Editing Surfside Beach, South Carolina (section)

==History==

===Eighteenth and nineteenth centuries===

In the early nineteenth century, there is evidence of a [[slave plantation]] of 3,200 acres (1838) at what is now Surfside Beach.<ref name="Martin">{{cite journal |last1=Martin |first1=Greg |title=The Ark Plantation |journal=The Independent Republic Quarterly |issue=Spring 1990 |pages=11–12 |url=http://www.hchsonline.org/places/ark.html |access-date=July 19, 2020 |publisher=Horry County Historical Society |location=Conway, SC|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19991103205227/https://www.hchsonline.org/places/ark.html|archive-date=3 November 1999}}</ref> There are traveller accounts from the eighteenth century of the area.<ref name="Burroughs">{{cite web |date=2015|publisher=Horry County Archives Center, [[Coastal Carolina University]]|first=Ben|last=Burroughs|title=Surfside Beach, S. C. "The Ark" |url=http://www.surfsidebeach.org/Data/Sites/1/media/town-council/agendas-and-minutes/2015/ark_of_surfside_beach_ben_burroughs_presentation.pdf |access-date=July 19, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160803182759/http://surfsidebeach.org/Data/Sites/1/media/town-council/agendas-and-minutes/2015/ark_of_surfside_beach_ben_burroughs_presentation.pdf|archive-date=3 August 2016}}</ref> The 1765 diary of [[John Bartram]], botanist, shows him lodging at what was probably Stephen Peak's slave plantation, "at the west end of long bay".<ref name="Burroughs"/> In 1773, [[William Bartram]], naturalist, also "got to the West end of Long Bay, where [he] lodged at a large [[Indigo dye|Indigo]] plantation".<ref name="Burroughs"/> The plantation in question was called "The Ark", a name for which the first record is in 1867; it may have originally been owned by "Mr. Aark".<ref name="Martin"/><ref name="Burroughs"/> In 1820 it was owned by John Tillman.<ref name="Martin"/> The 1838 survey recorded it having 3,194 acres.<ref name="Martin"/><ref name="Burroughs"/> The plantation reported 57 enslaved people in 1850 and 63 in 1860.<ref name="Martin"/><ref name="Burroughs"/> In 1850 the crops were [[sweet potato]]es and [[Rice production in the United States#History#19th century|rice]].<ref name="Martin"/> Other [[History of agriculture in the United States|farmed animals and crops]] are thought to have included cattle, sheep, pigs, [[Indian corn]] and peas.<ref name="Burroughs"/>

The main house was near the ocean front (at 3rd Ave South and Willow Drive in present-day Surfside Beach), with several buildings for [[Slave quarters in the United States|slave quarters]] to the north along the ocean and a cemetery behind it (South Hollywood Dr on the west, to Juniper Drive on the north, to 6th Ave South on the east, to Cypress Drive on the south).<ref name="Burroughs"/> The main house had four large rooms and was made of timber; it was used as shelter during a [[1893 Atlantic hurricane season|hurricane in 1893]].<ref name="Martin"/><ref name="Burroughs"/><ref name="Reed">{{cite web | first=Mary Beth|last=Reed|publisher=South Carolina Department of Archives and History|title=Horry County Historic Resource Survey | url=http://nationalregister.sc.gov/SurveyReports/HC26001.pdf|page=70 | access-date=20 October 2024}}</ref>

===Twentieth century===
The main house became a hotel, and then a shelter for lifeguards, before it was demolished in the 1960s.<ref name="Lewis">{{cite book |last1=Lewis |first1=Catherine Henniford |title=Horry County, South Carolina, 1730-1993 |date=1998 |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |isbn=978-1-57003-207-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-dUfVeiy4yIC |access-date=20 October 2024}}</ref><ref name="Burroughs"/> The cemetery, where many of the enslaved people of the plantation were buried, continued to be used by descendants of those families until the 1950s.<ref name="Burroughs"/> In 1980, the town of Surfside Beach declared it abandoned, opening the area for development.<ref name="o472">{{cite web | title=Ark Cemetery | website=Horry County Historical Society | date=26 April 2021 | url=https://horrycountyhistory.org/affiliates/surfside-beach-historical-society/ark-cemetery|quote=The Ark Cemetery is marked as “RESERVED” and labeled as Blocks #21 & #22, Ocean Terrace Section No. 2, on the above map of “The Town of Surfside Beach” dated April 30, 1955. In 1980 a circuit court judge ruled against those who claimed that the cemetery was NOT abandoned. The property was then decreed free and clear of any claims by the defendants. Development of the property soon followed that court ruling | access-date=20 October 2024}}</ref> There are now houses on the site, which have destroyed most of the cemetery, though some graves are still visible, and in 2022 markers and memorials were put up.<ref name="Burroughs"/><ref name="a595">{{cite news | last=Tomasic | first=Megan | title="It's tradition, our legacy": Working to preserve slave cemetery in Surfside | work=Myrtle Beach Sun News | date=16 June 2018 | url=https://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/local/article213003904.html | access-date=20 October 2024}}</ref><ref name="j537">{{cite news| last=Shoemaker | first=J. Dale | title="It's terrible to put houses over graves": Enslaved people finally honored in Surfside Beach | work=Myrtle Beach Sun News | date=4 May 2022 | url=https://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/local/article260985167.html | access-date=20 October 2024}}</ref>

Surfside Beach was previously known as Roach's Beach<ref name="Lewis"/><ref name="Martin"/> and had only a few buildings surviving the hurricane of 1893.{{cn|date=October 2024}} Principal industries were lumber and feed farming for the 30 or so horses and mules in the area.{{cn|date=October 2024}} The new owner, George J. Holiday of [[Galivants Ferry, South Carolina|Galivants Ferry]], renamed the area Floral Beach after his wife, Flora.<ref name="Lewis"/><ref name="Martin"/><ref name="x313">{{cite book | last=Stokes | first=Barbara F | title=Myrtle Beach: A History, 1900-1980 | publisher=University of South Carolina Press | year=2007 | isbn=978-1-57003-697-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4pfe0mFFO_EC | access-date=20 October 2024 | page=31}}</ref> He built a sawmill and opened a hotel in the old house of the plantation, the Tillman house.<ref name="Lewis"/>

Holiday sold the land to a group from Columbia who partially developed the land.<ref name="Lewis"/><ref name="Reed"/> In 1952, most of the land changed hands again and became known as Surfside Beach.<ref name="Lewis"/><ref name="Martin"/> A pier was built in 1953.<ref name="e710">{{cite news| first=Zane|last=Wilson|title=60 years later: Hurricane Hazel didn't destroy Myrtle Beach area's resolve | work=Myrtle Beach Sun News | date=14 October 2014 | url=https://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/local/article16687328.html | access-date=2024-10-20}}</ref>

[[Hurricane Hazel]] in 1954 destroyed most of the beach's seventy houses and the pier.<ref name="e710"/> In 1976 the Department of Housing and Urban Development noted that the town "is subject to serious flooding from tidal surge caused by hurricanes and tidal storms"; there had been significant storms or hurricanes in 1872, 1874, 1883, 1893, 1894, 1899, 1906, and 1944, as well as Hurricane Hazel, and no flood defenses were in place or planned.<ref name="c238">{{cite book | title=Flood Insurance Study: Town of Surfside Beach, Horry County, South Carolina | publisher=Department of Housing and Urban Development, Federal Insurance Administration | year=1976 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=osLAIKHan9MC&pg=PA2 | access-date=20 October 2024 | page=2}}</ref> Development plans continued.{{cn|date=October 2024}} By 1956 there were six families living permanently on the beach, with others coming on holiday.{{cn|date=October 2024}} The settlement expanded after the reactivation of [[Myrtle Beach Air Force Base]] in 1956.{{cn|date=October 2024}} The town was [[Town#United_States|incorporated]] in 1964.<ref name="Lewis"/> It had 881 residents at that point.{{cn|date=October 2024}} [[Municipal annexation in the United States|Municipal annexation]] led to growth of the settlement.{{cn|date=October 2024}}

===Twenty-first century===
{{unsourced section|date=October 2024}}
Surfside Beach adopted a public-places [[smoking ban]] which took effect October 1, 2007. Surfside Beach is the first town in Horry County to enact such a ban, and one of only a handful in South Carolina to do so at the time.

On February 4, 2023, at 2:39 PM [[UTC-5:00|local time]], a [[2023 Chinese balloon incident|Chinese spy balloon]] that had been flying across the United States for days was shot down directly over the town's coast by an [[AIM-9X Sidewinder]] launched from a [[Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor]]. US military aircraft were spotted directly overhead of the town minutes before the balloon was shot down.
[[File:Surfside Beach.jpg|thumb|Surfside Beach in 2023]]