The Edisto River is acclaimed as “one of the longest free-flowing blackwater rivers in North America” and “the only ‘major South Carolina river system’ that lies entirely within the state” – and these are interesting tidbits of information to ponder while crossing a highway bridge and glancing briefly at the narrow tree-lined ribbon of dark water it spans – but look more closely. You’ll find that the Edisto is much more than that initial glance might suggest.
The Edisto River Basin drainage spreads over 3,100 square miles – 11 counties – and encompasses over five thousand stream miles, eleven thousand acres of lakes and ponds, and twenty thousand acres of the estuary.
The Edisto rises – spring-fed – from just above South Carolina’s “fall line,” where the rolling red clay hills of Piedmont and the Midlands give way to the sandy flatlands of the Coastal Plain, and then traverses the Low Country to the Atlantic Ocean, 250 sinuous “river miles” to the South and East of its headwaters.
The South Fork of the Edisto begins to carry that name as a small stream in Johnston, South Carolina – and then flows Southeast one hundred five miles through rural South Carolina – until, around Branchville, it meets the North Fork.
The North Fork of the Edisto is formed by the confluence of two smaller streams – Chinquapin Creek and Lightwood Knot Creek – that come together just south of Interstate 20, between Batesburg and Wagener. The North Fork meanders Southeast for about 66 miles to Orangeburg, then turns due South and continues twenty miles to join the South Fork, forming the Main Stem of the Edisto.
The one hundred nineteen mile-long “Big Edisto” continues to the Southeast - paralleling Highway 61 – until, as the river flows past Ghivan’s Ferry State Park, its course turns to the South. This takes the Edisto through the ACE Basin and eventually out to “Mile 0,” where the river meets the ocean at Edisto Beach.
