In South Carolina, the main stem of the river is known as the Great Pee Dee River to differentiate it from its much smaller tributary the Little Pee Dee River. The Pee Dee is a large river which flows through bottomland forests, cypress swamps, and eventually into the coastal flats. The extreme lower Pee Dee River flows through the region where rice plantations were the predominant economic engine of South Carolina before the Civil War.

A pleasant tradition (though not true) has developed that the eminent American composer Stephen Foster (1826-1864) toured South Carolina in 1851, and that while visiting friends at a plantation near the Pee Dee river, became quite entranced with the natural beauty of that waterway.  Consequently, he declared that the Pee Dee would appear within the lyrics of his next song.  After returning to his home in Pennsylvania, he composed a piece entitled, "Old Folks at Home."  The first line initially did read, "Way down upon de PeDee ribber" but the music publisher (Firth, Pond, and Company) demanded that the name be changed to Suwannee river.   

The truth is Foster never visited South Carolina, much less the Pee Dee River.  It is generally accepted that he composed the lyrics after hearing another song, "Old Pee Dee,"  and wrote the quatrain that included its name.  Always a perfectionist, he decided to use an original name of a southern river that was not taken from another song.  His brother was enlisted for the task and, after perusing a marine atlas of North America, came upon the name Suwannee.  The rest is history!   --edited from the "Canoe Camping--USA" page.

An information sheet showing some of the highest river levels and what to expect as the river hits each level.  The highest recorded river level is 50.4 feet and occurred on  19 September 1945!

Click on any of the thumbnails to enlarge an image.

Historical marker located at Laney Landing in Cheraw.  More information from the marker is shown below.

Click here to go to the historical pictures page for the river landing.

The Indian trails were natural beginning for trading centers. Taking advantage of this, James Gillespie, in association with Christopher Gadsden of Charleston, began a trade and navigation business around 1740. By the 1750's Cheraw was an established village and the Kershaw brothers, among others, had stores at the top of this hill, which was known as "Yankee Hill" for the numerous New England merchants located here.

The town grew slowly until around 1820 when steamboats began coming up river. Among the first of these was the "Great Pee Dee" whose builder and captain was Moses Rogers, commander of the famous "Savannah", first steamship to cross the Atlantic. Capt. Rogers died enroute to Georgetown and is buried at Old St. David's Church, as is his friend and fellow steamship captain, Daniel Elkins.

In 1822 the "Pee Dee" took four days and six hours to make the round trip to Georgetown. Because Cheraw was at the head of navigable waters, the advent of fast round-trip river traffic greatly increased Cheraw's already important position as a regional trade center, a state which continued until just before the Confederate War and the arrival of the railroad. Some of the steamships were the "Robert Martin" and "Maid of Orleans", "Osceola", "Swan", "Anson", "Marion", "Charleston", "Columbia", and the "Chesterfield". These were usually shallowdraft side wheelers, and then could only run in the fall, winter, and spring when the water was highest.

The importance of river trade began to wane with the coming of the railroads, but in 1907, the Cheraw and Georgetown Steamboat Co. was organized to revive river trade. The channel was cleared, and the company purchased the "Ghio" (see pictures) and the "Merchant". A trolley track (see a picture), beginning close to where the boat ramp is now, went up the hill to warehouses at the top, one of which is still located across from Pee Dee Baptist Church. This company continued to operate until 1914 with a boat service every other day. The last attempt to revive river traffic was in 1939 when the tugboat "Helen" came up river.

By 1821. traffic was enough to warrant the formation of the "Cheraw Bridge Company" for the purpose of constructing a toll bridge at Cheraw. George Hearsey was responsible for the first bridge, constructed in 1824. The building of this lattice mode bridge is believed to have been supervised by Ithiel Town, inventor of the bridge truss. This bridge was carried away by flood in 1826. When rebuilt in 1828, the rules stated that slaves must have a pass to cross, users must keep to the right of center, and no one could stop in mid-stream. Bridge tolls were $1.00 for a private four-wheel carriage drawn by four mules, six cents for those on foot, and two cents for each hog, sheep or goat. This bridge burned in 1836.

The next bridge lasted until it was burned by the Confederate Army as they retreated toward Fayetteville on March 3, 1865. A skirmish between Sherman's Advance and Hardee's Rear Guard was fought on this site, complete with the only engagement of the Confederate gun boat "Pee Dee". The "Pee Dee" was scuttled less than two weeks later to keep it from being captured, never having been anywhere except Cheraw. The successful burning of the bridge meant that Sherman's forces had to remain in Cheraw until pontoon bridges arrived, and the river receded from "Sherman's Freshet."

In 1866 the covered bridge was again rebuilt, continuing as a toll bridge until 1899 when the town bought the old bridge. On Aug. 26, 1908 at 12:20 in the afternoon, the bridge went down in the midst of a raging flood. (See some pictures of the bridges.)  One section of the old covered bridge remained on the Cheraw side. The rest. of the bridge was replaced with a steel bridge, and remained in use until a new bridge was built upriver in 1939. The last section of the old covered bridge burned ire the 1940's. Remains of the pilings are visible just below this sign.

With the disappearance of the steamships and the construction of a new bridge, this area was abandoned and became a town landfill. In 1975 as a joint project of the town of Cheraw, the Cheraw Bicentennial Commission, and the Cheraw Civitan Club, the former landfill became this park allowing people once again access to the mighty Great Pee Dee. And sometime if you listen very carefully you can still hear the bells of an approaching steamship and maybe see in the rising mist the shadow of things long past.

The blue portion of the graph represents actual river level measurements, the green portion is the predicted level of the river over the next few days.