The Setting The Hobcaw Barony includes 17,500 acres on the South Carolina coast outside the city of Georgetown and is privately owned by the Belle W. Baruch Foundation. The Foundation, established in 1964, was created through the vision of Belle Wilcox Baruch. Its primary mission is to conserve Hobcaw Barony’ s unique natural and cultural resources for research and education.
The Barony encompasses a rich diversity of every common ecosystem found on the South Carolina coast, making it a perfect setting for environmental science studies. It consists of wetlands, former rice fields, upland hardwood and pine forests, and barrier islands. Additionally, it includes cultural sites that were part of the original plantation, including cemeteries, slave cabins, and the Baruch’ s homes.
The Barony encompasses the tidal marshes and wetlands of the North Inlet-Winyah Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. North Inlet is an ocean-dominated estuary featuring high water quality and far-reaching salt marshes surrounded by an extensive forested watershed that is currently in a relatively undeveloped state.
Fresh water to the Inlet drains from Hobcaw Barony and nearby DeBordieu Colony, a watershed that includes much of Hobcaw Barony and mostly undeveloped lands extending north to Pawley’ s Island. Winyah Bay is a brackish water estuary dominated by input from the Waccamaw, Sampit, Black, and Pee Dee Rivers.
The Institute Established in 1969, the Belle W. Baruch Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences is housed within the University of South Carolina’ s College of Art and Sciences. The Institute’ s field laboratory is located within the Hobcaw Barony and provides researchers and scientists a living laboratory for conducting studies in undisturbed coastal habitats.
Access to the Institute is down an unpaved road from SC 17. Once there, visitors can participate in informal seminars presented by Institute scientists, take short courses designed
9