Georgetown County, South Carolina

Georgetown's rice plantation heritage and Pawleys Island's Low Country coast - from Georgetown's antebellum rice empire (Georgetown County was the center of South Carolina's rice plantation economy - the tidal rice fields along the Waccamaw, Black, Pee Dee, and Sampit rivers produced more rice than any other region in colonial America, creating enormous wealth for planters and suffering for the enslaved Africans whose expertise in rice cultivation made the entire enterprise possible) to Pawleys Island (one of the oldest beach resorts on the East Coast - the unpretentious barrier island south of Myrtle Beach has attracted South Carolina Lowcountry families since the 1790s, and its "arrogantly shabby" character remains beloved).