Perhaps no place is more closely associated with Francis Marion's Revolutionary War career than his legendary camp on Snow's Island, the large, thickly forested landmass in front of you across the Great Pee Dee River.
With plenty of high, dry ground protected on all sides by water and marshland, an abundance of fish and game, and friendly Whig settlements nearby, Snow's Island was an ideal location for a secluded base. In Marion's day, the canopy of the enormous old trees probably hindered the growth of an understory, and horsemen could ride freely across much of the island.
From the fall of 1780 to the spring of 1781, Francis Marion used a large camp somewhere on Snow's Island ~ together with outposts at Port's Ferry and here at Dunham's Bluff ~ as his main base of operations against British and Loyalist forces in eastern South Carolina. After British soldiers raided the Snow's Island camp at the end of March 1781, Marion's campaign shifted away from this area.
The island's sheer size, the difficulty of the terrain, and the alteration of the landscape through generations of forestry have all made archaeological investigation particularly difficult. So far, the precise location of Marion's Snow's Island camp remains a mystery.
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