McBee, SC

McBee is a town in Chesterfield County, South Carolina, on the Sandhills road between Charlotte and Myrtle Beach. U.S. Route 1 and South Carolina Highway 151 cross through town, with Florence about 36 miles southeast and Columbia about 62 miles southwest. The 2020 census counted 758 people. Those distances make McBee feel like a working midpoint: the town's map is organized by farms, highways, and the old rail line that first made the place legible. Highway 151 leads through the farm district, while U.S. 1 carries the older north-south corridor through town.

That rail line is still visible in the McBee Depot Library and Railroad Museum. The depot was built in 1914 for Seaboard passenger and freight service, then given to the town in 1976 after closing in 1971. Local money and business contributions helped reopen it as a library and museum in 1986. Books and railroad history share the same building, which is a tidy summary of McBee's relationship with its past. The depot also preserves the railroad's post-telegraph role alongside passenger service.

McBee's present-day calendar and economy lean heavily on agriculture. McLeod Farms operates a year-round roadside market on Highway 151 selling peaches, strawberries, pumpkins, vegetables, and other produce; its strawberry, peach, fall, and school-tour activities bring the surrounding farm country into town. The farm's market is open year-round, so agriculture shows up in ordinary shopping as well as in the festival calendar. The 2012 recreation complex added baseball diamonds, a football field, soccer space, and a walking trail, while McBee Elementary and McBee High keep the school district's daily life local. That keeps the school a local point of contact for families across the region. The local scoop is a small crossroads town where the depot is a library, the farm is a year-round market, and the highways keep both Charlotte and the coast in reach.