Questions about my home state

As a South Carolina native, there are certain things I've always wondered about our beloved state.

Of course, there are the obvious things, like why we decided to secede from the United States of America, failed to adequately support and fund our public schools, turned our state government into a political jigsaw puzzle, dammed up all our beautiful rivers to produce a pittance of electrical power, allowed a portion of our population to live in squalid conditions and built a generic state capital city like Columbia.

But those obvious things aside, the Palmetto State is filled with curiosities that you might not notice unless you've lived here a while.

These are other unanswered questions about our homeland that just don't seem to have logical answers. You may have others.

Vet school?

For instance, Why does Interstate 20 stop in Florence?

This major Interstate highway stretches from West Texas all the way across the southern tier of states then abruptly ends in South Carolina where it intersects with Interstate 95.

Why wasn't it extended less than a hundred miles farther east to Myrtle Beach? The Grand Strand was for decades and still is one of the state's most powerful revenue generators, and we couldn't build a decent road for tourists to get there?

Totally baffling.

Another one that puzzles me is why the powers-that-were never considered adding a veterinary school at Clemson University? It seems like such a no-brainer. After all, they already had all those cows!

Instead, South Carolina residents wanting to become vets have to apply for a limited number of slots available in surrounding states at schools such as the University of Georgia and N.C. State University.

I don't get it.

Steel mill?

Also, I've never understood why they ran I-95 through the most poverty stricken counties of our state instead of bending it closer to Charleston, a noted cultural center and tourist attraction.

I also wonder why we built McEntire Air National Guard Base outside Columbia when it easily could have been incorporated into nearby Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter?

Oh, and why is it we're the only state in the country that elects its Adjutant General to run the National Guard?

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And who the heck drew our northern border with North Carolina? It makes no sense.

Whose bright idea was it to put a smelly paper mill and an ugly steel mill in downtown Georgetown?

Then there's the nagging question of why Allendale, where I grew up, is the only county in the state without a state park?

While we're at it, how did we get towns named Ninety Six, Due West and Sugar Tit?

I'm sure you've got similar and equally perplexing questions about how we ended up the way we are. Let me know and we'll make an even bigger list of quirky things about our state.

Reach Ken Burger at kburger@postandcourier.com or 937-5598.