Dredging Uncovers History in Myrtle Beach
A cannonball found in North Myrtle Beach by a man with a metal detector likely came to shore during a recent beach nourishment project. Its story goes back to the days of Civil War blockade runners.
A cannonball found in North Myrtle Beach by a man with a metal detector likely came to shore during a recent beach nourishment project. Its story goes back to the days of Civil War blockade runners
(The Civil War Picket) - When you’re dredging and then dumping two million cubic yards of sand – equal to 200,000 dump truck loads – onto a 26-mile stretch of shore, small objects are bound to make it through to the beach.
That appears to have been the case when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Charleston District conducted beach renourishment in North Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Days after that portion of the massive Grand Strand project was completed, a metal detector enthusiast found a 20-pound Civil War-era cannonball in the popular tourist destination. A Horry County Police Department bomb squad deemed the shell – which had a fuse and likely black powder inside -- to be dangerous and neutralized it.
Desirae Gostlin, a spokesperson for North Myrtle Beach police, told the Picket “dredging is our best guess” for the reason the ordnance ended up about a foot deep in front of a resort at 48th Avenue S. and S. Ocean Boulevard.
The Corps said it could not confirm the shell went through a submerged pipeline and to the beach, where other pipes dump sand and water onto the work area. Heavy equipment then shape and grade the sand.
“Discoveries of historic ordnance during beach renourishment in the…