Peace and War – The Angel Oak and Fort Sumter, Charleston SC [March 4, 2016]

The day started with a trip to see what is purported to be the largest Live Oak tree east of the Mississippi, the Angel Oak on John’s Island, Charleston County.  To get to the tree, you turn just after a church and drive along a gravel road and eventually through a gate into a gravel parking lot.  There is nothing fancy or contrived about this park.  It is just a beautiful tree, surrounded by signs telling you not to climb on it, and a small house that serves as a gift shop.  The tree is enormous, peaceful and beautiful.  It’s thick, old branches drape gracefully toward the ground and eventually run parallel to it.  Sometimes there are wooden blocks supporting the branches. 

Rumor has it that the tree is 1,500 years old.  We’ve seen much smaller Live Oak trees that are said to be 700 and 900 years old.  However, the sign on the tree property says that the tree is 300-400 years old and that these trees only live to be 500-700 years old.  This information casts a doubt on the ages of the other trees we had seen.  Hmmmm.  None of this takes away from how huge this tree is – 65 feet tall, 25.5 foot circumference with an area of shade 17,000 square feet.  The largest limb is 39 feet long and 11 feet around.  Wow!

There is an atmosphere of quiet and peace around the tree.  People speak in hushed voices, and the sandy soil under foot muffles their footsteps.  You feel like breathing deeply and standing in awe of such a lovely sight.  While the tree looks a bit like an angel spreading its wings, the Angel Oak gets its name from the Angel family who once owned the property.

From the Angel Oak we drove into Charleston to visit Fort Sumter.  It was a windy and cool ferry trip through Charleston Harbor to the island fort.  After you arrive, you have about an hour there before you sail back to the city.  There is a great exhibit area inside the fort that we didn’t see until the last minute.  We wished that we had spent less time clamoring around the ramparts of the fort and had left more time to spend in the exhibits.

The fort has a long and varied history, but is most noted for being the location of the first shot fired in the American Civil War.  The Confederacy fired on the fort that wasn’t finished construction, many of whose cannons were still not assembled, and that was woefully understaffed.  After 36 hours of bombardment, the Federal troops relinquished the fort.  Later in the war, Federal forces bombarded the fort, reducing the top 2 of 3 tiers of the outer wall to rubble.  Ironically, all this fallen brick was used to reinforce the remaining walls making them stronger.  After the American Civil War, the fort was fixed up to defend Charleston during the Spanish-American War and then was used continuously through WWII.  Such a violent history.