The land that has come to be known as Nemours has a deep and rich history. Before European settlement, the region was inhabited by indigenous Native American tribes, including the Yemassee who hunted and fished the fertile coastal region of today’s South Carolina Lowcountry. As part of the shared and troubled history of European settlement in the Americas, the arrival of settlers ultimately displaced the indigenous peoples. In the Lowcountry, Carolina Land Grants were gifted to some of these new settlers, and over time, a few amassed great fortunes, first, from indigo and then most dramatically during the era of rice cultivation. Before the Civil War, enslaved West African laborers cleared the land, moved monumental amounts of earth, and engineered complex hydrological systems to create the carefully managed tidal rice impoundments that still define much of our region today.
Image: Chassevent after previous gravure by unknown author published on Le Tour du Monde Paris 1862
Rice culture collapsed following the emancipation of the enslaved and a subsequent series of destructive hurricanes so that by the turn of the 20th century, the region had gone from among the richest to among the poorest in the United States. However, the impounded rice fields remained a haven for ducks and other waterfowl, and soon, wealthy northerners began purchasing the large tracts of inexpensive historic plantation land for use as recreational and hunting retreats. This kept these large tracts of land more intact than in other parts of the country where large parcels were often subdivided into smaller tracts over time, and additionally, the managers of the large Lowcountry hunting retreats were tasked with maintaining the impoundments for recreational waterfowl hunting. The combination of these historic influences and more recent conservation efforts as illustrated by the hugely successful ACE Basin Project has resulted in a truly unique and globally significant cultural and conservation landscape.
From the late 1940s through the early 1960s, Eugene duPont, Jr., and later his son Eugene duPont, III purchased and merged five plantations along with some smaller tracts, renaming the resulting 10 miles of Combahee river frontage and approximately 9,860 acres “Nemours”, after the French village from which the family originated. Mr. duPont III built a home on the property where he lived with his family over the next three decades while managing the land for hunting, timber production, and agriculture. Towards the end of his life, Mr. duPont considered the future of this land that he so loved and offered as his legacy that this land be protected from development and for Nemours to serve as a living laboratory for wildlife research, conservation education, and land stewardship.
Image: New World Cartography, LLC
The Nemours Wildlife Foundation was formally established in 1995, shortly following Mr. duPont’s passing. Over the 30 years since its establishment, Nemours has served as a hub for scores of interns and graduate students learning the tools of the conservation trade. It has hosted educational opportunities for school groups, community members, and professionals, and has played a leading role in helping to craft policy facilitating the conservation of the historic rice field impoundments that make this landscape so unique. Today, Nemours is home to a tremendous diversity of wildlife and habitats and is considered a leader in research and conservation in the ACE Basin – a truly breathtaking landscape the Nature Conservancy once listed as one of the “Last Great Places on Earth.”