Murrells Inlet -- Brookgreen Gardens

Founded by Archer M. and Anna Hyatt Huntington in 1931, Brookgreen Gardens is both a sculpture and landscape garden and a botanical preserve focusing on plants and animals of the Southeast. Located on the site of former indigo and rice plantations, Brookgreen encompasses over 9,000 acres and includes eight distinct habitat areas: beach and dunes, salt marshes, maritime forest, loblolly pine swamps, long-leaf pine ridges, river terrace, freshwater cypress-gum swamps, and abandoned rice fields. There are over 500 works of sculpture, making it the largest permanent outdoor exhibition of American sculpture in the world. Likewise, the botanical collection includes over 2,000 species and subspecies of plants native and adapted to the Southeast. Ponds and other bodies of water complement the more formal plantings which include several arboreta, a palmetto garden, a dogwood garden, and a magnolia allée. The gardens are open to the public. Persons associated with the garden include: Archer M. and Anna Hyatt Huntington (former owners, 1930-1973).