“C” is for Colleton County

“C” is for Colleton County (1,056 square miles; 2020 population 38,604). Colleton County was one of the three original counties organized in the English province of Carolina in 1682. However, the county was divided into three parishes by 1730 which took over most county responsibilities. Lying south and west of Charleston between the Stono and Combahee Rivers, the current boundaries of the county date from 1868 when the parishes were abolished. Colleton is the fifth largest county in the state. In the eighteenth century, rice and indigo were exported in large quantities. After the Civil War, agriculture remained central to the county’s economy. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the rice lands had reverted to swamps and the Ashepoo River in Colleton County had one of the most pristine river environments in the United States.