Plumbers in Ravenel, SC

Happy Halloween, Charlestonians. Over the years, we’ve told bone-chilling stories from around the Lowcountry, and today we’re sharing our favorites.

Remember: Some of these stories are merely tall tales, others include historical facts, and all make for a spine-tingling read for the holiday.

Flashback to 1771: The Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon is completed. British forces transform the bottom floor into a military prison during the American Revolution.

This local landmark is home to several haunting tales, including that of Colonel Isaac Hayne, who was charged with treason, sentenced to death + held in the dungeon before being hanged in 1781.

Today, the building serves as a museum. Some of those who have toured the dungeon believe to have sensed Isaac’s spirit, hearing screams and the sounds of shackles.

It’s New Year’s Eve in 1889, and three young men are walking home when they stop near railroad tracks to watch the moon and are suddenly killed in a collision.

The men are said to be buried at a baptist church near the railroad and haunt Ravenel. According to legend, their spirits can be spotted in the form of three bright lights.

It is believed that if you knock three times on the doors of the church and say “We want to see the lights” three times, you may glimpse the lights approaching.

Tower Battery, later known as Fort Lamar on James Island, was attacked by Union troops in the spring of 1862.

When all was said and done, 150 bodies lay scattered across the land along with almost 900 casualties. The Battle of Secessionville was the only attempt during the Civil War to capture Charleston by land.

There have been reports of paranormal sounds in the early morning from James Island residents + visitors — including the metallic clicking of cannons and the splashes of fleeing soldiers.

Craving more creepiness? For more spine-tingling stories, go here — if you dare.

RAVENEL, S.C. (WCIV) — Alligator hunting season is well underway in the Lowcountry and there have already been some record breakers as people from all over the country come to the Palmetto State.

For the first time, ABC News 4 got to chat with the people who hauled in a 13-foot 625 pound alligator from Lake Marion last week to hear what goes into a hunt and why it’s a big bite of business here in the Lowcountry.

“They're an apex predator. So the danger side is what draws people to alligator hunting,” co-owner of Cordray Farms Kenneth Cordray said.

During alligator hunting season- which started on September 10 and ends on October 8- the Cordrays see it all.

“This year, we've already had 41 brought in, in five days,” Cordray said.

The family’s taxidermy business takes in gators from hunters across the country, including the now famous 625-pound catch.

“The gator pulled their boat, you know, a 16 or 20-foot boat down a river and for a long ways and so that's got to be a lot of power to hold on," Cordray said.

With the influx of gators coming in to the Cordrays' farm, there is also a plethora of stories which are heard as well. Including one man who came to drop off his catch as ABC News 4’s Sean Mahoney was at the farm.

“It's a lot of work. I mean, it's worth it is fun,” Brad Sorrow said.

Sorrow came all the way from Fort Mill for this year’s hunt and spent three hours at night trying to wrangling in the 9 1/2 foot 225-pound gator.

“He laid there for an hour and we just kept tension on,” Sorrow said.

It was no easy task but he said getting to this moment wasn’t any easier.

“It's taken five years to get a (hunting) tag so it's quite a process," he said.

The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources gives out 1,000 tags each year. That’s the max they can give due to conservation of the species after the hunting season was legalized in 2008 in South Carolina.

Each tag represents one gator you can hunt and thousands of people apply each year.

“More and more people are applying, so now it's getting longer and longer,” Sorrow said.

Each year a hunter applies they get a preference point to move them further up the queue. However, once a tag gets used, they go right back to the bottom of the list.

But this Fort Mill resident made the most of his opportunity and says it was worth the wait.

“It feels great. I mean, you know, it's fun going out there helping other people with theirs,” Sorrow said. “But you know, when you get to do for yourself, you know, and get hooked down to, it's a lot, a lot of fun."

While pictures and food are a nice prize, Cordray said it means much more to the Lowcountry area.

“It is a large part of our business. It's a rough 30 days, but it does help pay the bills,” Cordray said.

Research from the University of Florida shows hunting and selling alligators is a $12 million business- which can make a whole year for sellers.

The Cordrays say they work 80 hour weeks during the season, but said the month-long period is vital to the economy here in the Lowcountry.

“We have hunters come from all over the country,” Cordray said. “So yes, it is an economic boost for South Carolina and great for business.”

The Lowcountry has now become a hot spot for food – and the adventure which comes with it.

Just the adrenaline and getting away and, you know, it's a creature that, you know, it's fun to hunt," Sorrow said.

Providing benefits like time off and health insurance for hourly workers is a relatively new concept at Charleston restaurants and hotels. Many still do not offer these services for non-salaried employees.

Through its Hospitality Inclusion Project Initiative, the Barrier Islands Free Medical Clinic on Johns Island is helping fill a statewide coverage gap by providing free health care, referrals, emergency care and some prescription services to qualifying uninsured hospitality workers in downtown Charleston, though you don’t have to be a hospitality worker to be eligible to receive regular clinic care.

Those who live or work on Johns Island, James Island, Wadmalaw Island, Folly Beach, Meggett, Ravenel, Hollywood and Walterboro can also receive care at the clinic.

“We want to make a medical home for them,” said BIFMC Medical Director Dr. David Peterseim.

What exactly does that mean? According to Peterseim, clinic nurses and doctors want to establish care with their patients and see them regularly. In addition to primary care, patients have access to doctors in 19 subspecialties, such as cardiology and gynecology. The clinic’s strategic partnership with Roper St. Francis Healthcare means patients can get free lab tests, cancer screenings and X-rays, along with emergency care at Roper, as long as they are enrolled before the emergency.

“You’ve got a quarterback and a quarterback with all kinds of support from pharmacy to radiology to invasive procedures that are all waiting to see what you need next,” Peterseim said. “You don’t have to chase the emergency room bill that’s going to come if you weren’t enrolled.”

A certified nonprofit, BIFMC’s workforce includes nine paid employees and 130 volunteers, including nurses, nurse practitioners and doctors.

“‘What’s the catch?’ is what some people think,” Peterseim said. “There is no bill generated from any care that’s delivered from the 37 doctors that work here every month.”

The center was opened in 2008 by two retired doctors, Arthur Booth and Charlie Davis, who wanted to establish a clinic that could treat working adults. Initially serving the Johns Island community and surrounding islands, BIFMC in 2018 opened a new clinic across the parking lot from the old one. With this state-of-the-art facility that has the look and feel of a normal outpatient doctor’s office, BIFMC has since expanded its areas of coverage, leading about 1,000 patients to its doors each year.

A member of the National Association of Free & Charitable Clinics, BIFMC follows the 299 percent poverty guidelines when deciding who qualifies for care. Uninsured individuals aged 18 to 65 in BIFMC’s service area must earn less than $40,634 annually to qualify, while couples who make $54,746 can visit the clinic. (Each additional person in a household adds $14,112 to the upward limit.) Patients must qualify every year.

BIFMC’s patient population was at an all-time high prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Clinic Director Brenda Falls, who said they’re biggest obstacle is raising awareness that they are there. With seven exam rooms, BIFMC has room to nearly double its capacity.

“We were just making a lot of traction, seeing some of our highest numbers that we’d ever seen, and then COVID hit,” Falls said. “If you’re not constantly creating awareness then people really don’t know that we’re here.”

“One of the biggest obstacles to getting patients is adults not realizing they’re eligible,” said Carrie Moores, BIFMC director of Development and Communications. “In my mind, those who work in the hospitality industry are kind of the perfect example of a person who would qualify in a clinic like ours.”

BIFMC can be a resource for the more than 100,000 South Carolinians who fall in the insurance coverage gap.

A decade has passed since the U.S. Supreme Court first upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, but the court did so with a caveat. One of ACA’s central tenets — an expansion of the low-income Medicaid program to cover all adults who fall below the federal poverty line — became optional, with the court deciding states could not be compelled to participate in Medicaid expansion. Many states immediately decided the deal was too good to turn down, while several others, including South Carolina, opted out. The Palmetto State remains one of 11 states that have yet to expand the Medicaid program.

“Typically these lower income adults who rely on our services do not receive healthcare benefits via their place of employment, or they work multiple part time jobs without the benefits of any one full time employment. This is particularly true among those in hospitality,” Moores said. “I would say around 75 percent of our patients currently work at least one job, with many working as many as two to three jobs and still cannot afford to access health care.”

Many of the clinic’s volunteers are retired doctors who still have the urge to help those in need. Peterseim, who previously worked as a heart and lung surgeon at Roper for 15 years, was inspired to do more volunteer work after temporarily living with his family in Costa Rica, where he was performing surgeries at a free clinic.

“There are a lot of people that need care, so I got more involved in this project,” Peterseim said.

Some volunteers are active providers, including a dermatologist who closes their private practice every other week to work at BIFMC, while others are using their clinic work as a technical training ground as they pursue careers in medicine.

Diana Osorio has spent 165 hours caring for patients at BIFMC, work that will soon help her become a full-time nurse practitioner.

“You see everything from just regular visits to, ‘You need to go to the emergency room today,’” Osorio said. “What we do here is so meaningful to the patients that we see.”

Prospective patients can learn more about the clinic and fill out an application at bifmc.org.

This story was originally published in the Oct. 4, 2021 edition of the Charleston Regional Business Journal.

A second planned unit development has been pitched for Ravenel, the rural town of 2,700 residents, showing signs that progress is now pushing outward from West Ashley.

Residents are concerned the movement could fundamentally change the rural nature of the area they call home.

Plans for the Tea Farm Tract, a proposed 400-unit planned development in Ravenel, and the related annexation of over 3,100 acres of land in Ravenel, were blessed Sept. 16 by the town’s planning and zoning commission, with a recommendation to limit density on over 2,000 acres of land outside the development.

The Tea Farm Tract would sit on 395 acres of land.

Rebecca Baird, who lives adjacent to the property and whose husband runs a grass-fed beef farm on their property, also opposed the annexation and development.

“I’m begging you to not annex this property; it will be devastating for this community, it will change the traffic flow, it will change how we have grown to live in this rural area,” she said.

A public hearing was scheduled be held by the full council and possible vote on Sept. 28.

Earlier this summer, the council approved and filed annexation plans for the Golden Grove Planned Development District, with 381 single-family homes and a commercial area to be built on 597 acres between Highway 17 and Old Jacksonboro Highway.

Similarly, the Tea Farm proposed development would sit along Old Jacksonboro Road and Highway 17, next to E.B. Ellington Elementary School, about 11 minutes from the intersection of Bees Ferry Road and Glenn McConnell in West Ashley.

The site is currently owned by the McLeod Lumber Company.

“We have owned this property for nearly a century…times change, things move on,” said William McLeod Rhodes, president of McLeod Lumber, at the commission meeting. “We would look for a developer who would do it well, and of course all regulations would be done well.”

Representatives from Thomas & Hutton, the land planning firm for the site, said they have been working on the land use plan for the site for a year-and-a-half.

Land planners stated at the meeting that the development may impact wetlands, including a half-acre of “isolated wetlands” on Landover Road.

Nearly two dozen neighbors and community stakeholders — including the Preservation Society of Charleston and The Coastal Conservation League — spoke out against the development at the Sept. 16 commission meeting, which lasted two-and-a-half-hours.

One resident said he would move away from Ravenel if the Tea Farm development was approved.

Others questions why 3,000 acres needed to be annexed for a project a fraction of that size and expressed concern that the town was setting itself up for a larger buildout on the site.

Opponents cited disruption to the site’s wildlife and wetlands, potentially impacting the nearby Charleston County Parks’ Caw Caw Interpretive Center, as well as increased traffic and strains on the area’s sewer system, which could potentially lead to future flooding issues.

“That’s just an incredible amount of land that can be developed like this,” said Tim Blackwell, who spoke at the meeting. “This could start a program where it will cascade (with) partnerships and LLCs adding another 1,000 acres. Once you start this, you’re going to ruin what you’ve got and what Mount Pleasant wishes what they had. We’re going to have Highway 17 South look like Highway 17 North.”

Thomas & Hutton presented a complete plan with renderings of sidewalks, streets and bike lanes. Plans include single-family homes and townhomes, parks and open space, a community center and 16 acre-commercial area that could support a grocery store.

The Tea Farm plan calls for slightly more than two single family homes per acre, and, when combined with townhomes, comes out to six units per acre overall. The density of Golden Grove is three homes per acre.

The board’s conditional recommendation was to limit density to one home per 25 acres in the 2,700 or so acres not expressly in the Tea Farm development, as outlined in the Charleston County’s comprehensive plan for Ravenel,

Rhodes did not return an email from CRBJ, asking if he was agreeable to the density amendment by the commission.

At the meeting, however, he shared that the McLeod family has additional tracts totaling 1,350 acres, but they are not seeking that to be annexed at this time.

In his opening statement, town administrator Mike Hemmer tried to quell some concerns about the development, including that the town does have the capacity to run sewer to the planned development and that existing sewer line limits mean the remaining 2,000 acres could not be built out in full.

During public comments, only one citizen spoke in favor of the Tea Farm development at the meeting: resident Todd Johnson, who said he’s lived in the area for 20 years. He said the development will bring younger people to the area.

“I think it’s a great idea for the young people coming up; they need a place to live and work,” he said. “Everything is growing out this way anyway. I think it’s a wonderful idea and I’m glad for the town to continue to grow. We need to grow.”

Starting a new chapter! Cameran Eubanks and Thomas Ravenel are among the Southern Charm stars who have stepped away from the Bravo hit over the years.

Viewers were introduced to Eubanks when Southern Charm premiered in 2014. The reality series focuses on the personal and professional lives of several socialites in Charleston, South Carolina. After participating as a main cast member in six seasons, Eubanks shocked fans when she announced her departure in May 2020.

That same month, Eubanks shut down claims that she left due to her husband, Jason Wimberly, being unfaithful. “It has come to my attention that insidious rumors are now spreading and fake articles are being written … some of which pertain to my marriage,” she wrote via Instagram at the time.

While referring to the claims to the rumors as “upsetting,” Eubanks noted that she’s not surprised by them as “this is what reality television has come to nowadays and a large reason why I kept my marriage off air.”

At the time, the South Carolina native stood by her decision not to return to Southern Charm. “You must protect what is sacred to you. Some things aren’t worth a big paycheck,” she continued. “What upsets me the most is that my husband, who is the most sincere and faithful human I know is being falsely dragged into this. It disgusts me. He always supported me filming the show even though he wanted no part of the spotlight.”

Eubanks added: “I can’t get too upset though because this is what you sign up for when you put your life on reality TV … and why I’m getting out of it now. Drama is needed to stay relevant on reality television and sadly false rumors about other are sometimes created. Make of that what you will and consider the source.”

Ahead of the show’s eight season, Eubanks explained that she has no plans to come back. “If I was to ever go back on television, it would have to be something boring that didn’t involve fighting or having to talk about people,” she exclusively told Us Weekly in April 2022. “It would have to be a whole different — no, I couldn’t do it.”

The former reality star also confirmed she wasn’t approached to make a cameo in season 8. “I would go back and do it all over again,” she admitted. “I closed that door and there’s really no need for me to go back. I don’t think it would necessarily serve a purpose. But the show’s doing great.”

Scroll through for an update on the former Southern Charm stars:

Credit: Shutterstock (2)

Cameran Eubanks, Thomas Ravenel and More ‘Southern Charm' Stars Who Left the Series: Where Are They Now?

Starting a new chapter! Cameran Eubanks and Thomas Ravenel are among the Southern Charm stars who have stepped away from the Bravo hit over the years. Viewers were introduced to Eubanks when Southern Charm premiered in 2014. The reality series focuses on the personal and professional lives of several socialites in Charleston, South Carolina. After participating as a main cast member in six seasons, Eubanks shocked fans when she announced her departure in May 2020. That same month, Eubanks shut down claims that she left due to her husband, Jason Wimberly, being unfaithful. “It has come to my attention that insidious rumors are now spreading and fake articles are being written … some of which pertain to my marriage,” she wrote via Instagram at the time. While referring to the claims to the rumors as “upsetting," Eubanks noted that she’s not surprised by them as “this is what reality television has come to nowadays and a large reason why I kept my marriage off air.” [jwplayer NAVNKDPq-zhNYySv2] At the time, the South Carolina native stood by her decision not to return to Southern Charm. “You must protect what is sacred to you. Some things aren’t worth a big paycheck," she continued. “What upsets me the most is that my husband, who is the most sincere and faithful human I know is being falsely dragged into this. It disgusts me. He always supported me filming the show even though he wanted no part of the spotlight." Eubanks added: “I can’t get too upset though because this is what you sign up for when you put your life on reality TV … and why I’m getting out of it now. Drama is needed to stay relevant on reality television and sadly false rumors about other are sometimes created. Make of that what you will and consider the source.” Ahead of the show's eight season, Eubanks explained that she has no plans to come back. “If I was to ever go back on television, it would have to be something boring that didn’t involve fighting or having to talk about people,” she exclusively told Us Weekly in April 2022. “It would have to be a whole different — no, I couldn’t do it.” The former reality star also confirmed she wasn't approached to make a cameo in season 8. “I would go back and do it all over again,” she admitted. “I closed that door and there’s really no need for me to go back. I don’t think it would necessarily serve a purpose. But the show’s doing great.” Scroll through for an update on the former Southern Charm stars: [podcast_block]

Cameran Eubanks

Eubanks starred on the Bravo series for six seasons before her May 2020 exit. Since then, the Real World: San Diego alum has released her first book, One Day You’ll Thank Me, in February 2021. Eubanks also continues to gush over daughter Palmer, who was born in 2017.

Thomas Ravenel

In May 2018, two women accused the former politician of sexual assault, including his kids’ former nanny. Ravenel, who shares two children with ex Kathryn Dennis, was arrested in September 2018 for the alleged assault, which he denied.

Ravenel pled guilty to third-degree assault and battery in connection to the attack on the nanny. He paid a $500 fine and donated $80,000 to a sexual assault survivors' charity.

After being fired from the show, Ravenel chose to keep a low profile on social media. He welcomed son Jonathan with Heather Mascoe in June 2020.

Landon Clements

Clements appeared on the reality series for three seasons before calling it quits in 2017. After her exit, Clements moved to Los Angeles to become a real estate advisor. She has used her social media to highlight her various vacations and her reunions with Southern Charm cast members such as Shep Rose.

Chelsea Meissner

Following her split from Austen Kroll, Meissner appeared as a main cast member during seasons 5 and 6. Since her departure, the former Bravo personality has documented her travels on social media and stayed in touch with several of her Southern Charm cast members.

Meissner made a small return to reality TV alongside former Survivor costar Kim Spradlin-Wolfe in HGTV's Why the Heck Did I Buy This House? in April 2022.

Eliza Limehouse

Limehouse retired from reality TV after two seasons on Southern Charm. The jewelry designer got engaged to Mark McBride Jr in February 2020. After exchanging vows later that year, the pair announced that they were expecting their first child. Limehouse welcomed their son in December 2020.

The South Carolina native is also the owner of Snaffle Bit Bracelet Company and candle company Private Label by PCC.

Jenna King

After her short stint on Southern Charm, King left Charleston and moved to Los Angeles. The former reality star, who has preferred to stay low key on social media, last offered a glimpse at her life in August 2021.

Ashley Jacobs

Following her split from Ravenel, Jacobs started dating Mike Appel in 2019. The duo tied the knot in March 2021 and welcomed son Grayson later that year. Jacobs currently lives in California with her family.