Sidestep Into History: The Living History Farm
By Lenore McKenzie-Morris
Far from the pounding surf, high-rise hotels and manicured golf courses, Millie the Mule circled a pile of sugar cane early one Saturday morning in Conway.
Millie, who was harnessed to a mill turnstile, worked steadily and quietly under the watchful eyes of Derek Frye. It was 9 a.m., and Millie's work was almost done for the day, while Frye's was just beginning.
Visitors to the beach who want a glimpse of the old south and don't mind a short drive can find Millie at the L.W. Paul Living History Farm just north of Conway on S.C. 701 North. There, you'll find volunteers like Frye making sugar cane syrup, pounding iron on a blacksmith's anvil and attending to the daily work of an early 20th century farm.
"It's a great program they've got here," said Bob Hill, a blacksmith. "I love it."
Hill, who is the father of museum director Walter Hill, was making a latch in the blacksmith shop just a few doors down from Frye's syrup shed when 9-year-old Caroline arrived with a hot drink for him. Steam blossomed off the cup of hot tea as the little girl smiled at her grandfather and turned and headed back to the museum's gift shop and information center. Hill continued hammering the iron, explaining his work as he went.
The farm is an open museum, with skilled craftsmen performing historic demonstrations on special events and regular farming chores on a daily basis as needed.
Located on 17 acres, the farm was built on land Horry County has owned for some time after L.W. Paul, a local businessman, came along and promised to fund the project. It was established to depict family farming as it was in the period of 1900-1955.
"There's a family farmhouse, outhouse, pack house, smokehouse, chicken coop, pigpen and tobacco barn," said farm manager Wayne Skipper. "Those are the buildings that would have been on a family farm. And we have five community buildings that would have been in every community - a church, syrup shed, grits mill house, blacksmith and woodshop and a sawmill shed."
The church is a replica of the Primitive Baptist Church of Pawleys Swamp from 1840. Simple and quiet, the church is authentic down to the pews from the original church.
Work on the farm is sporadic, depending on what needs to be done on any particular day, Skipper said. From time to time, open houses are held to show off the skills of local craftsman like Hill and Frye, who carry on the traditions of the old south.
Frye, who spent most of his day skimming the impurities off the cane sugar juice as it slowly heated up, said he learned most of his skills from Skipper.
"I just like doing old stuff," Frye said. "Wayne and them - they've been very good at teaching us this kind of stuff. Some people won't share their knowledge, like it's a trade secret."
The addition of the living history farm will ensure that the skills aren't lost as Frye and other volunteers eagerly demonstrate their skills for visitors.
The 50-gallon batch of cane sugar juices was expected to yield 5 gallons of sugar syrup that will be sold in the museum's gift shop.
"Just as fast as we can bottle it and put it in there, it's gone," Frye said.
The living history museum is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. For details and directions, call (843) 915-5320.
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