“D” is for Dillon County

“D” is for Dillon County (405 square miles; 2020 population 28,292). Dillon County was formed in 1910 from the upper portion of Marion County. Its triangular shape is bound on the east by North Carolina and the Lumber River and on the west by Marlborough County and the Great Pee Dee River. Its southern boundary was painstakingly drawn so that at least five hundred square miles remained in Marion County and at least four hundred square miles in the new county, as required by the state constitution. Agriculture was the backbone of the county’s economy for much of the twentieth century—beginning with cotton, then turning to tobacco, and in the 1990s to raising chickens. Some two dozen industries employ approximately 3,500 people. The balance between agriculture and industry have maintained a healthy economy in Dillon County.