Bluffton, South Carolina Community Information

Bluffton, South Carolina is one of the fastest-growing communities on the southeast coast!  It began as a vacation getaway along the riverbanks of the May River, where its cool salt-air breezes provided a respite from the summer heat and disease that plagued the gentry at their home plantations.  The town was settled in 1825 and incorporated in 1852, and is notable as the site of early talk urging South Carolina’s secession from the Union before the US Civil War.  Bluffton, a Confederate headquarters, was bombarded by Federal forces and nearly leveled in 1863.

A century-and-a-half later, Bluffton has recovered from its battle wounds, the destruction of its cotton crops by the boll weevil, the Great Depression, and the collapse of riverboat travel when US Highways were built.  In large part, Bluffton’s renaissance is due to the development of a large sea island just to its east.  Hilton Head Island became a major destination resort, and to get there, people first had to come to Bluffton!

While Highway 46 had been the primary route to the southeast corner of Beaufort County, it was the eventual completion of Highway 278 from its intersection with Interstate 95 to its terminus on Hilton Head Island that has provided Bluffton with its biggest stimulus.  Businesses and homes are being built on lands that once were covered in cotton, rice, indigo and lumber.   Population estimates from the 2002 US Census do not begin to reflect the number of people settling in the area every day.  The small southern town of Bluffton has become a suburban metropolis!