SCIWAY News, No. 29 – October 2000

South Carolina small business owners who are trying to make the right decisions about their websites can now get some help from the Authority Channel - http://www.authoritychannel.com - site no longer available. This Web site offers lots of genuinely useful tips and information, and you can also sign up for the Authority Channel's E-Business Workshop as well as their Internet Marketing Clinic.

In This Issue

1. Search South Carolina from Your Web Site
2. New and Notable South Carolina Web Sites
3. Find South Carolina Toll-free Telephone Numbers Online
4. Some South Carolinians Can Now Check or Pay Property Taxes Online
5. New SCIway Advertisers
6. In Search of Lost Places
7. Upcoming Festivals and Events
8. Surprise of the Month: Where is Sumter National Forest?

1. Search South Carolina from Your Web Site

You can now add a small search box to your Web site that will enable visitors to your site to find South Carolina information quickly and easily.

There is no charge for this service and you can customize the colors of the search box to match your Web site. You can also select a narrow version of the search box or a wider one.

For an example of how this search box might look on your site, please visit https://www.shop.scshops.com/ - site no longer available. The South Carolina Shop is a Columbia business that sells South Carolina caps, shirts, belts, mugs, glasses, license plates, etc. online.

For another example, take a quick trip to the South Carolina Historical Society's site (http://schistory.org/), where you can find a wealth of historical documents, photographs, maps, and more.

When you use Search South Carolina today, most of the results that display will be SCIway pages that include links relevant to the information you're searching for. But next month we will explain how you can add a direct link to your site to Search South Carolina. For a preview, try these three searches: "Authority Channel" ... "websites for small businesses" ... and "South Carolina Historical Society."

I would like to thank Don Carlton, a good friend who's responsible for most of the complicated parts of SCIway, for developing Search South Carolina.

We have tested this new search service extensively and corrected several problems. But if you find one we've missed, please write us at service@sciway.net, and we'll fix it quickly.

Also, please write us at this same address if you add Search South Carolina to your Web site ... so we can add your site to our SCIway Partners Program.

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2. New and Notable South Carolina Web Sites

Animal Associations and Animal Protection Organizations

https://www.sciway.net/org/animals.html

The Caroliniana Collections - lots of great SC photographs

Site no longer exists

Charleston Tour Association

Site no longer exists

Election 2000 - South Carolina Candidate and Party Web Sites

Page no longer exists

Know-It-All - SC ETV's resources for students, teachers, parents

http://www.knowitall.org

South Carolina Alliance of Black School Educators

http://www.scabse.net/

South Carolina Rider Education Program - motorcycle safety

http://www.scridered.org - includes women-owned businesses

South Carolina Judicial Department - a welcome resource!

http://www.judicial.state.sc.us

SILVERxCARD - South Carolina Seniors' Prescription Drug Program

Site no longer exists

State and Federal Holidays - 2001

Page no longer exists

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3. Find South Carolina Toll-free Telephone Numbers Online

Many South Carolina businesses, organizations, and government agencies have toll-free telephone numbers. The hard part is finding the right number when you need it.

To help South Carolinians locate toll-free phone numbers quickly, SCIway has created a new toll-free directory - resource no longer available

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4. Some South Carolinians Can Now Check or Pay Property Taxes Online

One of the ways the Internet is going to help us during the next few years is that we're increasingly going to be able to do business with governments online. This will be more convenient for most of us, as it will require fewer trips to government offices, less time off from the rest of our lives, and–in some cases–less time looking for a parking place!

This shift to e-government is under way in South Carolina. For example, residents of several SC cities and counties can now print government forms from the Web instead of picking them up in person or requesting them by telephone. And Charleston County residents can access most property records online–including deeds, mortgages, plats, maps, tax assessments, and tax bills (see http://taxweb.charlestoncounty.org). Impressive!

As far as I know though, Beaufort County is the only South Carolina local government that has a Web site where you can pay a tax bill online (see http://sc-beaufort-county.governmax.com/svc/).

As local governments in your area begin offering services online, please tell us about them by writing news@sciway.net. We in turn will share this information with SCIWAY News readers.

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5. New SCIway Advertisers

"The Place That I Call Home ... Aiken" - a book that honors Aiken

Page no longer exists

Sweetgrass Baskets from Rose Marie Manigualt - Mount Pleasant

Page no longer exists

Young Pecan Plantations - Florence - for all your holiday needs

http://www.youngplantations.com

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6. In Search of Lost Places

Every month or so SCIway receives an email message from someone who is seeking information about a South Carolina town or community that no longer exists. Our state has an unusually high number of "lost places," primarily because of three 20th century construction projects: SCE&G's Lake Murray (west of Columbia, 1930), Santee Cooper's Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie (between Columbia and Charleston, 1940), and the US Government's Savannah River Site (south of Aiken, 1950).

These three projects have provided South Carolinians electrical power, tens of thousands of jobs, and some of the best fishing and boating anyone could want. But if any of us had lived in one of the communities that was destroyed to provide these benefits ... well, it would have been one of the saddest and most maddening experiences I can imagine. When a close friend or family member dies, it's a giant loss. But when a whole community is suddenly swept away, you loose everything–your friends, your job, your home, your land, your church, your family's graves, your memories and history ... and in some cases even your life.

If you know of a South Carolina town or community that no longer exists, please send us its name, the county in which it was located, the year it was abandoned or destroyed, and any other information you may have ... and we will add it to SCIway.

My daughter Robin has created a new SCIway page that includes links to several websites that provide information about South Carolina's lost places–see https://www.sciway.net/ccr/lostplaces.html. These sites include some of the most poignant photographs and stories you will ever see or read.

One site– http://sites.rootsweb.com/~scbchs/plantation5.html–reprints a collection of newspaper articles about 18 Berkeley County plantations (including Francis Marion's Pond Bluff home) that were eventually engulfed by Lake Moultrie. These articles were written in the late 1930s, when the Santee Cooper Project was still just a proposal. It's hard not to hope with the writer that somehow these places will be saved. But they weren't.

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7. Upcoming Festivals and Events

For the latest information on upcoming South Carolina events, please see https://www.sciway.net/calendar.html.

Revolutionary Field Days - Camden - Nov 3-5

Charleston Entertains: Kitchens, Parties and Panache - Nov 4

Sea Island Academy Golf Marathon - Kiawah Island - Nov 4

South Carolina Celebration of Blues and Jazz - Columbia - Nov 4

Global Supply Chain Exposition - Charleston - Nov 8-9

Veterans Day Parade - Columbia - Nov 10, 10:00 am

Miss South Carolina USA Pageant - North Charleston - Nov 10-11

Celebrate Freedom Festival - Columbia - Nov 10-12

Holiday Festival of Lights - James Is County Park - Nov 10-Jan 1

Cammy Awards - North Myrtle Beach - honoring beach music - Nov 12

Charleston Cup Race - horse racing at Stono Ferry - Nov 12

InnoVision Technology Awards - Greenville - Nov 14

Noname Pow Wow - Columbia - Indian dances and drums - Nov 17-19

Colonial Cup Races - Camden - horse racing at Springdale - Nov 19

A Christmas Carol - Columbia - benefits Babcock Center - Nov 24-25

Low Country ABATE Toy Run - North Charleston - Nov 26

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8. Surprise of the Month: Where is Sumter National Forest?

South Carolina has two national forests. One, Francis Marion National Forest, is located in Berkeley and Charleston counties, close to where the Swamp Fox earned his nickname during the later years of the American Revolution.

The other, Sumter National Forest, is named in honor of another South Carolina Revolutionary War militia general, Thomas Sumter, the Gamecock. But contrary to what I once thought, Sumter National Forest isn't located anywhere near the City of Sumter or Sumter County. Instead it stretches across northwestern South Carolina–and it's actually three separate forests! One of these forests, or districts, is named for Andrew Pickens, a third South Carolina Revolutionary War militia general.

All of this will be clearer if you take a look at this new SCIway map: https://www.sciway.net/maps/forests.html. It shows South Carolina's national forests, our three state forests, and the Audubon Society's Francis Beidler Forest in Four Holes Swamp. If you click on each forest, you'll see a more detailed map ... and the links beneath the main map provide lots of information about both the forests and the South Carolina patriots they were named for.

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