Kiawah Island
Kiawah Island, barrier island in Charleston county, South Carolina. Located 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Charleston. It is one of the Sea Islands off the Atlantic coast and is bordered by the Kiawah River. The island is primarily a private gated community known for its 10 miles (16 km) of beach, maritime forests, protected sand dunes, and diverse array of plant and animal life as well as its award-winning golf and tennis facilities and two five-star resorts.
In 2020 the island’s full-time population was slightly more than 2,000 people, with a median age of 66. Tourists and part-time residents increase the number to between 8,000 and 10,000 people during the summer months. The island encompasses just over 13 square miles (21 square km).
History
The habitation of Kiawah Island dates to at least 2,000 bce when Thom’s Creek people, a Native American group not associated with modern tribal groups, populated the island and began making cooking vessels now known as Thom’s Creek pottery. The island is named for the Kiawah (also spelled Kiawa, Kiawaw, and Keyawah), who were the island’s inhabitants when English colonists arrived in 1670. In 1675 the Kiawah ceded control of the island to the colonists in exchange for cloth, hatchets, beads, and other manufactured goods. By 1699, with so few Kiawah remaining on the island, the Lords Proprietors of the Carolina colony granted it to Capt. George Raynor, a wealthy man thought to be a reformed pirate.
Raynor later sold half of the island to Capt. William Davis and passed the other half to his daughter Mary Raynor Moore. From then, each half passed through different owners until 1737, when John Stanyarne, a wealthy planter, completed the purchase of both halves, uniting the island under one owner. Stanyarne raised cattle and produced indigo on the property using enslaved labor, as would subsequent owners until slavery was abolished. When Stanyarne passed away in 1772, he left the property to his two granddaughters, Mary Gibbes and Elizabeth Vanderhorst, dividing the island again.
The island’s ownership would remain within the two families for more than 100 years, with the Vanderhorst half passing from Elizabeth and her husband Arnoldus Vanderhorst II to Elias Vanderhorst, Arnoldus Vanderhorst IV, and eventually Adele Vanderhorst. In 1900 Adele Vanderhorst purchased the Gibbes half, previously owned by Mary and her husband James Shoolbred and passed through their family, making the Vanderhorsts sole owners of the island.
During the time the two families owned the island, they grew cotton, corn, peas, and other crops in addition to indigo, but they faced many challenges, including the Revolutionary War, during which the British burned down a plantation house built by the Vanderhorsts, and the Civil War, during which the Shoolbred house was vandalized and left uninhabitable. A new Vanderhorst house was built in 1801 by Arnoldus Vanderhorst II. It still stands today and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
Island development
The Vanderhorst family retained ownership of the island until the early 1950s, when Charles Chance (C.C.) Royal, a lumber merchant and real estate developer, purchased it for logging. In 1954 Royal built the first summer home on the island followed by several more for family and friends. He named the street where it was built Eugenia Avenue after his wife. Upon his death in 1964, the island passed to a family trust and was later sold to Kuwait Investment Company, which established two American subsidiaries, Kiawah Beach Company and Coastal Shores Incorporated, to develop and promote the island as a world-class resort.
The Kiawah Island Inn opened in 1976, and several luxury homes were built during this time, as was the Gary Player-designed golf course Marsh Point (later named Cougar Point). In 1988 the town of Kiawah Island was incorporated, and Kiawah Resort Associates purchased the island. The island’s second hotel, The Sanctuary, opened in 2004. In 2013 South Street Partners purchased the island.
The island today
Since first being developed as a luxury vacation island, numerous golf courses have been added over the years, including the Jack Nicklaus-designed Turtle Point in 1981; the Tom Fazio-designed courses Osprey Point and River Course in 1988 and 1995, respectively; and the Tom Watson-designed Cassique Course in 2000. The Ocean Course, designed by Pete Dye and completed in 1991, hosted the Ryder Cup the year of its completion and the PGA Championship in 2012 and 2021. In addition to its many golf courses, the island is also home to the Roy Barth Tennis Center.
The island and its surrounding waters are also home to an extensive wildlife population, including dolphins, loggerhead turtles, alligators, whitetail deer, bobcats, blue herons, and hooded mergansers. In all, there are 18 species of mammals, more than 30 reptile species, and 300 bird species. Due to the southwestern trajectory of its longshore current, rather than facing erosion, the island continues to accumulate more sand and grow in land mass.