Archaeological field school students, photograph by Kimberly Pyszka, Stono Preserve, 2016.

Soil test, photograph by Tim Callahan, Stono Preserve, 2016.

Like the ebb and flow of the tides, the constructed landscape of Stono Preserve today reflects 300 years of modifications by people that lived, worked, and leisured on the property. These three centuries reflect many of the narratives of Lowcountry history and even American history. From its tenuous beginnings that included St. Paul’s Parish Church and its parsonage, the land expanded into a working plantation that operated and produced wealth through the use of enslaved labor. People were working to build a colony and build their wealth while others struggled under bondage and labored under force. Some of colonial America’s slave revolts and wars with Indigenous peoples took place on or near Stono Preserve. After the Civil War, newly freed people spent their first years of freedom attempting to earn a living on the land, while white planters struggled to adjust to the end of free labor. By the early twentieth century, it became a vacation home and a romanticized, reimagined version of a southern plantation that many white Americans internalized as historical fact, rather than historical fiction.

Stono Preserve’s most recent transformation moves toward realizing the combined vision of John Henry Dick and the College of Charleston. In the later years of his life, John Henry Dick observed drastic changes to the surrounding landscape. Because the area was fast developing, he was concerned about the future of the property. It served as habitats critical to many aquatic species and provided essential refueling stations for birds that rely on estuaries for food and shelter during their migrations. Therefore, he worked with the Lowcountry Open Land Trust to place a conservation easement on the property, protecting it for future generations. He also made plans to entrust the property to the College of Charleston Foundation upon his death. John Henry Dick’s vision for the property included its use to educate others about the importance of environmental protection and conservation. John Henry died in 1995 and is buried in the St. Paul’s Parish churchyard.