Personal Injury Attorneyin Camden, SC.

CAMDEN, S.C. — The days of urging businesses and people to migrate south are officially over, or they should be. We’re becoming overpopulated so quickly here that resources are strained, traffic is jammed and people are getting grumpy.

Energy officials recently warned that South Carolina’s power grid is overburdened, and brownouts are likely in our not-distant future. Not all agree on the reasons. State Sen. Tom Davis (R), who is proposing reform legislation, says the problem is bad state policy and poor planning by monopoly utilities.

This might be right, but it’s also true that millions of people are invading the Southeast and raising the demand for housing and utilities. We’re simply in no position to keep growing at our current pace in our current circumstances.

As of June, 2.2 million people had moved to the Southeast in the past two years alone, according to Bloomberg News, and in 2020 and 2021, the nation’s economic center of gravity shifted to the tune of $100 billion in new income to the region. Gee, wow, that sounds excellent, doesn’t it?

But everything comes at a price, especially growth. Yet public officials intone the word “growth” as if it had mystical power and was immune to negative consequences. Migration and population increases are nothing new, of course, but the scale of what’s happening now is sometimes horrifying to those of us who live here.

Allow me to introduce you to my hometown as a microcosm of what’s happening all over the region. Camden is South Carolina’s oldest inland city — the poor man’s Charleston — and its pitch to visitors is “history, horses and hospitality.” In the past couple of years, however, the area has exploded. Some of the resulting change is welcome: Long-ignored buildings downtown are being restored by thoughtful, preservation-minded developers. On the other hand, about a mile up Broad Street, the main drag, where it intersects with Interstate 20, there’s a new crop of hospitality-related edifices that seem to have been designed by Soviet architects.

They are the usual hotels seen at interstate exchanges everywhere, probably not shocking to casual passersby. But the core of Camden is on the National Register of Historic Places and deserves better from those who wish to profit from its hospitality. Ideally, some thought would have gone into matching the style of Camden’s history, which also includes a Revolutionary War park, a section of the American Battlefield Trust’s Liberty Trail, and an abundance of antebellum houses and other notable historic landmarks.

As the fifth of these hotels is constructed, it is a moment to recall Camden’s previous “hotel era” (1882-1941), when wealthy Northerners and Midwesterners “wintered” here with their polo ponies and horses. We have great footing in Camden — that is, sandy soil that allows horses to be run within an hour of heavy rains. These polished visitors were migratory birds who sought better weather for a time, then returned home. Most sat out the winter months at one of three well-staffed hotels, stimulating the local economy while conducting “one giant house party,” as one wag described life at the Kirkwood Hotel.

Of course, few towns demand quality development along interstates, for fear that developers will go elsewhere. But they should realize by now that they can ask for what they want. The growth that started with pandemic migration doesn’t seem to be abating. Elected officials and city managers needn’t apologize for insisting on high construction standards. If fast-food restaurants decide to opt for a cheaper deal at the next exit, then vaya con Dios, amigo.

Drive the roughly 30-mile stretch along I-20 from Camden to Columbia, and you’ll notice that the forestland has been replaced with chock-a-block housing, with nary a tree in sight. Many of these developments not only are offensive to the eye but also are destroying wildlife habitat beyond what should be acceptable. And traffic is becoming a nightmare.

The view is much the same if you take I-26 from Columbia to Charleston. Miles before you reach the coast, the landscape is pocked with developments and industrial installations that can’t even be identified. There seems to be no end to the bulldozing and burning of what nature had provided. South Carolina’s coastline has been thoroughly overdeveloped, increasing the potential toll of the next destructive hurricane.

Charleston, for its part, has become a Disney-fied interpretation of its former grandeur. You can trust that it’s nothing like the original, dowdy and downtrodden though it was. Unquestionably, new people and new money have saved the city’s crumbling architecture from further decay, but the patina, mystery and allure of this old port town are mostly gone. And so it goes until the Southern states will begin to look like all those places the migrating millions have fled. Prettier, perhaps, but thus it has always been.

Oh, well, you say, c’est la guerre. This is the way of things, and it’s not Ukraine or Israel or Gaza. But the South must wake from its multibillion-dollar trance and realize that while growth creates, it also destroys whatever stands in its way.

Camden is still a horsy town with a healthy porch culture, but for how much longer? The 385-acre Camden Training Center is being offered for sale, and one proposal circulating features 800 homes on 200 of those acres. The owner of the property — once owned by Marion duPont Scott, revered horsewoman and wife of actor Randolph Scott — certainly has a right to sell. But a coterie of preservation-minded citizens and “horse people” are hoping for something more creative and, preferably, equine-related.

The battle is on. Small, perhaps, in the scheme of things, but symbolic of all that might be lost to the gods of growth for its own sake and their enablers in banks and city and county governments across the Southeast. The most important challenge now is to manage responsible growth while preserving the integrity of the environment, our history and one thing you can’t buy back once it has sold: quality of life.

The Southeast is at a critical juncture concerning its future. You can see it, feel it, hear it and smell it. Shrugging in resignation at things you think you can’t control isn’t an option. If we don’t control the growth now, we might lose our last chance. Like kudzu, unbridled growth consumes everything in its path.

For now, might we politely suggest that some of you migratory birds wing it westward? California housing prices are dropping, I hear, and the heat there, if you don’t mind wrinkles, is gloriously dry.

Camden High School football coach Brian Rimpf won his 100th career game as coach last week, with 58 coming with the Bulldogs. Rimpf is just the third head coach at Camden since 1972.

He spoke to The State and reflected on his time at Camden, his signature beard and long hair, as well as three-year career in the NFL with the Baltimore Ravens.

The high school football season has three weeks left in the regular season. Here’s a Q&A with Rimpf, along with this week’s schedule and the top games to watch.

Lou Bezjak: What did getting your 100th win mean to you?

Brian Rimpf: “I guess the most proud part about it shows longevity and success over a period of time. It made me think about all the players and coaches that have been a part of that. Head coach gets credit when things go well, but it is about the assistant coaches, the players. It was really cool. My wife plus secretary and assistant athletic director at the school organized it so people sent in videos of former coaches and players and did a little video presentation at the end. So it was really neat and all of my family was in town. It was really special.”

LB: What is it like to be a coach at Camden that has so much tradition?

BR: “It has been special. Me and our assistant coaches keep telling the players how jealous we are of them. You have a community that comes to every game. … Our home side is packed. It doesn’t matter who we are playing. They come out and it is so rewarding to have the support from the community. It is neat to be part of the tradition and something that I want to add to. It is a really neat place. We have been successful and the culture at Camden is infectious. Hopefully, our guys will thrive not only on Friday nights but when they leave this place.”

LB: You are known for growing a beard during this season. How did that come about and when do you start growing it?

BR: “Beard ... I start when spring practice starts and the hair starts in December when we get done. I started actually with the hair when I coached in North Carolina. When the season was over, I cut my hair and didn’t cut it until the (next) season was over. For me, it shows the work and progress and how long it took to make the finished product. When I got to Camden, I started the beard. My wife got tired of the hair. But now, she is used to it. The players like it. It is a daily reminder of the grind and how long it takes to make something successful. I am thankful I work at a place and a profession that I don’t have to shave or keep a certain look.”

LB: You were a seventh-round draft pick by the Baltimore Ravens and played three seasons. What are some of your favorite NFL memories?

BR: “The Ravens organization is such a great organization and that experience I had there has contributed to what I tried to do at Camden. It was well done in Baltimore and the hall-of-famers I got to play with in Baltimore — Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Jonathan Ogden, Deion Sanders — are really neat. I got to play with a lot of great players and see their work ethic and how things are done right. Great experience and fun to look back on. They do a great job bringing back former players. Earlier this season, they brought back former players for the opening game. They brought us on the field, put us in a suite and they did things the right way. I got to take my kids, who either were really young or not born (when I was playing), and they got to be a part of that too.

LB: When you signed your first contract, what was the coolest or first thing you bought with the money?

BR: “I didn’t like to spend the money. I drove my truck that I had in college for the first few years there. But I did buy a car for my wife. My son was just born. I bought a Chevy Tahoe that we still have. My son is still driving it to this day.”

LB: You mentioned Ray Lewis and Ed Reed. Any funny stories of them that you remember from your time playing with them?

BR: “Story I remember about Ray Lewis was one time one of our linemen and one of our defensive backs were arguing during practice. And they continued arguing when they got back to the locker room. So the lineman said, let’s wrestle and square it up. So all of a sudden they start wrestling and then Ray walks in. He goes up to the defensive back and says ‘I got this, back up.’ As soon as he said that, the locker room was going crazy. We all made a circle and they got in there and it took all of five seconds as Ray (who was a state wrestling champ) took the lineman down and got on top of him. It was awesome and we were so hype. After that, no one challenged Ray.”

AC Flora (3-4, 1-1) at Irmo (7-0, 2-0): A.C. Flora leads all-time series, 2-1, including last year’s 35-21 win. An Irmo win would give it eight victories, most since winning 11 in 2010. Yellow Jackets QB AJ Brand has thrown for 1,502 yards, rushed for 508 and 31 total touchdowns. RB Jaden Allen-Hendrix has rushed for 1,225 yards and 12 touchdowns. Irmo’s defense is giving up just 181 yards and 8.4 points a game. Falcons are under .500 this late in the season for the first time since 2017. AC Flora’s Aiden Mosley has rushed for 413 yards and six touchdowns over the last two games since returning to the team. ACF quarterback Roper Wentzky has thrown for 1,692 yards and 22 touchdowns. Kendall Byrd leads the team with 41 catches for 738 yards and 10 TDs. AC Flora gave up 73 points last week in a loss to Richland Northeast, most points allowed since giving up 81 to Fairfield Central in 1998.

Blythewood (3-4, 1-1) at Clover (5-2, 2-0): Blythewood leads all-time series, 2-1, including last year’s 21-7 win. Bengals QB Harrison Collins has thrown for 1,568 yards and 13 TDs. Edward Robinson leads Blythewood with 10.5 sacks and Zarion Williams has nine. Clover has won five straight since an 0-2 start. Former Lexington coach Perry Woolbright is in his first season as Clover head coach. Clover RB Landon Stone has rushed for more than 1,100 yards

Brookland-Cayce (5-2, 2-0) at Dreher (4-3, 2-0): Two teams are part of a three-way tie for lead with Gilbert in Region 5-3A. Dreher leads the all-time series, 24-15-1. B-C senior QB/WR Will Young has 903 yards and 15 total touchdowns. Running back Deshaun Washington needs 53 yards for 1,000 rushing on the season. He has 13 touchdowns. Tyrone Jackson leads B-C with 34 tackles. Dreher has won two straight games for the first time since 2018.

Silver Bluff (6-1, 2-0) at Saluda (5-2, 1-1): Silver Bluff is in first place tie in Region 3-2A with Strom Thurmond. Silver Bluff’s lone loss was to Midland Valley. Saluda has lost two straight games. Silver Bluff leads series, 5-2. KenMane Brunson leads Saluda with 551 yards rushing and seven touchdowns. JT Lott leads Saluda with 49 tackles and two sacks.

White Knoll (7-0, 2-0) at Lexington (6-1, 2-0): Winner of game takes over first-place in Region 4-5A and can clinch at least a share of region title with a victory. White Knoll’s only other region title came in 2014. Lexington’s last region title came in 2015. Lexington leads the series, 17-5, and has won five straight. WK is giving up just 158 yards and 7.1 points per game. White Knoll QB Landon Sharpe has thrown for 1,520 yards and 20 total touchdowns. Evan Henderson leads the team with 33 catches for 512 yards and three touchdowns. Jaiden Kimble leads WK with 36 tackles, 12.5 for loss and second with three sacks. Lexington QB Taiden Mines has thrown for 836 yards and eight TDs. Matt McCauley and Christian Sexton were inserted at RB for Lexington last week and each rushed for more than 100 yards last week against River Bluff. Montrell Byrd leads the Wildcats with 58 tackles, 13.5 for loss and five sacks.

All games are 7:30 p.m. unless noted

Thursday

Dutch Fork 41, Chapin 8

South Aiken 38, Airport

Strom Thurmond 43, Pelion 7

Friday

AC Flora at Irmo

Bethesda Academy at Northside Christian, 7 p.m.

Blythewood at Clover

Brookland-Cayce at Dreher

Cardinal Newman at Camden Military, 4 p.m.

Columbia at Fairfield Central

Fort Mill at Spring Valley

Fox Creek at Batesburg-Leesville

Gilbert at Orangeburg-Wilkinson

Keenan at Eau Claire

McBee at CA Johnson

North Central at Cheraw

Oakbrook Prep at Richard Winn

Richland Northeast at Lugoff-Elgin

Silver Bluff at Saluda

Swansea at Lower Richland

Trinity Collegiate at Hammond

Wardlaw at Newberry Academy

Westwood at Ridge View

White Knoll at Lexington

WW King at Laurens Academy

This story was originally published October 12, 2023, 9:39 AM.

(803) 771-8419

Lou Bezjak is the High School Sports Prep Coordinator for The (Columbia) State and (Hilton Head) Island Packet. He previously worked at the Florence Morning News and had covered high school sports in South Carolina since 2002. Lou is a two-time South Carolina Sports Writer of the Year by the National Sports Media Association.

CAMDEN, S.C. (WIS) - After 51 years under the scope of a Camden hospital, the Karesh Long Term Care center has secured its own space. The long-anticipated move came after two decades of discussion and two years of construction for the stand-alone facility off Liberty Hill Road.

The $40 million project was made possible through state funds secured through the Kershaw County Health District. This, according to its Board Chairman Derial Ogburn.

Now titled Karesh at Beechwood, approximately 88 senior residents were relocated from their longstanding facility within the MUSC Health Kershaw Medical Center on Wednesday.

Less than 24 hours in, residents told WIS the new facility was “unbelievable” and far better than its previous location.

90-year-old Thema Bodiford invited us to her new room where WIS Channel 10 was already playing.

“At first, I would say, thank the Lord that they got together, such a beautiful place as this. It’s like being in a hotel… I’ve had some visitors in my room, and they want to take the bathroom home with them,” said Bodiford who moved into the Keresh thirteen months ago.

Karesh at Beechwood is a 95,000 sq. ft. facility that holds 132 beds. The complex is split into three “neighborhoods” that are still being furnished.

“We did try very hard in the hospital to make it more of a home life. And it’s hard to get away from that institutional look. So today, the biggest difference - the care will remain the same, but we have more of the furnishings of an actual home,” said Loretta Wrigley, Director of Nursing.

Karesh Administrator Scott Neal said the expansion comes after a statewide demand for senior living care.

“We have a large waiting list now to get into Karesh. And we will be going through that list as we speak. So, there’s definitely a need here,” said Neal.

Karesh added at least 50 new nurses and certified assistants to the 100-plus staffers carried over from the previous facility.

This new home for 132 seniors includes free-standing departments for food service, laundry, and housekeeping.

“I just love it here. Everyone is so nice. At Karesh wing they were good, but the place is nothing like this one. Kershaw County’s got a lot to be proud of to have this facility in it,” concluded Bodiford.

Neal said they will start admitting those with immediate needs as soon as possible.

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KERSHAW COUNTY, S.C. (WIS) - The Kershaw County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) is investigating a string of felonies carried out across one cemetery.

In a July 13 incident report, deputies noted $25,000 worth of bronze vases and grave markers taken from Forest Lawn Memorial Park.

“It takes a major scumbag to come out here and steal something from a person’s gravesite,” said Sheriff Lee Boan at the cemetery off Kershaw Highway.

Sheriff Boan told WIS that deputies were originally called to the cemetery on the afternoon of July 7 when someone broke into the back shed by ripping off the hinges.

Deputies said the cemetery supervisor said one LED light, one gallon of gas, one weed-eater, one sock set, one case of two-stroke oil, a 17-foot ladder, hand tools, bronze pieces, and employee clothing were missing.

Five days later, the cemetery administrator called to report multiple things were missing from grave plots.

“They’re very vulnerable out here and the families are the ones that suffer. When they come out to visit and know that some scumbag has taken something from their grave,” continued Sheriff Boan.

In all, 47 bronze vases, two companion nameplates, two corner markers, and one single nameplate was reportedly taken from the property on or around July 12.

On August 2, the KSCO said they received word that another bronze vase and name placard was taken. This time, from an infant’s grave.

“This is a pretty big number here. We don’t usually have this much from one gravesite. It’s kind of just, real sporadic. But for somebody to come out here and put this much time and effort into taking this is not normal,” said Sheriff Boan.

Sheriff Boan encourages anyone with information to contact the KSCO at 803-425-1512 or dispatch at 425-424-4000.

Alternatively, you can email investigators at kcso@kershaw.sc.gov.

“These kinds of people, we hope there’s not many around us. But if somebody knows something about it… These are the kinds of people that you need to come forward and give us some information on. Because we need to get some justice for what happened here,” concluded Boan.

WIS reached out to the cemetery who declined comment.

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Archaeologists with the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology at USC have studied the Camden Battlefield for decades, but their most recent finding is the discovery of a lifetime.

The SCIAA team found the remains of 14 Revolutionary War soldiers at the historic Camden Battlefield and Longleaf Pine Preserve, the site of a 1780 battle that claimed more lives than any other in the revolution.

“I was standing over the grave of a soldier who woke up that morning not knowing it was his last,” says Doug Bostick, executive director of the South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust. “It’s a surreal experience that connected me with military history (in a way) that I’ve never felt before.”

The trust preserves historic battle sites across the state, including the Camden site. Together with SCIAA and a handful of other invested organizations, researchers are piecing together what this discovery means for South Carolina's history and what we know about the deadliest battle of the American Revolution.

Steven D. Smith, research professor and lead on the Camden site, says the project aims to learn more about the lives of Revolutionary War soldiers, excavate remains that were endangered from human discovery and rebury them with dignity.

Many people do not realize that historic battle sites are often cemeteries because fallen soldiers were buried where they fell during the Revolutionary War and are still there, says SCIAA archaeologist James Legg, who has studied the Camden battle site since 1980.

Beginning in 2020, SCIAA archaeologists discovered the bodily remains and personal artifacts of several soldiers who fought at the Battle of Camden buried in shallow graves. This year, the Battleground Trust and SCIAA finalized plans to excavate the site.

Working from September to early November, the archaeologists unearthed 14 individuals in seven graves, including one which held five bodies. The shallow gravesites provide insight into burial practices during the war.

“The burials were very cursory in nature,” Legg says. “Prisoners of war were likely made to bury the dead in extremely shallow graves — we’re talking 12 to 14 inches deep. Some of them even showed evidence of plow marks from 20th century farm machinery, that’s how poorly these soldiers were treated.” The manner and location of the graves informs the history of the battle itself, including the participants and the skirmish areas. Artifacts found with the skeletal remains, such as uniform buttons, reveal the soldiers’ allegiances: 12 Continental, one British and one Loyalist.

Outside of the findings’ historical significance, Legg says this new evidence of battle helps solidify the reality of the war, which can be difficult to conceptualize outside of history books.

“It’s almost like a mythology, the Revolution, like a story we all agree happened, but may not feel that it was real. These gravesites make it real.”

Once the graves were identified and assessed, a SCIAA team carefully removed the soldiers’ remains to a lab for further study.

Carlina de la Cova, bioarcheologist and professor of anthropology, said many of the remains were extracted in blocks of soil to limit further damage. De la Cova, along with forensic examiners from the Richland County Coroner’s office, will X-ray the skeletons to learn about out each soldier’s age, height, cause of death and experience of battlefield trauma.

Several of her former students, now working at the coroner’s office, have volunteered to help with the project. Using dental evidence, they’ve already identified the ages of many of the soldiers. At least one half of them were under 35 years old, including two teens estimated to be ages 14-16. The Continentals came from Maryland or Delaware, and the British soldier was from Scotland.

“When we think about the independence of this nation, we think about the Declaration of Independence, we think about Washington crossing the Delaware, but here in South Carolina we have this very tangible evidence that tells the human side of that story,” de la Cova says.

While de la Cova values what she and the other researchers can learn from the fallen soldiers, she says her other focus is identifying the soldiers based on their biological profiles so they can be honored with a proper burial.

After the forensic data is collected, the soldiers will be reinterred in sealed vaults at the locations where they were found on the Camden Battlefield, Bostick says. S.C. Battleground Trust, Historic Camden and Kershaw Country are planning a service for April 2023.

“These are America’s first veterans,” Bostick says. “We think it’s important for the public to be able to see and understand all the things that will happen.”

Until then, the USC researchers will continue to learn what they can from the boys and men who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

“I felt honored to be there, to connect with the men who gave their lives for the liberty that we all enjoy today,” Bostick says. “They gave their lives for what they believed in.”

Learn more

To learn more about the recent discovery at Camden, visit the S.C. Battleground Trust website.