirty little secret that’s often overlooked: a legendary haunted park in South Carolina is hiding there in plain sight.
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Times were very different during the Colonial Period and just beyond in Charles Town.
Now one of the prettiest and most well known greenspaces in Downtown Charleston, White Point Garden offers shady paths covered in canopies of Spanish moss-covered old Oak trees.
No, really. It's the perfect spot for photos. And people even get married in the bandstand located in the middle of this serene park along the Charleston Harbor.
Numerous monuments and memorials have been erected at White Point Garden over the last century and a half.
Many of the monuments are dedicated to battles fought both home and abroad. This one is for the Second South Carolina Regiment, Army of the Revolution, June 17, 1775.
However there's one unassuming monument that sticks out like a sore thumb. And it's that monument that marks the sinister history of this perfectly peaceful place along Charleston's battery.
It's this one. A monument dedicated to the pirate Stede Bonnett.
The monument stands in the Northeast corner, and possibly the least traveled corner of the park. On it, is a commeration statement saying Bonnett and 29 of his men, that's 30 pirates in all, were hanged in this very park, their bodies buried in the marsh beyond the low water mark right next to this park. What?
Further, if this was Charles Town's "hanging ground," then they weren't the only ones hanged here in this beautiful space (shown here more than 100 years later, in 1900 long after the last public hanging).
The website DeathPenaltyUSA.org lists the names, offenses and dates of nearly 200 hangings that occured in what is now Charleston between 1718 and 1849. Considering the era in which these hangings occured, it stands to reason that they were likely very public displays.
The practice of gibbeting involved hanging the dead or dying body of a criminal in a cage-like encasement and leaving them there to decay on display for all to see in order to deter others from commiting a crime. The two "gibbetted" people listed on the website DeathPenaltyUSA.org's list of hangings in Charleston were executed for murder.
It's hard to digest that this beautiful natural landmark in Charleston was once the site of at least 30 hangings - as clearly proclaimed by the Stede Bonnett monument in the park.
But the likelihood of this spot being the site of nearly 200 public hangings and that nearly 200 souls passed here is staggering. Take just about any tour in Charleston and you'll hear the tales of how White Point Garden along Charleston Harbor is haunted. People report seeing everything from apparitions to orbs and have experienced cold spots. Legend has it that the pirates haunt this spot and are looking for their ship to return. But we say, there are more than just the ghosts of departed pirates in this park.
Did you know about the sinister past of this popular spot in Charleston? Or that evidence suggests that nearly 200 people were center stage for public hangings here?
We’d love to know about your experiences at White Point Garden. Did you get an eerie feeling if and when you visited? Let us know in the comments.
South Carolina is an old state, and old states usually have their fair share of eerie, haunted, or otherwise creepy places scattered throughout. South Carolina is, of course, no different; some of our favorite creepy places in South Carolina include the South Carolina Lunatic Asylum (yes, they used to actually title things like that), haunted old plantations like the Baynard Plantation and Rose Hill Plantation. We’re also big fans of haunted roads, like the Seven Devil’s Bridge in Woodruff, and bridges like the Crybaby Bridge in Anderson. South Carolina’s dense forests and woodlands lend a particularly creepy vibe to the state; should you know where to go, you’ll find that it’s a delightfully eerie state to explore. Check out this list for more of our favorite creepy places in South Carolina!
What’s the story behind White Point Garden in South Carolina?
White Point Garden is located in Charleston and rests on the tip of the state’s peninsula. It’s had a couple of names, such as South Bay and White Point; over the decades it’s changed, ebbed, and flowed, with plenty of modernizations in the last several decades. White Point Garden has become a repository of sorts for relics and memorials and, oh, yeah – pirates were hanged here. At least two of them – Stede Bonnet and Blackbeard himself – are said to still haunt this place. Sometimes, people have frantically reported a body hanging from a tree in the garden only for it to disappear, having been only an apparition. Ghostly faces peer at guests from the trees. It’s a lovely place to be during the day, but at night it becomes a whole new monster. Some folks have been so creeped out by experiences here that they refused to return, night or day. We can’t really say we blame them, though.
Address: 2 Murray Blvd, Charleston, SC 29401, USA
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Robin Jarvis is a travel writer and editor for OnlyInYourState.com with a bachelor's degree in Journalism. Her love for travel has taken her to many parts of the world. She's lived in the Carolinas for nearly three decades and currently resides in Charleston. When she's not working, she loves to cook with friends and check out new adventures. General questions and FAM tours: rjarvis@onlyinyourstate.com.
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