Beginning in the summer of 1897, a severe drought arrived in South Carolina. Newspapers reported it was the driest period between Christmas and February in living memory.
The region was set up like a tinder box. The naval stores industry, which specialized in tar, turpentine, and rosin production, offered ample fuel for the fire. Poor logging practices had left heavy slash fuel accumulations in forests.
When the cold front accelerated with 50-mph winds on Feb. 16, these separate fires merged into a massive conflagration. Eventually 4,689 square miles would burn…