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Columnist marks 25 years of wonder at Shelter Cove Harbour

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The least we could do is pop off a few fireworks.

Or take a dolphin cruise, stage a WineFest, play silent movies in a tent to the strains of a visiting orchestra, send off a few King Neptune postcards, put on an official Shannon Tanner beanie cap, or groove to the hits of the country band Alabama.

This summer -- Aug. 18 to be exact -- marked the 25th anniversary of Shelter Cove Harbour, and all of those things help explain its remarkable impact on Hilton Head Island.

An advertisement in June 1983 oozed with typical copy about yet another unique, world-class development -- something so common in those days that islanders could barely digest it all.

But this ad turned out to be pretty much on the mark:

"With its central location and exciting array of things to do, Shelter Cove is destined to become the social, cultural and commercial hub of Hilton Head."

Shelter Cove is in the middle of the island. It's on the water, but not behind gates. It mixes residential, retail, dining, entertainment, recreation, office and cultural land uses -- all a walk or bike ride from each other.

Its economic impact can only be measured in terms of billions. Realtors, builders, bankers and entrepreneurs from charter boat captains to vendors at the Tuesday night Harbourfest fireworks shows have all put food on the table and sent kids through college with money that has changed hands at Shelter Cove.

"Shelter Cove Harbour is the center of the 273 acres we had on that side of (U.S. 278)," said Robert C. "Bob" Onorato, who was president of Palmetto Dunes Resort when it opened Shelter Cove Harbour. "It gave a good, firm footing for everything else that followed -- condominiums, offices, parks, the Mall at Shelter Cove and the strip center."

SOCIAL CENTER

Shelter Cove was a social magnet from the beginning.

Its opening was celebrated with weeks of festivals and, of course, fireworks. WineFest, FoodFest, Harbourfest and summer concerts by the Eastman School of Music all found a home there. So did a regional billfish tournament, and when the National Governors Association held its annual meeting here in 1986, VIPs were feted on Longview Island in the harbor (now the site of the Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort) to dinner and an Alabama concert.

Now more than one generation of tourists look forward to seeing Ridgeland native Shannon Tanner put on a beanie cap and perform family-oriented songs in a harborside gazebo.

While that's a routine event in the summer, one of the island's most extraordinary scenes of all time happened at Shelter Cove. With little advance notice, a crowd estimated at 10,000 people flocked there one evening in October 2001. They listened to patriotic music, lit candles and contributed almost $50,000 for the families of New York City firefighters killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Over the years, Shelter Cove became home to the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina, thanks to a land donation by the James C. "Jim" Self family of Greenwood, S.C., whose Greenwood Development Corp. owns Palmetto Dunes and Shelter Cove.

It now includes the 26-acre Shelter Cove Community Park and Veterans Memorial, results of the Town of Hilton Head Island's land-acquisition program.

That helped reduce density. And events at these sites -- including the WingFest, concerts, Memorial Day speeches and the annual community Christmas-tree lighting -- pull the community together.

And then there's Shelter Cove's focal point -- its signature. It's a sculpture so unusual it made the Guinness Book of World Records, but is as much a part of the local color as a sunset over Broad Creek. The 12-foot bronze King Neptune statue was created by Wayne Edwards of Okatie, who came to the island 40 years ago to help Sea Pines founder and Shelter Cove collaborator Charles Fraser turn his aesthetic dreams to reality.

Locally, Edwards' hands have crafted sculptures, playgrounds, treehouses and parks from South Beach in Sea Pines to Moreland in Palmetto Bluff. His communion tables, stained-glass windows, crosses and crucifixions form an integral part of many island churches. And the same summer King Neptune was unveiled by a host of dignitaries, the island's town was born -- and Edwards was asked to craft the mayor's gavel.

Edwards proposed, then built, the Neptune statue. It is partially modeled after Bluffton's philosopher-potter, Jacob Preston, who shared a studio with Edwards at the time. A glimpse into Edwards' mind -- Neptune also is an accurate sundial once cited as the world's largest figurative sundial.

CARVING THE FUTURE

But it all revolves around the water. Shelter Cove harbormaster Dave Harris, who has been there from day one, said the 175-slip marina stays pretty full and is home to about a dozen businesses.

The harbor was carved from 15 acres of high ground where hunters once roamed. Almost 1 million cubic yards of sand and slurry were piped a mile to the Atlantic Ocean, where it nourished the Palmetto Dunes beach. Onorato said dirt not suitable for the beach was used in mounds on the Arthur Hills golf course in Leamington.

Two accesses to Broad Creek were dug out, and the harbor was linked to the controlled flow of the Palmetto Dunes lagoon system. Oceanographer Per Bruun and engineer Gus H. Bell set up a model of the marina in the Palmetto Dunes maintenance yard, Onorato said, learning ways to reduce silting and improve water flow. Harris said it worked. It has had to be dredged only once.

Onorato credits the late Jim Self, then chairman of Greenwood Development, with giving the go-ahead to execute plans for the harbor that were a decade in the making.

Twenty-five years ago, Shelter Cove's Mediterranean-themed buildings and broad walkways at water's edge were little more than a dream and a scheme. Now we can see how it helped give a community its identity.

"People can easily get to Shelter Cove," said Onorato, now retired and living in Hilton Head Plantation. "They can see it. They can feel it. They can touch it."

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