A guide to camping, fishing, hiking & sightseeing and to the 558 state parks throughout America's South, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Texas Panhandle--14 states in all.

Each year, South Carolina's forty-seven state parks draw nearly eight million visitors who come to enjoy the unadulterated beauty of the land and its wildlife. Beautiful Places, released by the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism, is a vibrant photographic history of these sanctuaries. The product of decades of arduous work on the part of legislators, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and committed citizens, the parks preserve the diverse natural features of South Carolinafrom its mountains to its forest canopies to its gentle, sprawling beaches. The striking eye of photographer jon o. holloway lends each image a unique, distinctly American beauty. The book also includes information on the deep history of the parks and the stories of the people who made them what they are today. Beautiful Places is a tribute to those legacies and a joyful celebration of history and nature.

During the 1930s, the state park movement and the National Park Service expanded public access to scenic American places, especially during the era of the New Deal. However, under severe Jim Crow restrictions in the South, African Americans were routinely and officially denied entrance to these supposedly shared sites. Landscapes of Exclusion presents the first-ever study of segregation in southern state parks, underscoring the profound disparity that persisted for decades in the Jim Crow South.

In the literature dealing with the Civilian Conservation Corps, South Carolina does not figure prominently in most histories of the Great Depression story. That neglect should be corrected! It is important to recognize the ways in which racism has permeated our society, sometimes blatant and sometimes subtle. While the focus is South Carolina, the particulars are representative of what happened in CCC camps across the nation. As one of the most popular facets of President Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal, the activities and antics of the CCC boys deserve attention. My primary purpose in writing this book is to assist teachers and librarians and their upper level elementary and high school students in understanding this crucial but understudied era in South Carolinas history. These readers and a more general South Carolina audience could identify with a nearby place or make a family connection.