A Historic Tour of Bluffton, SC with Old Town Kayak Tours

By Chris Katon, September 7, 2013

I turned to Old Town Kayak Tours as a unique 70th Birthday present for my Dad and will recommend the tour to everyone that I know.

We enjoyed an amazing afternoon on the May River learning from historian and guide Jeff Fulgham who explored Native American, Colonial and Civil War history during a gentle paddle from Bluffton Oyster Factory Park on a picturesque Lowcountry afternoon.

We talked more than we paddled as we cruised south past Palmetto Bluff, discussing Native American tribal culture in the Low Country.

Schools of baitfish jumped from the water in front of our kayak’s. A bottlenose dolphin surfaced, trolling the estuary and beginning to feed.

We turned north on the May River and were paddling past the old Hunting Island Plantation when a shark thrashed in the water in front of Dad.

Jeff launched into a story of English occupation of Hilton Head Island and the role that pre-Civil War conditions affected the role of Bluffton during the Civil War.

We learned tidbits and snippets from his first book, The Bluffton Expedition, the burning of Bluffton, South Carolina during the Civil War. And of his second book in progress, an in-depth look at the British and Spanish occupations from Charlestown to St. Augustine along his treasured coast.

Jeff was raised in historic Bluffton and had paddled the route we took on our tour hundreds of times before ever thinking it could be a viable business last year.

Well, I for one am happy he did. I’d been looking for something unique that Dad and I could do together to celebrate his birthday and this was a home run. Kudos to Jeff Fulgham for a job well done. Raising a toast to your goal of the house on the bluff.