History of Wappoo Creek – Elliott Cut, AICW Statute Miles 470 to 472
I live on Elliott’s Cut in the neighborhood of Edgewater Park. Lived here most of my life. I have looked and I cannot find any of the history of the construction of Elliott’s Cut and how and when it came to be. Can anyone please point me in the right direction for information please? Thank you!!!
Tommy Bessinger
http://riverspoint.net/jihistth.pdf
Leaving Charleston Harbor south, the Intracoastal Waterway passed from the Ashley River through the Wappoo Cut and continued along a sinuous string of tidal streams and land cuts 66.5 miles to the Beaufort River at Beaufort, South Carolina. Better than the segment to the north of Charleston, the existing inland water course from Charleston to Beaufort had a minimum depth of six (6) feet, interrupted at only four locations, and, except for a six (6) mile passage across the St. Helena Sound, was well protected from the sea.
Earlier work on this segment of the waterway tackled its most problematic stretches. The first undertaking was at Wappoo Cut, a crooked and shallow creek that joined the Ashley and Steno rivers. By dredging and by a cutoff bypassing some of the worst bends, a project authorized in 1881 created a channel through the cut six (6) feet deep and sixty (60) feet wide. At the other end of this segment, a project adopted in 1890 improved Brickyard Creek. A continuation of the Beaufort River, Brickyard Creek had a fairly good seven (7) foot channel except near its juncture with the Coosaw River, where the channel practically disappeared among shoals. Work completed in 1905 provided the creek with a constant seven (7) foot depth and “convenient width.” A third improvement, made in 1905-1906, was the construction of Fenwicks Island Cut in the central portion of this segment. It replaced a narrow, tortuous, and shallow passage through Mosquito Creek – the cut, seven (7) feet deep and ninety (90) feet wide, connected the South Edisto River with the Ashepoo River.
J.D. Lewis – PO Box 1188 – Little River, SC 29566
http://www.carolana.com/SC/Transportation/sc_icw.html
From The Siege of Charleston 1780 by Gen. Wilmot G. DeSaussure
http://www.clansinclairsc.org/siegecharleston.htm
Click Here To Open A Chart View Window, Zoomed To the Location of the Elliott Cut – Wappoo Creek Section of the AICW
Click Here To Open A Chart View Window, Zoomed To A “Navigation Alert” Position at AICW/St Johns River
Comments from Cruisers (1)
I expect you will have no problem anywhere in the Bahamas.