Random fun pictures for Daufuskie Island, SC 29915

Minor fire reported on Daufuskie ferry

By REBECCA LURYE

rlurye@islandpacket.comJanuary 22, 2014 Updated 14 hours ago

A fan in a Daufuskie Island public ferry caught fire Wednesday afternoon as the boat was returning to Hilton Head Island, according to the Town of Hilton Head Island Fire & Rescue Division.
Fortunately, a fire chief was among the ferry's 50 passengers, Hilton Head division Battalion Chief Mick Mayers said.
Daufuskie Island Fire District Chief Eddie Boys used a fire extinguisher to put out the flames, which originated from a fan in the bathroom shortly before 4 p.m., Mayers said. The fire was out by the time the boat arrived at the Haig Point Embarkation at 4:06 p.m., Mayers said.
The fire, which spewed smoke throughout the ferry's cabin, caused about $1,000 in damage, he said.
No one was injured.

Read more here: http://www.islandpacket.com/2014/01/22/2906769/minor-fire-reported-on-daufuskie.html#storylink=cpy

 

Read more here: http://www.islandpacket.com/2014/01/22/2906769/minor-fire-reported-on-daufuskie.html#storylink=cpy

Hilton Head Island liquor store owner, distiller team up with Gullah women to produce moonshine

By ERIN SHAW

eshaw@islandpacket.comJanuary 21, 2014 Updated 16 hours ago

 

Read more here: http://www.islandpacket.com/2014/01/21/2904564/hilton-head-island-liquor-store.html#storylink=cpy

Hooch, White Lightning, Hillbilly Pop, Radiator Whiskey and Mule Kick are just a few nicknames for moonshine, an illegal spirit distilled in backwoods Appalachia since the 1800s.
Moonshine has Lowcountry roots as well. On Daufuskie Island, the Gullah called it "scrap iron," perhaps for the metal still it was made in or the iron will it took to drink it.
If the self-explanatory monikers are any indication, then moonshine is not something one consumes quickly or easily.

The original name, "moonshine," is said to emanate from bootleggers who illicitly distilled the unaged corn whiskey by the light of the moon, far away from the prying eyes of Prohibition revenuers.
Thanks to new South Carolina micro-distillery laws, moonshine is now legal -- if the appropriate taxes are paid -- and coming back in a big way.
In accordance with its increasing trendiness, its nicknames are getting more inviting. At Sea Pines Liquor and Market on Hilton Head Island, moonshine goes by Midnight Moon, Tillman's Baby and Black Spirit.

It used to come in one flavor: alcohol. Now, the mind-bending proofs are sweetened with the flavors of apple pie, raspberry and lemonade.
"The first perception of moonshine is that it's made in a radiator and that it'll blind you. Once people get past that and actually taste it, they realize it's as tasty as anything they've ever had," said Jeff Gould, the owner of Sea Pines Liquor and Market.
Gould is one of the handful of South Carolinians taking advantage of moonshine's new legality.
Two years ago, Gould had two varieties of moonshine available in his store. Now he has more than 100.

"We see the whole liquor store turning into moonshine," he said. "It's amazing where this has gone in just a short period of time."
As a top moonshine retailer in South Carolina, Gould is working to rapidly expand his business, even shipping cases of 'shine overseas.
Gould owns five distilleries, two of which are in South Carolina, and a spring in the North Carolina mountains, because "moonshine is meant to be made with pure mountain spring water, just like Kentucky bourbon is made with limestone water," he said. He also owns an orchard in North Carolina that provides the fruit for the apple pie moonshine, his best seller.

"What you're seeing here is a new twist to an old industry," Gould said. The twist is the abundance of flavors, the fancy, health-code-abiding distilleries and the aggressive business plan. But the base is a collection of old family recipes and an appreciation for where moonshine came from. Both Gould and his wife, Debby, are from North Carolina and familiar with moonshine.

After opening a retail store on Daufuskie Island, Gould discovered the Gullah had a similar appreciation. He approached three Gullah sisters about adding their family recipes to his moonshine.
Janice Gordon, Amelia Stevens and Cynthia Murray grew up on Daufuskie Island. Their grandmother used to sell moonshine made from a still their uncle operated. Moonshine was a part of their family and their culture. It was used in times of sickness and in health, in celebration and in sorrow.
When someone took sick on the island, they would send for Meme, or Lemon, as their grandmother was called by non-family members. Before leaving, she'd grab a couple jars of roots brewing in moonshine and a handful of dried herbs for making a Gullah hot toddy.

"I didn't go to the doctor until I was 13. Any ailments I had, my grandmother treated. It apparently worked," Gordon said.
People up in the mountains of North Carolina have moonshine in their medicine cabinets, too, Gould said. "When I came here to the Lowcountry and found out the Gullah had done the same thing, I saw the link between the two," he said.

When someone died on the island, friends and family of the deceased would have a "sittin' up," where everyone would stay awake through the night, sipping moonshine and telling stories. It was also a big part of Christmas season, for visiting relatives and sharing a drink.
But most importantly for the sisters, it was income.

"Meme had to make a living off the island and its surroundings," Gordon said. She would sell crab and shrimp to tourists from Savannah, along with her moonshine, but only if they knew to ask. She kept it in brown paper bags hidden under the table until it was requested. A half pint cost 75 cents.
Eventually, revenuers discovered their uncle's still and destroyed it, bringing the family's moonshine business to an end.
Now, Gordon, Stevens and Murray are reviving it, with Gould's (and the law's) help. They created Meme's Fuskie Gals, a homemade moonshine and wine label with products that will be made in Gould's distilleries and sold in his stores.
Their homemade wine, called Black Spirit, is already available, and they have three moonshines coming out in March.

There will be a Black Spirit 'shine, Fuskie Mysteek, which is intended to be used for medicinal purposes, and Ole Red Eye, for the reddish color moonshine took on when tree bark was added to it.
"We're committing as much time to it as possible," Stevens said. "This culture is near and dear to us, so this is a venture that we're very proud of."

Like Appalachian moonshine, the Gullah spirit didn't have much flavor, so the sisters are working off the family recipes and tweaking them.
"It's reimagining the moonshine we grew up with," Gordon said. "The moonshine business was good to our family while it lasted. Looks like the good times are here again."
Follow Erin Shaw at twitter.com/IPBG_ErinShaw.

Read more here: http://www.islandpacket.com/2014/01/21/2904564/hilton-head-island-liquor-store.html#storylink=cpy

Plan a golf outing to Daufuskie Island, SC.

With three professionally designed courses Haig Point, Bloody Point and Melrose on the Beach Daufuskie Island is a golfers paradise.

Preservation two-step: Saving a home and its current ownership

Robert Behre
Posted: Thursday, December 26, 2013 9:00 a.m.

DAUFUSKIE ISLAND - David Helmuth steps between the hodgepodge of exposed floor joists and walls studs inside the early 20th-century cottage here at 188 School Road, as he finishes removing the last of its termite-damaged wood.

Helmuth, a contractor, is working for the Palmetto Trust for Historic Preservation, a state preservation group working to save this remnant of the island's once-thriving Gullah culture.

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• Daufuskie Island

This cottage is more historic than most because it once was home to Frances Jones, a revered community figure who taught black schoolchildren on this remote Sea Island and who also helped many of their illiterate parents.

But the most significant aspect of this ongoing restoration is not Jones' story, nor the uniqueness of the structure itself.

Instead, it's the innovative deal that the Palmetto Trust struck that not only aims to restore the home but also to preserve its ownership by Jones' descendants, even though they currently cannot afford the repairs.

Michael Bedenbaugh, the trust's director, came up with the program to try to save a historic house while also preserving its ownership by a family whose ancestors created a thriving community here a few generations ago, when timbering and oyster factory jobs were plentiful.

"The hope is it goes beyond this house," he says, "and there will be others."

How it works

The Daufuskie Endangered Places Program was made possible through a $150,000 grant from the 1772 Foundation, a Connecticut-based nonprofit that supports preservation work across the country.

The grant is helping the trust finance the current restoration work, which is expected to be finished in June. The Palmetto Trust is leasing the house from Jones' family for 30 years and plans to rent it out to island visitors for about $150 a night.

Bedenbaugh says that income - and other donations - will help the Palmetto Trust recoup its costs over time.

"If we do it right, we might raise more money from donations" than rentals, he says. "While we do this, they (family members) can stay there any time it's not rented."

The Palmetto Trust has received support beyond the 1772 Foundation. Haig Point, a private development on the island's northern end, has helped Bedenbaugh with logistics, and many island families also have helped out.

Once the trust gets its investment back - which could happen in just a few years - it will end the lease and turn the home back to the Jones family with a protective easement. The family could keep leasing it out or just enjoy it privately.

And the trust then would hope to restore another home here on similar terms. The island's historic district still has about 16 black-built cottages from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Bedenbaugh says the next home could be leased out as a residence or it could become a restaurant or distillery or have some other income stream.

"We see ourselves as nurturing this systematically and letting it go," he says. "I think it will work, but the mechanism will show itself going forward."

If it works, it could prove an important new strategy for preserving historic buildings owned by Lowcountry families who don't have the means to repair them but also don't want to sell the land.

Frances Jones

In some homes here, Jones' picture hangs on the wall alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and President John F. Kennedy.

She taught school for many decades, and her retirement opened a teaching slot filled by a young white Citadel graduate named Pat Conroy, who chronicled his time here in his 1972 memoir, "The Water is Wide."

Despite Jones' status as a leading figure, her home was modest. Its foundation included mostly cinder blocks stacked on the ground - and an occasional tree stump. Its wall joists show markings of plaster and lathe - a sure sign they were salvaged from an earlier building. The house's bones also show its oldest part is an 11-by- 18-foot cabin that was added to over time until it reached about 900 square feet.

Bedenbaugh says the restoration aims to keep as much of its old charm as possible while creating two bedrooms and a working kitchen and bathroom.

"We're going to keep it on the concrete blocks," he says. As he talks, he and Helmuth debate where would be the best place to put a washer and dryer. They agree only to discuss it more in a few weeks, and the work is expected to continue at least through May.

"We've got a ways to go before we get down to the lip gloss and makeup," Helmuth says.

Will it work?

Bedenbaugh knows a lot is riding on the success or failure of Jones' house.

This island, reachable only by ferry, once was inhabited mostly by blacks, descendants of slaves and those who came here to work in the oyster factory.

But in recent decades, that population has dwindled as private resorts have cropped up. The changing nature of these islands, and the gradual loss of black residents and black-owned properties, have created a political tension.

Leon Love, chair of the South Carolina African American Heritage Commission, is among those excited by the Daufuskie Endangered Places Program.

"When you say Daufuskie, people think of Hilton Head a long time ago. There's a natural suspicion that someone is trying to take African-American-owned land and turn it into a resort," he says. "What Daufuskie needs is a victory. If they take the Jones home and make it work, it could serve as an example for others."

Love says the impact could even extend beyond the island.

"There's a lot of heirs property and a lot of property people can't afford to maintain," he says. "That's why I think the method they're using on Daufuskie is so creative. You're maintaining ownership even though you're sharing it with a developer."

But Ervin Simmons of the Daufuskie Island Foundation is not so sure.

The foundation continues the tradition of the Daufuskie Day celebration that Jones first held in 1976.

"My concern is land, and the risk of blacks losing land," he says. "I've said it many, many times. We've had a lot of land stolen from the black community or manipulated or swindled or however you put it."

Simmons says while he doesn't know all the deal's details, he is concerned that there are strings that could lead to the property changing hands.

Bedenbaugh says he accepts that the only way to counter such skepticism is to make the program succeed by preserving not only historic homes but also longtime family ownership.

"We'll see if it works. It's better than sitting back and watching them fall back in and rot," he says. "There's no place left like this on the coast of South Carolina."

Reach Robert Behre at 937-5771.