Brookgreen Gardens

A 9,100-acre sculpture garden and wildlife preserve built on four former rice plantations. It's full of American figurative sculpture set against a classic Lowcountry landscape.

Brookgreen Gardens sits on the grounds of four former rice plantations, and the weight of that history is hard to miss. Thousands of enslaved people worked these fields, and many visitors believe their spirits still walk the property. People have reported seeing figures working in the former rice fields at dusk, bent over in labor just as they were in life. The sculpture gardens themselves seem to draw something -- some statues, visitors claim, shift position when nobody's looking. The temperature drops noticeably in certain spots on the property, particularly near the remains of plantation buildings. Singing and chanting have been heard near the former quarters, carrying across the marshes in the evening hours. Some visitors have photographed misty figures near certain sculptures, and others describe the feeling of being watched while walking the garden paths. The wildlife preserve's isolation and the weight of centuries of human suffering combine to create an atmosphere where the line between past and present gets thin.