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From its headwaters in the cypress swamps of lower Dorchester County to its confluence with the Cooper River in Charleston Harbor, the Ashley River runs for less than 15 miles. Historians have frequently observed that this physical characteristic of the river is of inverse proportion to its importance to the region and to the contribution it has made to broad patterns of the history of South Carolina. The Ashley River, known to Native Americans as the Kiawah River, takes its name from Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper, the first Earl of Shaftesbury, who as one of the eight Lords Proprietors obtained a charter to the Carolina Colony.

Full History of the Ashley River Corridor [+]