Deep South Divers
Contributor
The Cooper River is an interesting place, but by far not the most lucrative.
The Cooper is what the Charleston Harbor becomes as you move inland. I would say it was the "major tributary to the Charleston Harbor," but that implies that the Charleston Harbor is the mouth of a river intersecting the sea... And that's true, but not entirely. Most of the Charleston Harbor is more like a big saltwater puddle than a flowing river... Albeit with a huge, twice-daily tide. As you move up the Cooper, there is a little bit of freshwater flow from Lake Moultrie, but the water doesn't become officially "brackish" for many miles up the Cooper... And doesn't become officially "freshwater" until you hit the lake itself.
...But the Cooper River is world-renowned for meg teeth. The reason isn't because this is the area of largest concentration - the reason is because Charleston is SC's densest-populated area in the Lowcountry, and there are several dive shops and dive charters available that have marketed the meg tooth hunting opportunity as motivation to dive. That is, the Cooper is world-renowned because there's people there.
The best tooth-hunting grounds are south of the Cooper in the more remote parts of our area.
Charleston is SC's oldest city, and the second oldest in the country... So by default, that implies that European artifacts are going to be most plentiful there. However, Beaufort - south of Charleston - has been inhabited by Europeans longer than Charleston - it's just that it changed nationalities (first Spanish, then French, then Portuguese, then Spanish again, then Dutch, then British) several times and therefore can not be considered the "oldest city" like St. Augustine and Charleston, currently considered as #1 and #2 oldest in the country. The truth is, however, that Beaufort and nearby Port Royal, south of Charleston, saw European history prior to either of these.
The point is that, with all of Charleston's claim to artifacts and fossils and European history, it is not the most valued area. The most valued area really stretches from Hilton Head to Charleston, focusing around the modern islands of Parris Island, St. Helena, and the tiny town of Green Pond.
Additionally, us locals consider Charleston to be relatively "picked over" and commercialized and touristy. Our favored and most lucrative sites are not the popular Cooper River, but more out-of-the-way areas that are much richer in terms of archaeology and anthropology.
The only way to get there, as far as I know, is to join a rare dive club and make friends with the locals and hope that someone will take you out on their boat and take you diving.
The Cooper is what the Charleston Harbor becomes as you move inland. I would say it was the "major tributary to the Charleston Harbor," but that implies that the Charleston Harbor is the mouth of a river intersecting the sea... And that's true, but not entirely. Most of the Charleston Harbor is more like a big saltwater puddle than a flowing river... Albeit with a huge, twice-daily tide. As you move up the Cooper, there is a little bit of freshwater flow from Lake Moultrie, but the water doesn't become officially "brackish" for many miles up the Cooper... And doesn't become officially "freshwater" until you hit the lake itself.
...But the Cooper River is world-renowned for meg teeth. The reason isn't because this is the area of largest concentration - the reason is because Charleston is SC's densest-populated area in the Lowcountry, and there are several dive shops and dive charters available that have marketed the meg tooth hunting opportunity as motivation to dive. That is, the Cooper is world-renowned because there's people there.
The best tooth-hunting grounds are south of the Cooper in the more remote parts of our area.
Charleston is SC's oldest city, and the second oldest in the country... So by default, that implies that European artifacts are going to be most plentiful there. However, Beaufort - south of Charleston - has been inhabited by Europeans longer than Charleston - it's just that it changed nationalities (first Spanish, then French, then Portuguese, then Spanish again, then Dutch, then British) several times and therefore can not be considered the "oldest city" like St. Augustine and Charleston, currently considered as #1 and #2 oldest in the country. The truth is, however, that Beaufort and nearby Port Royal, south of Charleston, saw European history prior to either of these.
The point is that, with all of Charleston's claim to artifacts and fossils and European history, it is not the most valued area. The most valued area really stretches from Hilton Head to Charleston, focusing around the modern islands of Parris Island, St. Helena, and the tiny town of Green Pond.
Additionally, us locals consider Charleston to be relatively "picked over" and commercialized and touristy. Our favored and most lucrative sites are not the popular Cooper River, but more out-of-the-way areas that are much richer in terms of archaeology and anthropology.
The only way to get there, as far as I know, is to join a rare dive club and make friends with the locals and hope that someone will take you out on their boat and take you diving.
:gun::ar15:
