Beech Island, South Carolina

Beech Island, South Carolina

Beech Island is an unincorporated community of Aiken County, South Carolina in the United States. It appears to take its name from Beech Island, a nearby former island that is politically part of Georgia but geographically separated from the rest of Georgia by a river which changed its bed. It was preceded by the trading post and fort at Savannah Town.

Another popular explanation for the name of the community comes from the fact that beech trees populate the "high-land" bluff along the Savannah River where the community is located. Of course, how "high-land" was shortened to "island" is as much a mystery as the origin of the community's name.

Beech Island was primarily an agricultural community before the 1950s. Cotton,wheat,corn, and soybean were the major crops. This changed with the construction of Urquhart Station Power Station and the nearby Savannah River Nuclear Project. New highways were built to accommodate the workers commuting to the Nuclear Project. Commerce grew and the community began to change. In the 1960s Kimberly Clark built a large manufacturing facility on what was once farmland creating more jobs. The boom, however, was short lived.

Beech Island's most famous resident was the late James Brown who lived there for the last few decades of his life on a 60-acre (240,000 m2) estate.