When will this waterfront oasis on Hilton Head, with ancient shell rings, open to the public?
A roughly 6.9-acre waterfront oasis in the historic Squire Pope community on Hilton Head Island hopefully will open to the public as a new passive park in spring 2023, a Beaufort County official said Thursday.
Ford’s Shell Ring, an undeveloped property off Squire Pope Road just before the traffic circle that directs thousands of cars to Skull Creek restaurants, was jointly purchased by the town and county in 2003.
The land is not open to the public right now, but officials plan to create a new passive park at the site, where there are two shell rings that date back about 4,000 years to the Native Americans who once called Hilton Head home.
A passive park is usually a small trail, a handful of parking spots and an educational sign or two.
Stefanie Nagid, the county’s passive parks manager, said she expects to put the project out to bid in May. The minimal amount of construction required for the new park, she said, could last six to eight months. Nagid hopes to open the property to residents sometime in spring 2023.
“It’s got a lot of really great history,” Nagid said.
The plan for the property includes seven parking spots (one is listed as being an Americans with Disabilities Act accessible parking space); a 10-foot-wide pedestrian trail around the shell rings; new signage; a paved entrance off Squire Pope Road; and a bench for people to sit down and look out over Skull Creek.
Beaufort County allocated $250,000 of Rural and Critical Lands Preservation bond funds toward the project, according to town documents. It initially was expected to cost about $50,000 to plan the park, and the county reserved $200,000 for permitting and construction, according to previous reporting from The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette.
The park will be open seven days a week from dawn to dusk, town records show. The county and town may enter into an agreement with the Archaeological Society of South Carolina’s Hilton Head chapter so the organization can provide interpretive tours of the property, monthly site inspections, litter pickups and minor trail maintenance.
The town will be responsible for routine maintenance at the property, which could cost between $500 and $1,000 per month, said senior planner Jayme Lopko.
A future phase of the project might include a new platform, deck or other structure that connects the passive park with Skull Creek, but the town would have to pay for that with its Capital Improvements Program, or CIP, Lopko said.
Two shell rings that form a figure eight are located on the site. Shell rings, also called middens or trash heaps, are circular and semicircular deposits of shell, bone, soil and artifacts, according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia.
The smaller ring was created about 300 years before the larger ring, which is roughly the same age as the Sea Pines Shell Ring on the south end, Rita Kernan wrote in a blog post for the archaeological society.
Nagid, the passive parks manager, said Ford’s Shell Ring creates an important bridge between modern day Hilton Head and the ancient history of the island.
“I really can’t wait to open it up,” Nagid said.
This story was originally published March 18, 2022 at 10:58 AM.
