Saved by Ducks

A Southern Serengeti in South Carolina's Santee River Delta

photo courtesy of Brown Land Co.

History comes alive in South Carolina’s ACE Basin, one of the longest stretches of undeveloped coastline along the great Atlantic. Due South from Charleston, across vast expanses of marshlands, through palmetto-studded live oak hammocks and dark-water cypress swamps, the landscape breaks into open vistas and well-tended fields in the heart of the ACE Basin’s plantation country.

An unexpected meeting with Ms. Frankie Limehouse at Airy Hall Plantation

Discovering the ACE Basin took me on a mission to find the artist in residence at Airy Hall Plantation, Kendrick Mayes. I wanted to connect with this quirky guy and write an article for our magazine. I drove down Bennett’s Point Road deep in the ACE Basin to the ivy-covered brick entrance. The gate was open anticipating my arrival. As I drove through cathedrals of ancient live oaks the old South lay in front of me with the magnificent Ashepoo River in the background.

Small houses dotted the landscape and I had no idea how to find him. I hesitantly knocked on the door of the main house to get directions and the housekeeper invited me in. “Mrs. Limehouse is expecting you, come this way,” she said. I had no idea Ms. Frankie Limehouse was expecting me but I followed her into the den anyway and there she was, the legendary Ms. Frankie Limehouse herself. Seated in the den by a crackling fire with her beloved family dogs, Camille and Chloe - a legacy in Charleston and a key player in the city’s art scene.

Thus began a wonderful friendship.

A true daughter of the South, Ms. Frankie could not only ride a horse like a cavalryman but also handle a shotgun with the best of them. Hanging in the hallway was the skin of a 13-foot alligator shot between the eyes by the original steel magnolia herself.

Airy Hall Plantation