Daufuskie Island, SC

Daufuskie Island sits between Hilton Head and Savannah as South Carolina’s southernmost inhabited sea island. There is no bridge: getting on or off is by ferry or barge, and the boat ride is part of the island’s basic geography. The census-designated place covers roughly eight square miles with over three miles of beachfront, framed by Calibogue Sound, the Intracoastal Waterway, and the Atlantic Ocean. The 2020 census counted 557 people, spread among environmental preserves, private communities, resorts, and historic sites, so the island does not behave like a conventional mainland town.

The older Daufuskie story belongs to the Gullah families who stayed after Union forces took the Beaufort-area islands during the Civil War. First Union African Baptist Church, rebuilt in 1885 after a fire, still holds services and is recognized as the island’s oldest surviving building. Oystering later became the economic center, with the island’s shellfish trade growing into a major local industry before Savannah River pollution closed the beds in the 1950s. The Mary Fields School and the 1997 island school carry the education thread. Daufuskie’s historic district covers the island, so Gullah homes, churches, oyster buildings, and range lights share the same landscape.