Qualla: Sumter, South Carolina

Sumter, South Carolina: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Eight species of swan glide on a single lake in downtown Sumter. That is the boast and the truth: Swan Lake Iris Gardens is the only public park in the United States with all eight known swan species in one place. The gardens started by accident in the 1920s, when local businessman Hamilton Carr Bland tried to grow Japanese iris at his home, failed miserably, and ordered his gardener to dig up the bulbs and dump them at his swamp on the north side of West Liberty Street. The next spring, the bulbs burst into bloom. Sumter has been telling stories like that for a long time - of unlikely outcomes, of people the rest of the country missed, of a county seat in the South Carolina Midlands that has produced more notable Americans per capita than its 43,000 residents would suggest.

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Sumter, South Carolina: Named for a Gamecock

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The county and city take their name from Thomas Sumter, a Virginia-born planter who became a guerrilla commander during the American Revolution. The British called him the Carolina Gamecock for his persistent, harassing tactics in the South Carolina backcountry. After the war he ...

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Sumter, South Carolina: Shaw's Fighters

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Sumter is also home to Shaw Air Force Base, named for First Lieutenant Ervin David Shaw, a Sumter County native and one of the first Americans to fly combat missions in the First World War. Shaw flies F-16 Fighting Falcons today and houses the headquarters of U.S. Air Forces Cent...

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Sumter, South Carolina: The Athletes, the Artists, the Eye

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Sumter punches well above its weight for famous sons and daughters. Jasper Johns - painter of flags and targets, one of the giants of postwar American art - is a Sumter man. So is wood sculptor Grainger McKoy. In basketball: Ray Allen, ten-time NBA All-Star, and Ja Morant, the se...

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Sumter, South Carolina: George Stinney

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

There is one Sumter story that must be told plainly. In 1944, fourteen-year-old George Stinney - an African American boy from the nearby town of Alcolu - was convicted of murdering two white girls and put to death in the electric chair. He was the youngest person executed in twen...

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