Boone Hall Plantation

Have you seen the movie, North and South staring Patrick Swayzie, or Queenie staring Halle Berry, or The Notebook staring James Garner? If so, you have seen the plantation that we went to today. Those 3 movies were filmed here. Gone With the Wind? Well, that movie was shot entirely in Hollywood using sketches from many plantations around the south. They say that they used the avenue of oaks (100 were planted, only 96 are still surviving after 300 years) which is oak trees that lines the drive into the home as the inspiration of Gone With The Wind. But, I was not disappointed as to how this looked from the outside - couldn't see much of the inside. Today we went over to Boone Hall Plantation which has been an active plantation since 1670. The home you see here is the 4th home built that housed a family, the first 2 made of wood and those disintegrated with age, the 3rd burnt down and the fourth (here) was made out of bricks that were made at this plantation. Boone Hall has the only surviving slave street in America where 9 slave buildings dating from the 1740's are still standing. Again, those buildings were made out of brick that was produced there. The main crop was cotton, then indigo (blue dye), then into brick making, pecan trees, and now farming. At one time there was over 4000 acres, today only 740 remain. We could tour the home, only going into 4 rooms on the first floor, the brother and sister of the family still own and run the plantation, he stays in Charleston and she lives in LA, visiting about 2 to 3 times a year. Sad part - neither are/were married and there is no offspring. So who takes care of this plantation say in 20 years (they are both in their 60's)?

Toured the grounds in a open trolley like - they showed us the pecan trees (was over 1000 - now only 300 remain, and they let the squirrels eat the bounty), the horse stables, the fields where the cotton and indigo were (now overgrown as a forest), the slave quarters, the strawberry fields (one of their main crops), the dock where the boats had come in to get the crops and send on to Charleston, the gardens, etc. Pretty impressive as to the vastness of this place. This plantation is one of the most photographed plantations in the south.


We were going to head up to the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, then head home from there - but I can't find a campsite at all going up along I95 north. So, tomorrow we camp near Asheville NC, not even unhooking for the night, then have to take a detour which will add over 100 miles to our trip just to get to I75 north near Knoxville. Last fall I40 was wiped out with a rock landslide and it is still closed. From there just head quickly home. Chip is doing better, not 100%, but we now feel that we need to get home to get things done. RV has to go in again for some maintenance, truck needs to be tuned up, I need to clean the house - it has been empty over 7 weeks and will be 8 by the time we get home. Won't be on again for a couple of days - we hope to be home by Sunday.