I grew up in Little River.

I've been here all my life.

I moved here when I was about nine years old.

It was a quiet town full of big, beautiful oak trees.

Small fishing village.

It was a great place to grow up The community of Little River is very close knit, you know, especially the charter fishing community.

If somebody needs some, you know, work, there's always some ocean.

We're not going to leave you out there.

We'll help you out.

For centuries, this was just a small town.

Everyone knew everyone.

If you talk to a local, they can tell you everything.

Because this was just a small, small area that when it was the village of little River up to like I want to say, the 1940s, it was just four blocks on the waterfront.

Little River is near the border of North Carolina to South Carolina, and I think that South Carolina is unique.

But I think we forget little River was here before we said North and South Carolina.

So I think that that's what makes it unique, because not only does our history tie to South Carolina and Georgetown and Charleston, but it is so heavily tied to the history of North Carolina.

The earliest we know that there were residents here were Indians.

And then in the 1700s, you had George Whitfield, who was a Methodist pastor, journal that he came through to Little River on his visits through the Carolinas later in the 1700s, early 1800s, you had George Washington come through on his southern tour.

The people that were living here were actually land grants that were given to soldiers or people that had helped or participated in the Revolutionary War.

Because of where the Little River is located.

It was a port.

It was the first inlet before you access the Cape Fear River basin and you reach Southport or Wilmington in Little River, they did everything they farmed, they cut down lumber.

They also tapped the pine trees, longleaf pine for turpentine.

They used the sap from the pine trees to make the pitch that made the boats the ships waterproof.

So these are things that are very important to the history, the economic history of Horry County, because this is what fueled our economy.

In the late 1920s, early 1930s is when the United States government started working on the Intracoastal Waterway.

This was the last 20 miles of the Intracoastal Waterway that was finished in the state of South Carolina.

So that was very important.

But what came with that is the fact that now it was deeper.

Now that they dredged, they could bring better boats, bigger boats.

What they started doing, what was unique to the area is recreational fishing.

They started charging tourists and people that would come to Little River to take them out on the boat to fish.

Now recreational fishing takes part all over the east coast, but it started here in little River.

My great granddad actually started the charter boat industry out of here in 1926, and his dock is actually 50 yards that way.

That's the first charter boat ever out a Little River.

And then it passed down to my granddad, which he came down and, and built this dock.

Then my uncle actually added on to the end of it.

And that's where my boats at now.

I've been charter fishing with my own boat for this is my 11th summer, and I've been on the back deck of one of my family's boats since I've been old enough to remember what I was doing.

Old enough to walk, but I was born and raised on this dock right here, you know, boats, docks.

I ain't much changed about it, but it's, it's been a very interesting family business on the fourth generation.

It's definitely very rewarding.

you know, we get a lot of people that catch the biggest fish for life, you know, a big shark or something like that.

Or, you know, maybe Gulf Shore gets a big grouper and, parents spending time with the kids, and they're having a good time fishing, you know, getting to meet a bunch of new people.

That's amazing.

Great connections over the years.

Allow me to do a bunch of other things that I probably would not have gotten to do if I wasn't in this industry.

Yeah, it is very rewarding seeing people have a good time.

It is extremely vital for Little River, the fishing industry, and you go up the road to Cricket Cove and there's another 10 or 20 charter boats.

It's, extremely vital for Little River.

Probably one of the only thing that's put us on the map, other than Blue Crab Festival.

The Blue Crab Festival is an old fashioned southern street festival.

We actually take the streets that runs through the historic middle River waterfront.

Lots and lots, two cars and vehicular traffic, and line the street with vendors.

So instead of a fairground or a field or, you know, some other kind of typical thing, you might go to, we're actually using our streets to plan the festival and execute it, and it makes it more of a comfortable hometown feel.

The first crab festival that was here, they had a little crab tournament and I entered it, and I actually won first place in the crab first.

So the crab competition, they used to have a little tournament for the kids.

It started years ago.

A lady by the name Mary Arthur started.

She had a little art place.

She invited a bunch of people in the neighborhood one weekend to look at her artwork, and the kids were kind of in the way.

So the following year she had a little something for the kids to do, and that was base for crabs.

And it was a wonderful thing.

And the Crab Fest really grew from there.

We try to embody the spirit of our history in fishing and shell fishing and water shoremen to, showcase it to people that may not know what all of that is about.

Year after year, it grew, vendors started showing up, and it's become amazing event.

In the last 42 years.

And what's great about the Blue Crab Festival is that those of us, it's been going on for 42 years.

So those of us that may have come as children, with our parents and grandparents are now parents and grandparents bringing our kids and grandchildren.

So it's an intergenerational festival.

Little River means peace to me.

Actually, I don't know if you've ever been here and sat on the water and had lunch under these majestic oak trees and eaten oysters or crabs or fish that have come right out of the ocean, right from the boat right to your plate.

You just need to come experience it.

There's nowhere like it anywhere in South Carolina.

The Intercoastal waterway and our local fishery is just a wonderful thing.

Little River means a lot to me because of the waterfront.

It's part of my life.

A lot of people, a lot of boats come and go over the docks and everything all stays the same.

And that's what I love about it.

This is our town Little River, South Carolina.

This is our town.

This is our town.

Little River, South Carolina.

This is our town.

Little River, South Carolina.