Edisto River
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The Edisto River is the longest completely undammed / unleveed blackwater river in North America, flowing 206 meandering miles from its sources in Saluda and Edgefield counties, to its Atlantic Ocean mouth at Edisto Beach, SC. It rises in two main tributaries (North Fork & South Fork) from springs under the Sandhills region of West Central South Carolina, just to the south of the Piedmont fall line, and is the longest and largest river system completely contained by the borders of South Carolina. Its name comes from the Edisto subtribe of the Cusabo Indians.
The only major town or city any part of the Edisto system flows through is Orangeburg, the location of Edisto Gardens (on the North Fork). The river system, being blackwater throughout its entire length, flows through highly intermittent bottom swampland. Thus, during excessive rainy season, the river will leave its main channel, with its flow basin increasing to over a mile or more of total width. The lower Edisto basin forms a crucial part of the 11,815 acre (48 km²) ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge, a coastal learning center that encompasses its bottomlands confluence with the Ashepoo and Combahee river basins.
A major tributary is Four Holes Swamp, which is unique in that it has no single defined channel, but rather a network of braided channels.
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