Living in a subtropical climate such as that of Hilton Head Island it is de rigueur to address pest control on a routine basis. Today, the fourth Thursday of the month (indoors one month, outdoors the other), we were visited by Island Pest Control (which is now formally known as Massey Services with Corporate Headquarters in Orlando, Florida). Aside from completing this necessary maintenance of common household pests (termites, mosquitoes, rodents), we had the unanticipated pleasure today to meet Mark Christopher, the pest control agent who attended the property and handled the professional service commendably.
What however distinguishes Mark Christopher in this instance is his distinction of having been born on Hilton Head Island (about 30 years ago). Although the Island has a year round residential population of 37,661 (at the 2020 census), during the peak of summer vacation season the population can swell to 150,000. Hilton Head Island is the principal city of the Hilton Head Island–Bluffton–Port Royal metropolitan area, which had an estimated population of 232,523 in 2023. In this urban context it constitutes a singular event to encounter a local resident who was born on the island.
What further singles out Christopher is the critical detail that his mother was born on the island (his father was from nearby Savannah, Georgia about 30 miles away). This means that Christopher enjoys the Gullah heritage.
Gullah refers not only to a language but also to a culture and a still vibrant community bolstered by the resiliency of courage and the heritage of its forefathers. Brought to America as enslaved people, the Gullah remains one of the most culturally distinctive African American populations in the United States. From Reconstruction to the Depression, the Gullah lived in isolated coastal settlements on the Sea Islands along the southeastern US, including Hilton Head Island. During this time, they established a rich culture with authentic West African components including a distinctive language, history, economic system and artistic traditions.
Enslaved West Africans begin being brought to the Georgia and South Carolina sea islands, including Hilton Head Island, to tend the rice and cotton fields.
Gullah neighborhoods on Hilton Head Island were established in the late 1860s. These historic neighborhoods are clustered together on the north end of Hilton Head Island and make up what has traditionally been called the native islander communities.
General Hunter issued a military order freeing blacks in the sea islands but it was rescinded by Lincoln shortly there after: President Lincoln developed his own plan of emancipation – the Emancipation Proclamation – officially making the “contraband of war slaves” freedmen on January 1, 1863.
1920s: The Boll Weevil destroyed all of the Sea Island Cotton in the region. Oystering became a primary source of income.
December 2010: Bridge along Spanish Wells Road renamed Charlie Simmons, Sr. Memorial Bridge. He was known as “Mr. Transportation” among the local community. Before the first bridge was constructed to connect Hilton Head Island to the mainland, Mr. Simmons operated the first mechanized ferry in the 1930’s that offered daily service between the Island and Savannah.
The island is named after Captain William Hilton, who in 1663 identified a headland near the entrance to Port Royal Sound, which mapmakers named “Hilton’s Headland.” The island has a rich history that started with seasonal occupation by Native Americans thousands of years ago and continued with European exploration and the sea island cotton trade.
Hilton Head Island is sometimes referred to as the second largest barrier island on the Eastern Seaboard after Long Island (which is not a barrier island but two glacial moraines). Technically, however, Hilton Head Island is only a half barrier island. The north end of the island is a sea island dating to the Pleistocene epoch, and the south end is a barrier island that appeared as recently as the Holocene epoch. Broad Creek, which is a land-locked tidal marsh, separates the two halves of the island.