Myrtle Beach Facts Trivia & History
“Myrtle Beach Facts”: Below are some fun and fascinating Myrtle Beach Facts and Trivia. Famous people like Vanna White was born in Myrtle Beach and the movie Magic Mike II was filmed here.
Myrtle Beach Facts Trivia & History
The areas first inhabitants were the Waccamaw and Winyah Indians, who named the region Chicora meaning the land.
Myrtle Beach is located in Horry County; the largest county of the state’s forty-six.
Myrtle Beach has 650 acres of public parks and recreation property.
Kings Highway was an Indian trail long before European settlers arrived in the New World.
The Carolina Wren is the South Carolina State Bird.
Myrtle Beach is the birthplace of Wheel of Fortune hostess, Vanna White.
Country music super group Alabama got their start serving as the house band at The Bowery in downtown Myrtle Beach in 1973.
The 1989 movie “Shag,” starring Phoebe Cates, Bridget Fonda and Scott Coffey, was filmed in Myrtle Beach. Other movies that were filmed on the Grand Strand are “Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken,” “Chasers” and “Swimming,” along with TV shows “Dawson’s Creek” and “East Bound & Down”, and “Magic Mike 2” was filmed downtown.
Myrtle Beach’s population jumps from 30,000 to over 350,000 in the summer months.
Myrtle Beach’s first hotel was the Seaside Inn, built in 1901 at a cost of $3,813 for materials and labor.
The Shag is South Carolina’s state dance. Ocean Drive area of North Myrtle Beach is the home of the Shag.
Sports Illustrated magazine was founded in Myrtle Beach at Pine Lakes International Golf Club in 1973.
Boiled peanuts are the official state snack food.
Myrtle Beach Train Depot, built in 1936 and restored in 2004, is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The City of Myrtle Beach is in the center of the Grand Strand, a 60-mile crescent of beach on the South Carolina coast.
Myrtle Beach’s time capsule will be opened December 18, 2054. It is buried at Nance Plaza on the southwest corner of Kings Highway and Ninth Avenue North.
In the last 25 years, Myrtle Beach has developed into the premier resort destination on the East Coast.
Harrelson Boulevard is named for Myrtle Beach’s first mayor, who served from March 1938 to December 1939 and again from January 1942 to December 1943.
South Carolina is the nation’s leading peach producer and shipper east of the Mississippi River.
The northern portion of the oceanfront boardwalk, from the 14th Avenue Pier to Plyler Park, is named Gloria’s Way, in honor of Gloria Lindsay Sapp, a longtime teacher, hotelier, volunteer, businesswoman and civic leader.
There are over 1400 restaurants in the area and more than 425 hotels and 89,600 accommodation units.
Lifeguards flag colors when swimming in the ocean: Orange Lifeguard off duty; Yellow lifeguard on duty, swim with caution; Red a No Swimming, Water closed; Blue“ Aquatic Hazard.
The first road between Conway and Myrtle Beach was completed in 1914.
The runway at Myrtle Beach International Airport is 9,503 feet long.
Myrtle Beach’s first airport was a grass landing strip that opened in August 1928 near the current intersection of Seaboard Street and Mr. Joe White Ave.
The official reptile of South Carolina is the loggerhead sea turtle.