South Carolina's Historic Rivertown

Overlooking the dark waters of the picturesque Waccamaw River, the city of Conway offers an appealing mixture of small-town friendliness, modern conveniences, and Old South charm. It is one of the oldest towns in America, established in 1733, in what was then South Carolina's colonial frontier. A walk along the riverfront is a pleasant reminder that Conway has experienced a great deal of history.

American Indians were here first: the Conway area was home to South Carolina's Waccamaw Indians, whose name now graces our river and our region.

Conway's first European settlers were Irish immigrants who carved out a new life for themselves amid the wilderness of Colonial America. The town was named Kingston to honor Great Britain's King George I. During the Revolutionary War, Brigadier General Francis Marion -- "the Swamp Fox of the Revolution" -- operated in our region, waging a monumental campaign for American freedom.

Following independence, the town was renamed Conwayborough (later shortened to Conway) in honor of Robert Conway, a veteran of the Revolution and a prominent local legislator. Led by hardworking townsmen and independent-minded farmers, Conway eventually flourished as South Carolina's outpost on the Waccamaw. During the War Between the States, most of its young men went off to fight for Southern independence.

In the 1870's, Conway boomed as an export center for timber products, shipping tar, pitch, turpentine, and pine limber around the world. The railroad came to Conway in 1887, and a few years later a group of Conway businessmen extended it to the coast,launching what is now Myrtle Beach.

Conway has flourished as the county seat of Horry County and as the center of one of the largest tobacco-producing regions in the nation.

Today, Conway is a pleasant, riverside town of quiet neighborhoods, historic structures, and moss-shrouded live oak trees. The best of the Old South's charm lives today in picturesque Conway, South Carolina's Historic Rivertown.