South Carolina, where the Civil War began, was the first state to secede from the Union. One of the 13 Colonies, it is particularly rich in historic sites. which help draw a growing number of tourists annually. Vivid constrasts often confront the visitor: inlet-dotted swampland gives way to hill country, and estates graced by handsome Georgian homes are set off by poor areas in which shacks are not uncommon. A major U.S. Marine Corps training center is located at Paris Island, near Beaufort.

Vast projects such as the Atomic energy Commission's $1.2 billion Savannah River Plant (near Aiken) underscore South Carolina's transition from basically agrarian economy to one in which industry plays the leading part. Livestock raising and commercial fishing are also significant.

Two main land regions make up the roughly triangular-shaped state: the "low country," making up two-thirds of the total area and consisting of a part of the Atlantic coastal Plain rising northwest from the ocesn to a fall line running parallel to the coast and bisecting Columbia; and the "up country," consising of a portion of the Piedmont Plateau and, in the extreme northwest, a small segment of the Blue Ridge Mountains of the Appalachian range.