Bishopville, SC

Bishopville is Lee County's seat in South Carolina's Pee Dee region, a city with cotton-country roots and a sense of humor that comes in the shape of a giant boll weevil. The 2020 census counted 3,024 residents. The South Carolina Cotton Museum sits in town, and Lee State Park, Lake Ashwood, and I-20 keep the surrounding map bigger than the courthouse square. Bishopville's older commercial streets still carry the practical look of a county seat, while the museum gives the local agricultural story a place to land.

Then there is the town's stranger calling card: the Lizard Man, the swamp legend tied to Scape Ore Swamp. Pearl Fryar's Topiary Garden adds a completely different kind of roadside wonder, and the Bishopville Opera House and James House keep the cultural side of town visible. Bishopville's local scoop is a county-seat city where cotton, topiary, swamp lore, and a giant boll weevil all share the same introduction - and the local stories get stranger as you go.