Charles Pinckney

Today was a teacher work day. That means no school.  We thought it would be fun to get another Jr. Ranger Badge, number 43.  There was one more close to us, so we went to visit Charles Pickney at Snee Farm.  There are 6 National Parks in South Carolina. Lon has been to half of them!

There were many beautiful live oaks all over the grounds

Lon happily showing all the northerners that there are gorgeous blooming flowers down here in January!

Working on his booklet. This one was hard! They are going to be re tooling it this summer to make a little more obvious for the kids, and have the exhibits tie in better with the booklet. Some of the information is not easily found. The building is not that big. It took Lon a long time to get that booklet done!

Looking at the rice dam model. He saw one like this at Middleton. That is rice on the mantel. Yes, one of the major crops on Snee Farm was rice!
This is not the original building, that was torn down, but this building was built on the foundation of the one Charles Pickney lived in.
Here is some more information on Charles Pickney:
Born in South Carolina in 1757, Charles Pinckney fought in the American Revolution and was captured by the British. Upon his release, he practiced law before serving in the Continental Congress from 1784 to 1787, becoming the 37th governor of South Carolina soon after. Pinckney signed the U.S. Constitution and contributed to the Fugitive Slave and "no religious test" clauses. Pinckney later served in Congress, pushing for all white men to have voting rights.. 
The main reason he has not been remembered along with the other founders was his stance on slavery. He was pro slavery. We also found out that John Quincy Adams and James Monroe did not like him much. He did have some ideas for government we use today. One being that the President is Commander in Chief of the armed forces.

One of the requirements for the badge was to take a small hike on the nature trail.  I saw a sign I did not share with Lon.  It said watch for snakes, ants and other wild animals on the trail. But luckily we did not see any snakes, and just one fire ant mound. We did see birds!

The end of the squishy trail. There was lots of mud. But it was sort of fun

Amazingly beautiful live oaks

 Beauty shot

Lon looking at the live oaks

On the Rice Trunk. It is a much much smaller version than what they would have had as a working plantation

Hike all finished. Just need to finish up the last bit of the booklet!

The last bits, working hard

This is Ranger Kate. She is giving Lon his Jr. Ranger oath.  We met Ranger Kate when she was the Ranger at Whitman Mission in Walla Walla, Washington. She gave  Lon his Jr Ranger badge for Whitman Mission.  While she did not recognize Lon's face, he has grown, she recognized his name and the wooden badge. She sent him that badge, because I called her after Lon lost the Whitman Mission badge on Mt. Rainer. She was amazed that we met again! In another place!  I am not sure Lon and I were as amazed as she was since that happens to us alot!

Since we were already over in Mt Pleasant we decided to go over to Southern Seasons.  We also decided we were hungry. We went to Southerly. It is a pretty fancy place! Lon got chicken fingers, he was going to get fish, but the waitress told him it was catfish and he would not try it. I am sure he would have liked it. I got a crab cake. The waitress asked me 4 times if that was all I wanted, if there was anything else I wanted with lunch. No, not really, the 11 dollar appetizer crab cake was pretty much it, thanks!  It was good, it was big, it was enough

While we were eating, we remembered we forgot to get the trading cards from Charles Pinckney.  We went back to get them, and Lon wanted to show off his badge on the wall of fame.
When we went to scouts tonight, one of our leaders told us they saw Lon's name on the wall of fame at Fort Moultrie.  Lon thought that was pretty cool.