This building is usually referred to as the Boyton Home, not ‘House’. I think it’s fitting also. When you first find it on the trail it’s surprising. The building is a smaller Victorian design manor house. But it’s here!

Hand carved ginger bread sculptures are along the roof line, traditional curved wooden shingles are siding. I repeat, but it’s here.

Detailed history, at least what I could find is spotty at best.

The home was built in the early 1900’s. That’s important because of the location, a back piece of property on an old plantation. The owners were cattle farmers. Now raising cattle here at that time must have been ‘interesting’. Even today this is a huge wild swamp/marsh. Alligators and snakes are the main residents, and always were. However, up until around the late 1930’s there were also Carolina Panthers (Mountain Lion relative) and packs of Red Wolves. Both gone now, but the ranch operated until the mid 1950’s.

The image above is from the back of the house, facing what is the marshlands. However, the front door is here. When homes like this were built the front always faced what would be the main entrance… coming from the water. Roads down here didn’t exist (caveat, entering this wildlife area is from a road linking Savannah GA and Charleston SC parts may have been around).

The photographs above are facing the small dirt road, the new front. No front door though.

Enhancements were made to the home over the years, the family ranch was closed in the 1950’s but the DNR made use of the space once it was all part of the large wildlife area.

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