'Temple' predicts basin's future

GREEN POND -- One of Colleton County's most unique bits of history lies hidden in the trees here just off U.S. Highway 17.

It's the ruins of a glorified deer stand, one constructed much like an English folly, with eight brick columns about two feet in diameter at the base and likely covered with a gabled wooden roof.

Its exact design can only be speculated at, according to Jeff Grigg, a local historian who repairs boats not far from the site. It's been gone a long time, and little of its history survives.

Grigg's best guess is that British troops under Gen. Augustine Prevost destroyed it more than two centuries ago as they marched past here on their way to lay siege to Charleston.

Col. Bernard Elliott, a Patriot who had the structure built sometime after 1768, didn't live to see the war's end, and no one else apparently bothered to rebuild it. (Grigg notes Elliott also goes down in history as being the first to read the Declaration of Independence in public in South Carolina, which he did on Aug. 5, 1776, under the Liberty Tree that once stood on Alexander Street in Charleston).

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Temple of Sport

The Temple of Sport in Colleton County once was called "the oldest monument to sports erected in America," but it was largely destroyed during the Revolutionary War. Today, it's little more than an archaeological site.

The columns that survived gradually were knocked down over the years, though Grigg salvaged a fragment that's now on display in the Colleton Museum.

Not only is the structure gone, but the swampy headwaters of the Chehaw River -- the natural feature that lured wildlife to this particular spot -- largely dried out because of inland rice impoundments built nearby.

The only thing marking the site these days is a metal "Temple of Sport" plaque erected in 1969 in a sunken area just off the highway.

Grigg knows where the temple ruins are, and with permission from the property owner, takes a visitor up the ridge into the woods. While practically nothing can be seen, the hundreds of bricks, mostly hidden by leaves, can be felt underfoot.

The temple might be more famous less because of its history during Elliott's time than how it's been celebrated by writers since.

William Elliott III, not a direct descendant of the colonel, made the site famous in his 1846 hunting classic "Carolina Sports by Land and Water," who described it as a tabby and brick deer stand built like a Greek temple with eight columns.

And in the 20th century, judge and author H.A.M. Smith described it as "the oldest monument to sports erected in America," arguing it was the first such structure built for recreational, not subsistence, hunting.

Today, the site is partly protected because its owners placed an easement on their 408 acres, including the temple site, in 2001.

But it might be threatened by future highway widening. Across the road is the Donnelley Wildlife Management Area, so encroaching into either area is a less than good choice.

Grigg says the site, even in its anonymous, ruined state, should be celebrated because it shows how the past often comes full circle.

Hunting was important enough to Elliott he built an open-air temple to celebrate it more than 200 years ago.

Because so many subsequent landowners have cherished sport as much as Elliott did, the ACE Basin remains largely undeveloped, full of wildlife, a vast outdoor temple in its own right.

• The Historic Charleston Foundation is holding a forum at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Charleston Museum to discuss the effects of major changes planned downtown, such as a new passenger terminal, the City Market sheds renovation and other changes planned for east Calhoun Street. It's free and will last around 90 minutes.

Robert Behre may be reached at 937-5771 or by fax at 937-5579. His e-mail address is rbehre@postandcourier.com, and his mailing address is 134 Columbus St., Charleston, SC 29403.