Georgetown
South Carolina's third-oldest city, once the world's top rice port.
- Population
- 8,403 (2020 census)
- Incorporated
- 1729
- Rice, 1840
- Nearly half the U.S. crop
Then
- 1526
Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón's Spanish expedition founds San Miguel de Guadalupe on Waccamaw Neck. It soon fails.
- 1729
Georgetown incorporates, and Elisha Screven lays out a four-by-eight block grid.
- 1840
The Georgetown District grows nearly half the rice in the United States, and the port is the world's largest rice exporter.
- 1936–1944
International Paper opens a mill in 1936; by 1944 it is the largest in the world.
- 2022
Hurricane Ian makes landfall nearby in September.
Now
Georgetown sits on Winyah Bay, where the Black, Great Pee Dee, Waccamaw and Sampit rivers meet. Heritage tourism is booming, though the paper mill announced its closing in 2024.
Joseph Rainey, the first African American member of the U.S. House, is one of the town's notable sons.