“S” is for State parks. As of 2026, South Carolina’s system of state parks consisted of forty-seven properties totaling more than 90,000 acres of land. Its genesis came in the 1930s with the development of sixteen state parks under the auspices of the Civilian Conservation Corps, (CCC) a depression-era federal program. In 1942 with the dissolution of the CCC, parks came under the management of the State Forestry Commission. In 1963 federal courts ordered South Carolina’s state parks to be open to all Carolinians. Rather than comply, the state’s attorney general closed the state parks to everyone. In 1966, in response to public demand the parks reopened on a desegregated basis. In 1967 management of the State Park system moved from the Forestry Commission to the newly created Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism.
“S” is for State parks
