The land was acquired in the mid-1700’s by John Drayton and was initially used for livestock, as well as rice and corn. In 1823, the property was sold to John J. Bulow.
John Joachim Bulow’s first acquisition of land in St. Andrews Parish was the Drayton family’s Long Savanna tract which “lay generally northeast of Rantowles Creek…and was bisected by Bear Swamp Road.” John Bulow and his son Thomas used the property to raise livestock and grow crops before it was sold to Charles O. Witte in 1862.
William L. Bradley was a businessman from Connecticut and was the owner of the Bradley Fertilizer Company which would become the “Largest Fertilizer Works in the World.” Bradley acquired the property in the late 1870s due to its vast deposits of phosphate. The mining operation became known as the “Bulow Mines.”
C. P. Cuthbert, an heir of Scottish descent, purchased the property in 1948 from Bradley Realty Corporation of Massachusetts. His ancestors, the Barons of Castle Hill at Inverness, Scotland, immigrated to America in 1737. Cuthbert loved the outdoors and, in his early career, worked as a timber cruiser for West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company. Upon acquiring the Long Savanna property, he left his job to raise cattle and hunt on the land. In 1985, the property passed to Rhett Cuthbert Campbell, who began planning to convert the majority of it into public open space. By 2006, she partnered with Long Savannah Land Company, Charleston County Parks and Recreation Commission, Lord Berkeley Conservation Trust, and the City of Charleston. Today, 80% of the property is preserved in perpetuity as public open space.
