The Curse of the Wachesaw Skulls
Reprinted from "Coastal Ghosts" by Nancy Rhyne, Sandlapper Publishing, Inc.

Are skulls imbued with the power of the deceased persons! Can they emit serenity and devotion, or radiate sardonic influence or disease!

Edwin O. Fulton stood in his workshop on the grounds of Wachesaw Plantation at Murrells Inlet and fondled a piece of wood. About the room were tables, benches and other pieces of furniture fashioned by this master craftsman. Dozens of preserved deer heads with sharp-tipped antlers were attached to overhead beams. This man, as skillful a hunter as a cabinet-maker, had taken the deer in his many hunts on the plantation. Fulton ran his hand along a piece of wood to determine the kind of product the well-seasoned, knotted wood would make. Then he held it to a window and viewed a distortion in the grain. His head nodded satisfaction as he decided the deformity of the cypress would enhance the characteristic of the table he planned. "What's up!" the cabinetmaker asked, as he tipped a table and let a mound of sawdust fall to the floor. "I want to know about the skulls," the visitor asked. "The Indian skulls that you found here on Wachesaw Plantation.

"You an Indian relic fan?" Fulton asked.

"No, just interested in the skulls. I've heard they carry a kind of, uh, wish that misfortune, or evil, befall another."

"Let's go over to the house," Fulton said as he reached for a cane. The arthritis in his back was a nuisance. In the living room of the comfortable, cozy home, Edwin Fulton spoke of the Wachesaw skulls. The Wachesaw excavation site was first uncovered in the late 1920s when a man named Chandler worked with Fulton on a cabin being built as a hunting lodge for the couple who had purchased the plantation. This was during the time that the old families were selling their Low Country plantations to people from the North who used the old rice fields as places to hunt ducks. Wachesaw had been one of the most historic and beautiful of the South Carolina rice plantations.

During the nineteenth century when rice was at its peak of production, Wachesaw Plantation was the northemmost plantation in the Georgetown district, on the eastern side of the Waccamaw River. The master of Wachesaw Plantation was Dr. Allard Belin (pronounced Blane) Flagg, brother of Alice Flagg. Wachesaw came to Dr. Flagg as a gift from an uncle, the Reverend James L. Belin. Dr. Flagg married Penelope Bentley Ward on Jan. 16, 1850. She was the eldest daughter of Joshua John Ward of Brookgreen Plantation, the richest rice planter of that day. At that time, the planters of the Waccamaw region set themselves into a small group, above the rest of society. But first had come the Indians to this land.

The Indians that occupied this region were of the Eastern Siouan tribes, and they included the Winyahs and the Waccamaws. The Waccamaws are believed to have had four villages populated by 210 males and 400 females in the early eighteenth century. They established a trading post near Wachesaw in 1716. The Waccamaws were destroyed in 1720 after 60 of their 100 braves made war on the settlers and were captured and sent to the West Indies to be sold into slavery.

While Chandler and Fulton worked on the construction of the hunting lodge at Wachesaw Plantation, Chandler lived in a house on the plantation near the site of construction. Fulton also lived on Wachesaw Plantation, and he and his wife live in the same house today.

One day as Fulton and Chandler were digging, they came upon something that seemed so unusual they took great care so as not to break the object. Cautiously, they removed dirt, sometimes using a shovel, other times using their hands. As they stripped away the earth, Fulton gasped at what he saw emerging. A skeleton! Then, as more earth was dug away, another skeleton was visible. Then three. After they had finished removing the dirt, seven Indian skeletons were spread before them, each in a crouched position, with the knees drawn up under the chins. Despite Fulton's instinctive repulsion, he was surprisingly observant. The eye sockets had been stuffed with Indian trading beads. But more than any other part of the skulls, the teeth caught his attention. "They were the largest front teeth I've ever seen. Some of them had been worn down, and there were only stubs left near the gums. But others had front teeth as large as my thumb."

It appeared to Fulton, and to Chandler as well, he said, that the skulls were unusually small and remarkably well preserved, despite a yellow tinge hinting of age. And like all skulls, these had the classic mockery of mirth. They were grinning! Word of the discovery was dispatched to the Charleston Museum, and men from Charleston arrived on the scene and removed the skeletons. The remains from the Wachesaw excavation were examined by experts, who made estimates of the sex and age of the individuals. Although not enough material was found to age the Indian remains accurately, they appeared to range in age from 20 to 45 years.

Not long after the skeletons were found, Fulton was plowing the banks of an old road near the now-completed hunting lodge. The roadway had become gutted, making travel impossible. While Fulton was repairing the road, he found what he thought were two clay urns. As he examined them, out fell the remains of two Indian infants. The tiny skulls were stuffed with Indian trading beads, which, it was later learned, consisted of eleven distinct types that dated from 1600. (The urns and infant remains were sent to the Charleston Museum.) The baby skulls were delicately formed, when compared with the skulls Chandler and Fulton had discovered earlier. But the baby faces, like the adult ones, were smiling.

Under what circumstances had the children died, Fulton wondered. As he talked about it to others who came to view the tiny heads, it was assumed that the children had probably died of some disease that had swept through the Indian village once located on the banks of the Waccamaw River, where Wachesaw Plantation now stands. For that matter, the adult skeletons could have been the remains of some people who had died from a dreaded disease on the rampage. That seemed to be a logical explanation for the mass Indian burial.

Other questions arose. If bacteria had been present at the time of the burial, could it be lying dormant in the skulls! "You know." Fulton said, leaning back in his rocking chair, interlacing his fingers across his forehead, "strange things occurred after we found the skulls. Chandler, who worked on construction of the hunting lodge and helped me examine the skulls, had a child who came down with diphtheria. And then my son, Edwin O. Fulton, jr., came down with diphtheria. I asked Dr. Norris, who owned Litchfield Plantation at that time, about it. Dr. Norris said it was entirely possible that the bacteria that causes diphtheria, Corynebacterium diphtheriae, was still active in the skulls of the Indians who were buried at Wachesaw."

Naturally, this heightened the interest in the Indian skulls.

Were they invoking evil on those who found them? A curse?

The people of Wachesaw began to have dreams that were so real they seemed to be visions. In the visions, there was always an Indian warrior, an unusually large man with big teeth, standing nearby. Along with the visions came eerie sounds and flashes of lightning. Then someone reported seeing several Indians fighting one another over the relies that had been unearthed at Wachesaw. A flash of lightning suddenly took the Indian braves away. Laborers who worked at Wachesaw also reported strange sights, like Indians disappearing into snow clouds.

Today a new Wachesaw Plantation is emerging. Wachesaw Plantation Limited Partnership purchased the plantation several years ago for $3.2 million. The developers' construction project calls for 733 residential units, single-family lots, duplex cottages, villas, great houses, a golf course and marina. The partnership is also financing diggings conducted by archaeologists contracted through the University of South Carolina. Already uncovered from the acidic soil at Wachesaw are three human remains from the Mississippian Period and one from the protohistoric period, a period when the Indians had contact with the Europeans.

Wachesaw Plantation is being developed into a private eighteenth century resort plantation. Huge yellow dirt carriers are moving earth for a golf course, and roads are being built. By the time this book is published, new residents will be living on the plantation. Should they be warned that Indian skulls are at rest under the moss-draped oaks by the Waccamaw River! And they are not impassive. They are grinning!

Note: To reach Wachesaw Plantation, turn onto Wachesaw Road from U.S. 17 in Murrells Inlet and drive two miles to the Waccamaw River. Wachesaw Plantation is near the Wacca Wache Marina, by the river.