Mandatory George Washington statue.
Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:
Every year since 1999 Anne and I have taken one road trip to a different part of the United States and seen attractions, wonders, and events we didn’t have back home. From 1999 to 2003 we did so as best friends; from 2004 to the present, as husband and wife. After years of contenting ourselves with everyday life in Indianapolis and any nearby places that also had comics and toy shops, we overcame some of our self-imposed limitations and resolved as a team to leave the comforts of home for annual chances to see creative, exciting, breathtaking, outlandish, historical, and/or bewildering new sights in states beyond our own. We’re the Goldens. This is who we are and what we do.
For 2023 it was time at last to venture to the Carolinas, the only southern states we hadn’t yet visited, with a focus on the city of Charleston, South Carolina. Considering how many battlefields we’d toured over the preceding years, the home of Fort Sumter was an inevitable addition to our experiential collection…
…but the time came to leave Charleston at long last and begin heading northwest toward home. We returned to I-26 toward Columbia, where we’d stopped on the way down for just a bit, and would stop again. There was much more to see in and around their state capital’s capitol.
[CAUTION: The following entry contains Confederate stuff. We are not fans. Viewer discretion is advised.]
A few sights along the way and/or around the corner:
On the road again.
The tallest roadside forests we’ve seen since Yellowstone.
We stopped in Bowman for gas, where our choices were an overpriced BP station or an overpriced Exxon station. Flip a coin, pick a disaster.
TOTAL ROAD TRIP MILEAGE AS OF GAS STOP #3: 948.4.
Special features around our paths included decorated lightboxes.
Granted, we’re bigger fans of lightboxes hand-painted by artists rather than being covered in photos approved by chambers of commerce, but still.
Fleeting glimpse of “Miracle for Columbia” by MILAGROS Collective.
A tribute to journalist Narciso Gener Gonzales, founder of Columbia’s newspaper The State, who was murdered by Lieutenant Governor James Tillman in 1903.
Northern mockingbird!
So, the South Carolina State House, then. Capitol buildings have become one of our recurring themes in recent years — the interiors where we’re allowed, as well as the public art and historical tributes around each statehouse’s lawns. Some of the personalities they celebrate were, um, not exactly folks we Yankees would’ve put on a pedestal.
The South Carolina State House and some of the last palmettos we’d see as we got farther away from the ocean.
The African American History Monument is in the backyard. Sculpted by Ed Dwight, same artist as the Denmark Vesey statue back in Charleston.
Alternate view of the left side.
Alternate view of the right side.
The requisite soldiers’ monument, resembling ours back home in Indy.
There’s always a cannon in these sorts of collections, but this one’s a remnant from the Maine. Remember the Maine?
Related: their Spanish American War monument, sculpted by Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson, the only female artist represented on the grounds.
James F. Byrnes, who held various state offices all the way up to governorship; also served as Truman’s Secretary of State and spent a year as a Supreme Court Justice.
Monument to Robert McNair, the governor in office when this complex was designed.
The Jefferson Davis Highway marker, courtesy of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
The South Carolina Monument to the Women of the Confederacy. Fun trivia: the Daughters of the Confederacy fought against its installation.
Also brought to you by the UDC but not a Confederate monument: this one’s for Revolutionary War Generals Thomas Sumter, Francis Marion, and Andrew Pickens.
Benjamin Tillman, Governor and US Senator, whose white-supremacist platform and demeanor were virulently pro-lynching. The murderer of the aforementioned Mr. Gonzales was his nephew.
Confederate General Wade Hampton — white supremacist group leader, rich plantation owner with thousands of slaves, and [checks notes] a governor.
Strom Thurmond, last known survivor of the French and Indian War.
…so, uh, then we went inside. To be continued!
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[Link enclosed here to handy checklist for other chapters and for our complete road trip history to date. Follow us on Facebook or via email sign-up for new-entry alerts, or over on BlueSky if you want to track my faint signs of life between entries. Thanks for reading!]
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