Editing Columbia, South Carolina (section)

===Early history===
[[File:Slave quarters at the Hale–Elmore–Seibels House.jpg|thumb|left|Former slave quarters at the [[Hale–Elmore–Seibels House]] in downtown Columbia.]]
In May 1540, a Spanish expedition led by [[Hernando de Soto]] traversed what is now Columbia while moving northward on exploration of the interior of the Southeast. The expedition produced the earliest written historical records of this area, which was part of the regional [[Cofitachequi]] [[chiefdom]] of the [[Mississippian culture]].<ref name="Hudson1998">{{cite book|author=Charles Hudson|title=Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun: Hernando de Soto and the South's Ancient Chiefdoms|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vWJnGjxjJk8C|access-date=February 16, 2012|date=September 1998|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=978-0-8203-2062-5|pages=234–238|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131009061906/http://books.google.com/books?id=vWJnGjxjJk8C|archive-date=October 9, 2013|url-status=live}}</ref>

During the [[Colonial history of the United States|colonial era]], European settlers encountered the Congaree in this area, who inhabited several villages along the Congaree River. The settlers established a frontier fort and fur trading post named after the Congaree, on the west bank of the Congaree River. It was at the fall line and the head of navigation in the [[Santee River]] system.

In 1754 the [[Colonial government in the Thirteen Colonies|colonial government]] in [[Province of South Carolina|South Carolina]] established a ferry to connect the fort with the growing European settlements on the higher ground on the east bank.<ref name="columbiahistory">[http://www.columbiasc.net/about-columbia "A Brief History of Columbia."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150219184430/http://www.columbiasc.net/about-columbia |date=February 19, 2015 }} City of Columbia Official Web Site. columbiasc.net. Retrieved February 20, 2015.</ref>

Like many other significant early settlements in colonial America, Columbia is on the [[Atlantic Seaboard fall line|fall line]] of the [[Piedmont (United States)|Piedmont]] region. The [[fall line]] is often marked by rapids at the places where the river cuts sharply down to lower levels in the Tidewater or Low Country of the coastal plain. Beyond the fall line, the river is unnavigable for boats sailing upstream. Entrepreneurs and later industrialists established mills in such areas, as the water flowing downriver, often over falls, provided power to run equipment.