Dale, South Carolina, is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP) located in northern Beaufort County in the southern corner of the state of

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

, U.S.A. It was first listed as a CDP in the 2020 census with a population of 633. It is located approximately five miles north of

Beaufort, South Carolina Beaufort ( , different from that of Beaufort, North Carolina) is a city in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States, and its county seat. Chartered in 1711, it is the second-oldest city in South Carolina, behind Charleston, South Carolina ...

on U.S. Route 21, designated the Trask Parkway in that area. The zip code for Dale, South Carolina, is 29914 and it is the hometown of NFL (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) DB Dee Delaney.

History

Railroad

Dale was formerly on the alignment of the

Seaboard Air Line Railroad The Seaboard Air Line Railroad , known colloquially as the Seaboard Railroad during its time, was an American railroad that existed from April 14, 1900, until July 1, 1967, when it merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, its longtime ri ...

's Carolina Division low-level main line, constructed from 1915 and opened December 31, 1917. This rail route passed to the

Seaboard Coast Line Railroad The Seaboard Coast Line Railroad was a Class I railroad company operating in the Southeastern United States beginning in 1967. Its passenger operations were taken over by Amtrak in 1971. Eventually, the railroad was merged with its affiliate lin ...

with the July 1, 1967 merger of the SAL and longtime rival

Atlantic Coast Line Railroad The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad was a United States Class I railroad formed in 1900, though predecessor railroads had used the ACL brand since 1871. In 1967, it merged with long-time rival Seaboard Air Line Railroad to form the Seaboard Coast ...

, becoming the Charleston Subdivision, and the line downgraded with most traffic rerouting over the former ACL alignment to the west. The "East Carolina Subdivision", as it was colloquially called, was abandoned by stages, with the first portion removed north of Dale, between Lobeco and Charleston, after October 1, 1967. Following the April 21, 1971 destruction of the old SAL lift bridge over the

Savannah River The Savannah River is a major river in the Southeastern United States, forming most of the border between the states of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and South Carolina. The river flows from the Appalachian Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean, ...

by a ship in foggy conditions, the southern connection into

Savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

was cut and the rail line removed between Coosaw and Pritchardville, south of Dale, in 1978. Most of the remaining line was lifted in 1982. Portions of the alignment have been converted into the New River Linear Trail hiking trail.

Incidents

On Friday December 13, 1935, Major Arthur K. Ladd, assigned as the assistant supply officer for the

General Headquarters Air Force The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical ri ...

, Langley Field, Virginia, was piloting Boeing P-12F, ''32-100'', c/n 1676, '60', the 24th of 25 of the model built, of the 36th Pursuit Squadron, from Langley Field to

Miami, Florida Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

, and was killed, at ~1400 hrs. EST, when the biplane fighter crashed into a swamp near the Wimbee River on Heyward Island, ~3 miles E of Dale, South Carolina. A front-page news item in ''

The State A state is a political entity that regulates society and the population within a definite territory. Government is considered to form the fundamental apparatus of contemporary states. A country often has a single state, with various administrat ...

'',

Columbia, South Carolina Columbia is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is List of municipalities in South Carolina, the second-mo ...

, the next day, observed that the plane's two machine guns were badly broken. Fairbanks Air Base, Fairbanks, Alaska, under construction since August 1939 after the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...

appropriated $4 million to build a cold-weather testing base, was renamed Ladd Army Airfield on December 1, 1939, in Major Ladd's honor.

Demographics

2020 census

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Beaufort County, South Carolina Hilton Head Island–Beaufort micropolitan area Unincorporated communities in South Carolina Census-designated places in South Carolina Census-designated places in Beaufort County, South Carolina