Lumber River State Park- Troop 173 Trip

Our oldest son's Boy Scout Troop headed down to Lumber River State Park November 13-15.  Lumber River State Park is south of Lumberton, NC, north of Dillon SC, right on the NC/SC line.  It is about 2:20 from our home.  

The trip was in flux due to Hurricane Eta, the 28th named storm of the 2020 year (2020 always with the records).  A lot of rain was dumped in the region Thursday, with Charlotte seeing over nine inches that day alone.  We watched to see how the river would hold up, as it had notoriously flooded back in 2015 with another hurricane.  

We had a group site at the Princess Ann access.  Two other sites ended up being inaccessible.  Otherwise, though, we had no issues for our campout.  There was also a large filed for "overflow" group camping that would have been sufficient had our site flooded.  The overflow site was the spot for the town of Princess Ann, chartered in 1796.  The town site was up on a hill over the river, so it was out of the flood zone.  

While we were fishing on Saturday, a local came and gave us a history less on the Lumber River.  The lumber river was used for sending North Carolina logs down to Georgetown SC in this timeframe.  One story of how North Carolina became the Tar Heel State was due to its many pine trees and pine tar used to build ships of the colonial and early American's era.  

This area of the state is also home to the Lumbee Native Americans.  Interestingly, the US House passed a bill this same week to recongize the Lumbee as a tribe to allow them federal benefits afforded to other Native Americans. 

Overall, the park was nice, campsites were very clean and trails were fairly short and unimpressive.  It accomplished the purpose of an outing, however there are many other state parks with much more to offer.  However, it was very secluded and offered a nice weekend away.

-CS