Finding a “Swamp Fest Platter” at a Fish Camp

Fish camps once were common in the South in coastal areas where commercial fishing crews worked until the early parts of the last century. Huts (or cabins) for the workers at some camps were built to last only one season of fishing, and others were more permanent and often could last more than a dozen years. In addition to housing for workers employed in the fishing industry, some camps had accommodations for their families who would spend summer months there on vacation. Other camps in the Carolinas were simple campsites where textile mill workers and their families fished and fried their catches when they had free time.

Relics of old fishing equipment are on display outside Clark's Fish Camp.

Some fish camps evolved into family-style seafood restaurants where local clientele would be served reasonably priced meals. Although the fish camps were usually located on waterways, lakes, or rivers, most bought their fish from wholesalers and farms. Although many of these restaurants have closed as they faced competition from chain restaurants, a few such as Clark’s Fish Camp on the banks of Julington Creek in Jacksonville, Florida, are still thriving.

The rustic exterior wall of Clark's Fish Camp adds to the fish camp atmosphere.

Originally a bait and tackle shop, Clark’s maintains a fish camp atmosphere with very simple and rustic features. Lilly, a five-foot alligator, makes her home in a large aquarium known as Lilly’s Pad that also houses turtles and fish. Also on display is the largest private taxidermy collection in America – lions, bears, tigers, monkeys, giraffes, deer, bobcats, and other amazing animals -- although the food is what makes this restaurant a destination for tourists and brings back local clientele. The menu includes everything imaginable.

The simple entrance to Clark's refers to its history.

My wife and I indulged on a “swamp fest platter” loaded with gator tail, soft-shell crab, frog legs, conch, calamari, catfish, and hushpuppies. Other platters can also include clam strips, oysters, shrimp, scallops, and crab cakes. Signature dishes feature trout, tuna, and salmon.

The swamp fest platter cam loaded with frog legs, gator tail, soft-shell crab, conch, calamari, catfish, and hushpuppies.

Eating by the banks of a creek with slowly flowing water added to the ambiance of the rustic building that houses Clark’s. The extensive menu is very popular, and it makes many customers wish that such fish camps were still more common.

Key lime pie is the best way to finish a meal at Clark's Fish Camp.

Two baby alligators swim near the entrance to Clark's.

Stuffed animals overlook the long rustic bar.

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Note: Click on the links for history of fish camps in North Carolina and South Carolina.

The Best Seafood at a Gas Station

What do you expect to find when you travel to a beach town in the South and stop at a building that looks like a gas station? For visitors to Edisto Beach, SC, you may be searching for seafood if Whaley’s Restaurant & Bar is your destination.

The pumps in front of Whaley's serve as a reminder that
the building was once a gas station.

Whaley’s achieved prominence when it was listed among Coastal Living’s top 25 seafood dives of the South Atlantic. When I visited Whaley’s website and saw that it served food in a former gas station, I was intent on going there whenever I was within an hour or so away. There I found a framed display on the wall attesting that Whaley’s is a seafood dive that Coastal Living loves. Even Southern Living considers it a top spot for local seafood.

The Coastal Living cover and article are prominently displayed.

True to its history as a gas station, Whaley’s still has the old pumps in front of the building, which opened for business in 1948. Instead of customers pulling up for a tank of regular, they now stop for something to drink and eat. A visit to the restrooms proves how old the building is – they are located outside in the back, appropriate for a building designed in the 1940s as a gas station.

Finding the restrooms at Whaley's is easy -- they're outside.

All sandwiches come with “raw fries,” which are Idaho potatoes sliced thin and then fried. They were extremely addictive, and I finished them well before my sandwich, a “Sarah Jane BLT” (a BLT with grilled shrimp and avocado) that alone was worth the drive to Edisto Beach. I also shared an order of shrimp and crab bisque with my wife, who described it as one of the best that she had ever tasted.

My wife (right) meets Whaley's famous owner/operator/bartender,
a veteran of the Korean Conflict who at 82 stays young by working.

After I had ordered, I overhead a customer at a nearby table order the “Big Ugly” burger, which I had seen on the menu. However, it didn’t match its name; it looked too good – not ugly at all. He and his companion were traveling from Florida and were also visiting Whaley’s for good food.

Whaley's is picturesque -- it even received a beautification award in 2012 from
the Council of Edisto Beach (the vines in front must have been the clincher).

Let’s hope that Whaley’s keeps serving local bar customers, seafood lovers, and wandering tourists for a long time – and that its building continues to evoke memories of an era that has slipped away from many beach towns.

The ocean surf is only two blocks away from Whaley's in Edisto Beach, SC.

Taking a Historic Walk

John Lawson explores the
Carolina wilderness.

Interested in taking a good long walk? Sure. Want to trace the path of an English explorer taken through the Carolinas in the early 1700s? It all depends, right? What’s the temperature? How much rain and how many snakes? What and when do we get to eat?
  
Most of us remember history lessons about Lewis and Clark whose expedition in the early 1800s explored and mapped territory from Missouri westward to the Pacific Ocean. Along the way, a major part of their task was to study and sketch plants, animals and geography.

Lawson's journey began in Charleston, SC, in 1700.

Equally important in this area was a similarly significant journey, more than 100 years even before Lewis and Clark took their first steps. This one began in 1700, only a few years after the Carolina Colony had been chartered by King Charles II of England. Little was known about the territory that now comprises both North and South Carolina and Georgia of today.

Enter John Lawson, who was commissioned by colonial authorities to learn more about the interior of the colony. Although the coastal areas were being explored in depth, the Europeans knew little about the region farther inland.

Describing animals, plants and natives
was the mission of Lawson and his party.

With several companions and native guides, Lawson tromped through the Carolina wilderness nearly 600 miles over several weeks to describe animals, plants, crops and natives. He dutifully recorded detailed descriptions in his journal and later returned to London in 1709 to publish “A New Voyage to Carolina.” The book attracted many new immigrant settlers to the colony because it was also translated into German and French.

Perhaps Lawson is the first person we can credit with recording the enjoyable outdoor life of North Carolina. The climate is “healthful,” and the “Land is very fruitful,” he writes. Because the soil is rich, the inhabitants “live an easy and pleasant Life.” Lawson also describes more than 70 varieties of seafood in the Carolina waters and pronounces catfish as being “very plentiful.” He identifies more than 25 “beasts” that can be hunted, proclaims that bear meat is “very good” and enjoys a “curious ragoo” made with venison and possum.

Lawson's book, published in 1709,
attracted many in immigrants.

Proving that history needs to be lived and outdoor life enjoyed, a modern-day explorer is undertaking Lawson’s journey. Scott Huler, an award-winning author who lives in Raleigh, has begun a modern walking exploration through the Carolinas to retrace Lawson’s footsteps.

Unlike Lawson, Huler is not waiting nine years to publish his account. To share his observations, he is documenting his journey online. His blog The Lawson Trek is updated with posts, images, sound, and video. On Twitter (@LawsonTrek), Huler is also tweeting images and thoughts – routine and unusual – about his adventures and has observed that he often is “walking along a sand road that has probably been trodden by human feet for a thousand years or more.”

Check out Huler’s posts and images, and follow him as he shares a historical perspective of the Carolina outdoor life.

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Note: This post appeared originally in the April 2015 issue of OutreachNC, a monthly magazine distributed in 10 counties of central North Carolina. Click here to see the article as it appeared in print.

Local Seafood: Kitchen on the Roll

[Note: This post, prepared originally for the NC Folklife Institute's NCFood blog, is hosted on the institute’s website, with excerpts and a link to the website posted here.]

Carolina catfish tacos
are often on the menu.

Where can you get fresh fish prepared by an award-winning chef? Sometimes the location may not be on the coast or a river but instead from a mobile kitchen.

In downtown Wilmington, I found Chef Keith Rhodes hustling to serve customers eagerly standing in line at his food truck parked on North Fourth Street in front of the Brooklyn Arts Center.

Continue reading at the NCFood blog…