Lowcountry
Also: Low Country, SC Lowcountry, Lowcountry South Carolina
South Carolina's low-lying coastal plain below the Fall Line — Charleston, Dorchester, Berkeley, Beaufort and neighboring counties. Its Oligocene and Miocene deposits make it a premier fossil region.
The Lowcountry is South Carolina's coastal plain — the flat, low-lying country below the Fall Line, where the hard rock of the interior gives way to sand, marsh, and slow rivers. It centers on Charleston, Dorchester, Berkeley, Colleton, and Beaufort counties and the sea islands, and it is one of the richest fossil regions on the East Coast.
Why the Lowcountry is fossil country
Beneath the marshes lie marine deposits from the Oligocene and Miocene — the Ashley and Chandler Bridge formations among them — laid down when this land sat under a warm sea. Rivers and erosion constantly rework those beds, freeing shark teeth, whale bone, and the teeth of the Otodus lineage. The region is also Gullah Geechee homeland, with its own deep cultural history.
Collecting here, responsibly
We are a Lowcountry house, and we describe locality in general terms to protect fragile dig sites — part of honest provenance. Our guides to South Carolina's fossil laws and locations and river versus beach finds explain where collecting is allowed and what the land holds.