Want to stay inside the last cabin on Hunting Island? Here’s how, but there may be a wait
If you walk far enough down Hunting Island State Park beach, branches start to writhe out of the sand.
The bark-stripped roots of live oak trees jut out of the shore forming a tangle of limbs, with wisps of sea breeze trying to sweep through.
Erosion and fierce storms ate at the nearby maritime forest until tired palmettos and pines laid down to create the “boneyard” beach.
Crabs crawl across rough slabs of concrete half-immersed in tide pools, and barnacles grow on white PCV pipes, proof that natural forces claimed all but one of the park’s cabins called the ‘lighthouse cabin.’
It may not be, ‘Little Blue,’ but the quaint two-bedroom cabin offers a natural solace for those who book the stay.
Little Blue,’ a landmark cottage on Hunting Island, was torn down in 2017 after beach erosion made it unsafe. At the time, it stood on pilings surrounded by waves.
“When the park closes you’re the only person there,” Hunting Island State Park Manager Brandon Goff Park said. “You have a lighthouse in your front yard and ocean and 5000 acres of Maritime forest and low-lying wetland. It’s is pretty incredible.”
A stay at the cabin
Thirty-five years ago, Jessica Plavic’s mom picked Hunting Island State Park out of a travel book. Almost every year since, she has made the trip from Ohio to South Carolina, including the year that she and her husband got married at the park.
“When I started going there, I was 10 years old,” she said. “My mom actually found out about it from some book about South Carolina and that was before it was really popular. She came here one time and we all just fell in love with it. It’s just very majestic.”
Palvic is one of hundreds of people who stay in the cabin every year with occupancy rates consistently above 95% annually, according to Goff. At $349 per night, that’s over $119,000 in revenue per year, plus or minus a few bucks.
“We’ve actually been in almost every single cabin that was on the old cabin road, and once those cabins were taken away by the ocean or excavated, we started staying in the lighthouse cabin,” she said. “It’s just beautiful. I mean, everything about the place is beautiful.”
Under it’s roof, the roughly 700-square-foot cabin bottles two bed rooms, three double beds, a living room, a kitchen and a screened in porch with rocking chairs. The floors, walls and ceilings are a wooden oasis.
Though remote, the cabin has free WiFi, and central air and heat. It includes an outside grill and picnic table. Pets aren’t permitted in the cabin or around the cabin-area.
In a few years, Plavic plans on spending her 50th birthday at the cabin.
“What I want to do is just walk the beach all day,” she said. “That’s what I want to do for my 50th birthday.”
With how in-demand the cabin is, it’s good she’s planning in advance. Reservations can be made up to 13 months ahead of time; however, when there are late cancellations sometimes people can book last minute, according to Goff.
A segregated past
Sitting from the porch, and with a keen eye, Plavic and her family of three, plus her mother whose eyes landed upon Hunting Island Park in the travel book so long ago, can see the ocean over the beach dunes and palm trees.
Compared to the tens of cabins that Hurricane Matthew destroyed in 2016, the remaining cabin sits on the island’s highest point — next to the lighthouse.
The black-and-white tower was built in 1859 and rebuilt in 1875 after it was destroyed during the Civil War.
Similar to the lighthouse, which was deconstructed and relocated 1.3 miles inland to its current location in 1889, the cabin has also been moved, according to the park historian.
When the South Carolina Forestry Commission built the structure in 1945, only the park’s Black visitors vacationed in the cabin.
The South Carolina State Park system was founded in the 1930s and operated with strictly segregated facilities until its integration less than 60 years ago, in 1966. The cabin originally stood in the segregated, north end of the island.
Then, in 1980 the cabin was moved to its current location for use as a park residence, specifically for the park interpreter, whose job was to help visitors navigate the park.
“As we lost cabins, things were kind of shifted around and it was transformed from a residence for a ranger into a rental cabin,” Goff said, though he didn’t have the exact date that it turned into a rental cabin.
Now, it stands as the only cabin on the park.
“That’s it. It’s the only cabin that is on the park,” Goff said. “That’s the only cabin that’s reservable. Its the only lodging, overnight accommodation that we have. We have the campgrounds, but as far as actual lodging, the cabin is the only facility on Hunting Island.”
Visitors can reserve the ‘lighthouse cabin’ through the South Carolina Parks reservation page, or by calling 866-345-7275.
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This story was originally published January 3, 2023 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Want to stay inside the last cabin on Hunting Island? Here’s how, but there may be a wait."
