Several members of the community and the Waccamaw Siouan tribe stood on the shore of Lake Waccamaw on Wednesday, April 12, as a piece of history was brought to the beach by a team of archaeologists. Jess Hill, Columbus County Clerk of Court, said his children were playing around the pier at their Canal Cove Road home when they discovered a one thousand year old canoe buried six inches beneath the sand. The Hills were skeptical at first as to the log’s origins, but when the professionals arrived, there was no denying the relic was in fact a means of historical travel left there by the original indigenous people who use to live next to the water almost a millennium ago.
Tribe members, leaders, and their children lined the pier, stood in the sand, and waded out into the water to bring the canoe to land. It was sung over in native song, prayed over, and touched by descendants before being housed in a container. After the canoe is preserved, it will be brought to it’s permanent home at the Waccamaw Siouan tribal grounds in Buckhead. It will be the first of many artifacts to be housed on the property.
