The Catfish Farm in the South Carolina Peedee Region: Wild, Scenic and Alive
The Catfish Farm falls between two scenic rivers, the Great Pee Dee and the Little Pee Dee.
The Great Pee Dee is large and wild. Most of the land bordering the river is floodplain forest. The River corridor is a 70-mile by 3-mile swath of high quality wildlife habitat, boasting 120 species of fish, at least 25 rare plant species, several endangered and threatened species (including the American alligator, red-cockaded woodpecker, bald eagle and swallow-tailed kite), 17 species of duck (all but the wood duck are migratory visitors), a number of wading birds and fur bearing species, and typical South Carolina game species, such as white tail deer and turkey.
Cypress-tupelo and bottomland hardwood forests, with hairpin meanders, sandy point bars and many interconnected oxbow lakes surround the upper portions of the Pee Dee River. Abandoned channels of the river, often called "lakes" can be explored in small boats. Below the confluence with the Little Pee Dee (another adjoining State Scenic River), the sandy point bars and banks disappear. The surrounding forest becomes tidal swamp. The main forest species are still present, but some, like the swamp and black willows that dominate sandy banks upstream, vanish completely. A final transition happens below Thoroughfare Creek, where the freshwater tidal marshes, once cultivated as part of antebellum rice plantations, begin to displace the tidal swamp forest.
The Little Pee Dee is an outstanding example of a Coastal Plain blackwater river in South Carolina. Fourteen (14) miles of the lower Little Pee Dee River from Highway 378 to the confluence with the Great Pee Dee River were designated a State Scenic River in March of 1990 by the Legislature. The tea-colored water, cypress-tupelo swamps, lakes, white sand stream-bottoms and beaches characterize this river section.
Other sections of the Little Pee Dee River system have been considered for State Scenic River designation. Immediately upstream of Highway 378, an additional 64-mile section of the Little Pee Dee River was determined eligible for scenic river status in 1997 but was never officially designated. Further upstream, the Little Pee Dee in Dillon County (a 48-mile section) was designated a Scenic River in 2005. In addition, there is the Great Pee Dee Scenic River, designated in 2002, which adjoins the lower Little Pee Dee and extends 70-miles from Highway 378 to Highway 17 at Winyah Bay.