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"C" is for Congaree National Park

South Carolina From A to Z
SC Public Radio

"C" is for Congaree National Park. South Carolina’s only national park is located in the floodplain of lower Richland County. Established by Congress as a national monument in 1976 and redesignated a national park in 2003, Congaree protects the last significant stand of old growth, bottomland hardwood forest remaining in the United States. The forest, often referred to as the “Redwoods of the East,” is the tallest in eastern North America and one of the tallest temperate deciduous forests in the world. In the 1970s when the property owners considered logging the tract (including near virgin timberland), Earth Day-inspired environmental advocates mounted a public campaign to save the Congaree’s primordial ecosystem. The Congaree National Park is home to numerous trees of record size, including several state and national trees.

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.