Congaree River Ferries

Front: Joseph Joyner owned a private ferry on the Congaree River near this site by 1749. John McCord’s private ferry succeeded Joyner’s by 1757, becoming public in 1766 by statute. A route from Charleston to Camden crossed the river at McCord’s Ferry. Due to its strategic location, the ferry figured in actions on the south side of the river during the Revolutionary War. Reverse: As the river cut a new channel, isolating the oxbow lake now called Bates Old River, a second ferry was chartered in 1845. This ferry was operated by the Bates family from the Civil War until bridges replaced both crossings in the 1920s. U.S. Hwy. 601 crosses the old river west of the McCord’s Ferry site and the Congaree River two miles downriver from the former Bates Ferry site.