On the Ashley River, a few miles south of Charleston, S.C., the water is murky and the marsh grass high. Louis Marcell and the rest of a three-man logging crew are cruising on a 24-foot pontoon boat. It's low tide, and logs are poking out everywhere.
Hewitt Emerson, owner of the Charleston-based reclaimed wood company Heartwood South, is in charge. He's going to an old saw mill site, but won't say exactly where. He's heading to Blackbeard's Creek, he says. As in pirate Blackbeard — the early 18th century scourge of the seas.
"He'd hide his boat up there and would go across the river to Middleton plantation to see his girlfriend," Emerson says.
Once a secret hiding place for a pirate, this is now a hidden trove of valuable wood.
Like much of the United States, South Carolina was once covered in old-growth forests. By the mid-20th century, virtually all of the virgin wood in the state was gone, either hauled away on trains or floated down rivers to be cut into lumber at saw mills.
But not all that timber made it to its destination. Some sank on its way down the river, where those old-growth logs have been preserved for about a century. Now, these precious leftovers can be worth up to several thousand dollars each.
But getting that treasure out is no easy task. First, anyone hoping to dredge the logs, known as sinker wood, must obtain a permit from the state. The logs weigh tons and are buried deep down in the muck. Once removed, the wood must be properly stored before milling to avoid cracking. And then, there are the alligators.
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