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The spotted salamander
(Ambystoma maculatum) was
designated the official AMPHIBIAN
of South Carolina in 1999, after a campaign by
the third grade class at Woodlands Heights
Elementary School in Spartanburg. |
South Carolina designated the white-tailed
deer (odocoileus virginianus)
as the official state ANIMAL in
1972. |
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As of 1984, all but seven
South Carolina counties had at least one dairy
farm, which is why the General Assembly named milk
the official state BEVERAGE that
year. |
The Carolina wren
(Thryothorus ludovicianus) replaced the
mockingbird as the official state BIRD
in 1948. |
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South Carolina designated the tiger
swallowtail (Pterourus glaucus)
as the official state BUTTERFLY
in 1994. |
The Carolina Shag
was designated the official state DANCE
in 1984. A form of Southern swing, shagging is
said to have begun along the Grand Strand as
early as the 1920's. |
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South Carolina designated the Boykin
spaniel as official state DOG
in 1985. The breed was developed in the early
1900's by South Carolinian L. W. "Whit"
Boykin, who trained a friend's stray, spaniel
type dog, "Dumpy," to be a superior
hunt dog and retriever. Dumpy subsequently became
the father of the Boykin spaniel. |
The wood
duck (Aix sponsa), a
year-round resident of South Carolina, was
designated the official state DUCK
in 2009. |
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The striped bass
(Morone saxatilis) was designated the
official state FISH in 1972.
South Carolina's Santee Cooper Lakes were the
original home for the landlocked striped bass. |
The state FLAG of
South Carolina was adopted on January 28, 1861.
The crescent symbol represents the silver emblem
worn on the caps of South Carolina troops during
the Revolutionary War, and the background color
matches the blue of their uniforms. The flag also
features the sabal palm, the state tree. |
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Yellow jessamine
(Gelsemium sempervirens) was designated
the official state FLOWER on
March 14,1924. According to the enabling act, it
was chosen because "its delicate flower
suggests the pureness of gold; its perpetual
return out of the dead winter suggests the lesson
of constancy in, loyalty to, and patriotism in
the service of the State." |
South Carolina designated the square
dance as its official FOLK DANCE
in 1994. |
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South Carolina designated the Columbian
mammoth as the official state FOSSIL
in 2014, prompted by a letter from
8-year-old Olivia McConnell of New Zion to her
state legislator pointing out that the state had
no official fossil. She suggested this particular
animal because in 1725 slaves discovered a tooth
from a Columbian mammoth on a South Carolina
plantation. |
South Carolina ranks second in
fresh peach production in the
United States (behind California and ahead of
Georgia), which is why peaches were designated
the official state FRUIT in
1984. |
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The wild turkey
(Meleagris gallopavo) was designated the
official state GAME BIRD in
1976. |
Amethyst was
designated the official state GEMSTONE
on June 24, 1969. This designation followed the
discovery of several world-class amethysts at the
Ellis-Jones Mine near Due West, samples of which
are on display at the American Museum of Natural
History and the Smithsonian Museum of Natural
History. |
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South Carolina designated Indian
grass (Sorghastrum nutans) as
the official state GRASS in
2001. |
Sweetgrass
basket-making came to South Carolina in
the 17th century by way of West Africans brought
to America to work on plantations. The State
Legislature recognized the tradition by making
the sweetgrass basket the official HANDICRAFT
in 2006. |
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South Carolina designated the marsh
tacky (Equus caballus) as the
official state HORSE in
2010. Tracing its heritage back to stock
that arrived with Spanish explorers, the marsh
tacky has been in the state for over 400 years.
Once thought extinct, DNA testing in 2005 proved
the breed was still alive in coastal South
Carolina. |
South Carolina-grown
tea was designated the official state HOSPITALITY
BEVERAGE in 1995. Tea was first brought
to North America in 1799 by French botanist
André Michaux, as a gift for future governor
Henry Middleton, owner of Middleton Barony in
Dorchester County. The plant was originally grown
solely as an ornamental and its leaves were never
brewed. Since then, however, the coastal region
of South Carolina has proven to be ideal for
harvesting tea, and an island just south of
Charleston is home to the only teagarden in
America. |
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South Carolina designated the Carolina
mantid (Stagmomantis carolina)
as the official state INSECT
in 1988 as a symbol of the science of entomology
and its special role in agriculture controlling
harmful insects. |
Made for the Commons House of
Assembly in 1756, the South Carolina MACE
is the oldest, continuously used one by any U.S.
state legislature. At almost 4' long and weighing
over 10 pounds, the mace stands for the authority
of the South Carolina House of Representatives. |
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The bottle-nosed
dolphin (Tursiops truncatus)
was designated the official state MARINE
MAMMAL in 2009. |
The northern right
whale (Eubalaena glacialis glacialis)
was designated the official state MIGRATORY
MARINE ANIMAL in 2009. |
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South Carolina has two state MOTTOS,
both of which were first used in 1777 when the
state seal had two sides. On the front of this
seal was "Animis Opibusque Parati,"
which is Latin for "Prepared in Mind and
Resources," and the back had "Dum
Spiro Spero," which is Latin for
"While I Breathe, I Hope." |
The spiritual
was passed down orally for many years and first
committed to writing in South Carolina on St.
Helena Island by a freed black woman and a white
Union Army officer during the Civil War. The
publication of an 1867 book on slave songs was
the result of the work done by an educational
mission on the Port Royal islands in 1861. South
Carolina made the spiritual its official state MUSIC
in 1999. |
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Charleston
native DuBose Heyward wrote the novel Porgy,
featuring the fictional Catfish Row and its
Gullah residents in 1925. George
Gershwin turned the novel into the opera Porgy
and Bess in 1935, and the opera was
designated the official state OPERA
in 2001. |
Penned by Mrs. John R. Carson
in 1950, "I salute the flag of South
Carolina and pledge to the Palmetto State love,
loyalty and faith." was officially
designated the state PLEDGE in
1966. |
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The official NICKNAME
for South Carolina is The Palmetto
State, referring to the state tree
(the sabal palmetto). |
Beach music,
which originated around the time of the second
World War and has come to be regarded as
synonymous with the official state dance, the
Carolina shag, was designated the official state POPULAR
MUSIC in 2001. |
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Thanks to a fifth-grade class
from Ninety-Six in Greenwood County, the loggerhead
sea turtle (Caretta caretta) was
designated the official state REPTILE
in 1988. |
The state SEAL
was first used in 1777, although it was two sided
at that time. Eventually the two sides were
combined so that they fit next to each other on a
one-sided seal. The left oval was originally the
front of the seal, and has Animis Opibusque
Parati. The palmetto tree represents a
battle victory against the British at present-day
Fort Moultrie during the Revolutionary
War. The right oval was originally the
reverse side of the seal, and it has Dum
Spiro Spero. The woman pictured is Spes, the
Roman goddess of hope. |
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South Carolina designated the lettered
olive (Oliva sayana) as the
official state SHELL in 1984.
The shell was found and named by Dr. Edmund
Ravenel of Charleston, South Carolina. |
The boiled peanut
was designated the official state SNACK
FOOD in 2006. |
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South Carolina has two
official state SONGS. Acting on
the memorial of the South Carolina Daughters of
the American Revolution that the patriotic song
"Carolina," written by
South Carolina poet Henry Timrod and set to music
by Anne Custis Burgess, was designated on
February 11, 1911. "South Carolina
on My Mind," written and recorded
by Hank Martin and Buzz Arledge, both native
South Carolinians, was designated in 1984. |
Barbecue was
designated the official state SOUTHERN
PICNIC CUISINE in 2014. |
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South Carolina designated the Carolina
wolf spider (Hogna carolinensis)
as the official state SPIDER in
2000, due to the efforts of Skyler B. Hutto,
a third grade student at Sheridan Elementary
School in Orangeburg. |
South Carolina is one of the
largest producers of granite in the United
States. Blue granite is unique
to the Midlands and the Piedmont region of the
state, and was designated the official state STONE
in 1969. |
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South Carolina
designated "From the Mountains
to the Sea" as the official
state TAPESTRY in 2000. The
tapestry was made from 100% cotton and represents
all areas of South Carolina. It is displayed at
the South Carolina Cotton Museum in Bishopville,
South Carolina. |
The Carolina TARTAN
is based on a fragment of a coat of the Royal
Company of Archers dated c.1730, believed to be
the same sett as was used for the wedding ribbons
of Charles II in 1661. (The Carolina colonies
were named for King Charles). |
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South Carolina designated the sabal
palmetto (Inodes palmetto) as
the official state TREE in 1939.
The palmetto symbolizes the defeat of the British
fleet at Fort Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island,
which was constructed of palmetto logs that were
able to absorb the impact of cannon balls. |
South Carolina designated collard
greens (Brassica oleracea) as
the official state VEGETABLE in
2011, as a result of efforts made by Mary Grace
Wingard, a third-grader from Lexington, South
Carolina. South Carolina ranks second in the
nation, and Lexington County ranks first among
the counties of South Carolina, in collard green
production. |
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Tall goldenrod
(Solidago altissima) became South
Carolina's state WILDFLOWER in
2003, championed by garden clubs after it was
determined their first choice, Queen Anne's Lace,
is not native to the state. |
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