Florence

Pee Dee crossroads city with railroad history, a revived downtown, and Civil War memory sites

Florence sits at the intersection of I-95 and I-20 in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina, roughly halfway between New York and Miami. Most visitors encounter it as a stop on the interstate, but there is enough here to make it more than a fuel break.

The downtown area has a small but pleasant historic district centred on the Florence County Museum, which covers local history from the Civil War through the railroad era. Florence's most sobering site is the Florence Stockade, a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp that held up to 18,000 Union soldiers in 1864–65; over 2,800 died here. The Florence National Cemetery on the south side of town marks the site. For those interested in Cold War oddities, the Mars Bluff Crater — where the US Air Force accidentally dropped a nuclear bomb on a residential neighbourhood in 1958 — is about 12 km east.

Florence is a practical overnight stop for anyone heading to Myrtle Beach, about 90 minutes east, or Charleston, about 2.5 hours south.

Guide

Things to Do

Florence's most significant attraction is its Civil War history. The Florence Stockade, a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp that held up to 18,000 Union soldiers in brutal conditions in 1864–65, is commemorated at the Florence National Cemetery on the south side of town. More than 2,800 prisoners died here. The War Between the States Museum on West Palmetto Street covers the stockade and the broader conflict in the Pee Dee region.

The Florence County Museum in the downtown historic district covers local history from prehistoric times through the railroad era to the present. The Florence Downtown Historic District itself — with its concentration of late 19th and early 20th-century commercial buildings — is worth a short walk.

For those interested in Cold War oddities, the Mars Bluff Crater marks where a US Air Force B-47 accidentally dropped a nuclear bomb in 1958. The bomb's conventional trigger detonated on impact, destroying a farmhouse and injuring six people. A historical marker explains the incident; the crater is on private land about 12 km east of town.