Myrtle Beach, South Carolina Informations

Myrtle Beach is a coastal city on the East Coast of the United States in Horry County, South Carolina. It is in the center of a large and continuous 60-mile (97 km) stretch of beach known as "The Grand Strand" in northeastern South Carolina.

Ranked as the second fastest-growing metropolitan area in the country (per 2018 census estimates), Myrtle Beach is one of the major centers of tourism in South Carolina and the United States because of the city's warm subtropical climate and extensive beaches, attracting an estimated 14 million visitors each year. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 27,109, and in 2018 the estimated population was 33,908. The Myrtle Beach metropolitan area had an estimated population in 2016 of 449,495.

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Long Bay area was inhabited by the native Waccamaw tribe. The Waccamaw used the river for travel and fished along the shore around Little River. Waties Island, the primary barrier island along Long Bay, has evidence of burial and shell mounds, remains of the visiting Waccamaw.

The first European settlers along Long Bay arrived in the late 18th century, attempting to extend the plantation system outward towards the ocean. Records are sparse from this period, with most of the recorded history pieced together from old land grant documents. These settlers were met with mixed results, producing unremarkable quantities of indigo and tobacco, as the coast's soil was sandy and most of the crop yields were of an inferior quality.

Prior to the American Revolution, the area along the future Grand Strand was essentially uninhabited. Several families received land grants along the coast, including the Witherses: John, Richard, William, and Mary. This family received an area around present-day Wither's Swash, also known as Myrtle Swash or the Eight-Mile Swash. A separate grant was granted to James Minor, including a barrier island named Minor Island, now Waties Island, off the coast near Little River.:36

Mary Withers' gravestone at Prince George Winyah Episcopal Church speaks to the remoteness of the former Strand: "She gave up the pleasures of Society and retired to Long Bay, where she resided a great part of her life devoted to the welfare of her children."

As the American colonies gained independence, the area remained essentially unchanged, and the coast remained barren. George Washington scouted out the Southern states during his term, traveling down the King's Highway. He stayed a night at Windy Hill (part of present-day North Myrtle Beach) and was led across Wither's Swash to Georgetown by Jeremiah Vereen.:51

The Withers family remained one of the few settlers around Myrtle Beach for the next half-century. In 1822, a strong hurricane swept the house of R. F. Withers into the ocean, drowning 18 people inside. The tragedy made the Withers family decide to abandon their plots along the coast. Left unattended, the area began to return to forest.:58

The Burroughs and Collins Company of Conway, predecessor of modern-day Burroughs and Chapin, purchased much of the Withers family's land in 1881, and the growing community was called "New Town" around the start of the 20th century. A post office named "Withers" was established to serve the site of the old Swash in 1888. On February 28, 1899, Burroughs and Collins received a charter to build the Conway and Seashore Railroad to transport timber from the coast to inland customers. The railroad began daily service on May 1, 1900, with two wood-burning locomotives. One of the engines was dubbed The Black Maria and came second-hand from a North Carolina logging operation.

After the railroad was finished, employees of the lumber and railroad company would take train flatcars down to the beach area on their free weekends, becoming the first Grand Strand tourists. The railroad terminus was nicknamed "New Town", contrasting it with the "Old Town", or Conway.

Around the start of the 20th century, Franklin Burroughs envisioned turning New Town into a tourist destination rivaling the Florida and northeastern beaches. Burroughs died in 1897, but his sons completed the railroad's expansion to the beach and opened the Seaside Inn in 1901.

Around 1900, a contest was held to name the area, and Burroughs' wife suggested honoring the locally abundant shrub, the southern wax myrtle (Myrica cerifera). The Withers post office changed its name to "Myrtle Beach" soon afterward. It incorporated as a town in 1938 and as a city in 1957.

In 1937, Myrtle Beach Municipal Airport was built. It was taken over by the United States Army Air Corps in 1940 and converted into a military base. Commercial flights began in 1976 and shared the runway for over 15 years until the air base closed in 1993. Since then the airport has been named Myrtle Beach International Airport. In 2010 plans to build a new terminal were approved. In 1940, Kings Highway was finally paved, giving Myrtle Beach its first primary highway.

The Myrtle Heights-Oak Park Historic District, Myrtle Beach Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Station, Ocean Forest Country Club, Pleasant Inn, and Rainbow Court are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Also listed were the Chesterfield Inn and the Myrtle Beach Pavilion, both now demolished. The Gay Dolphin Gift Cove on the Boardwalk was built in 1946, and sells seashells and Myrtle Beach souvenirs. It claims to be the "nation's largest gift shop".

Myrtle Beach has been separated from the continental United States since 1936 by the Intracoastal Waterway, forcing the city and area in general to develop within a small distance from the coast. In part due to this separation, the area directly northwest of Myrtle Beach, across the waterway, remained primarily rural for a while, whereas its northeastern and southwestern ends were bordered by other developed tourist towns, North Myrtle Beach and Surfside Beach. Since then, the inland portion of the Myrtle Beach area has developed dramatically.

Myrtle Beach is 67 miles (108 km) by highway southeast of Florence, South Carolina, 94 miles (151 km) northeast of Charleston, South Carolina, and 74 miles (119 km) southwest of Wilmington, North Carolina.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 23.6 square miles (61.0 km2), of which 23.3 square miles (60.4 km2) are land and 0.2 square miles (0.6 km2), or 1.03%, are water.

According to the Köppen climate classification, Myrtle Beach has a humid subtropical climate or Cfa – typical of the Gulf and South Atlantic states. The city enjoys abundant sunshine year-round with more than 2800 hours annually.

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