Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Island Packet with a peek into our archives

The Island Packet’s first edition was delivered 50 years ago – on July 9, 1970 – to 362 paid subscribers. A front-page story on that tabloid-sized paper produced in a tiny office on Palmetto Bay Road cried out that Hilton Head Island’s population had reached 3,000.

Since then, the Packet has used ever-changing technology to mirror a remarkable community at a remarkable time. Island population is now more like 40,000, with 2.5 million visitors annually. And three times the number of those original subscribers have read the Packet online in the past 10 minutes, worldwide, most of them tuning in on their cell phones.

How did we get from there to here?

It would take 50 years worth of storytelling to explain it, but along the way the bridge to the mainland was knocked out by a passing barge on a foggy night, and airport expansion brought jet service to Chicago. A town was formed, and despite a massive bankruptcy, business boomed to the point that one island mayor famously said he was “turning over the welcome mat.” Sun City Hilton Head changed everything, Bluffton exploded, the Gullah culture gained respect, and we still found time to laugh and cry together.

Join us today as we look back on an incredible journey here in God’s country -- and peer ahead into a hopeful future.