On October 16, Beaufort County and the Town of Hilton Head Island cut the ribbon on Ford's Shell Ring Park, a 6.8-acre wooded lot on Squire Pope Road. It protects two shell rings that are roughly 4,000 years old. WSAV reported that the Town and County paid $3.95 million for the land in 2003 to keep it from being developed. The park opened 23 years after that purchase.
The north end now has a place that has been around about as long as anything people built on this island. The Town groups it with two other "shell ring" sites: one in the Sea Pines Forest Preserve and one a short drive away on the same road, at Green's Shell Enclosure. Only one of those two dates to the same era as Ford's, and getting to it means paying at a gate. The one down the road on Squire Pope is about 3,300 years younger.
What Opened at 273 Squire Pope Road
The park takes its name from the land's last private owner, Henry Ford. Work on it started in March 2026. The Town's construction notice said crews would use low-impact methods to keep digging and clearing to a minimum because of how historically important the site is. The plan included:
- Accessible parking spaces, plus a pervious parking area and a drive aisle
- Earthen trails and drives running through the site
- Vehicle gates and split rail fencing
- Interpretive signs about the site's history
The Town's page for the park describes a wooded waterfront park with walking trails and signs about Indigenous lifeways and Gullah Geechee heritage, including one about the island's historic Gullah communities. The Town's parks inventory lists it as a historic park with a trail and free parking.
At the opening, Mayor Alan Perry told WSAV the park offers a place to learn and also "to take a moment of reprieve and to relax and just to enjoy the surroundings that we have." David Gordon, president of the Hilton Head Island chapter of the Archaeological Society of South Carolina, told the station that "there's much more that can be explored in this site."
Two Rings Laid Into a Figure Eight
The Archaeological Society of South Carolina says that, unlike shell mounds found on coasts around the world, these rings were built in a deliberate circle. All of them date to between 3,000 and 5,000 years ago. Archaeologist Matthew Sanger told the society they were built for "a very limited time" along the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
Ford's site has two rings that overlap to form a figure eight. According to the society, the smaller ring is about 300 years older, and the larger one partly sits on top of it. A 2019 Beaufort County research proposal put the pair at about 90 meters, or roughly 300 feet, across and more than 2 meters high. It called the double-ring layout unique among the more than 50 shell rings on record.
The Town says the rings contain hundreds of thousands of oyster, clam and mussel shells mixed with animal bones. Scholars still debate what they were for. One theory is that they were circular villages where people threw away shells from everyday meals. Another is that they were gathering places, and the shell is left over from large communal feasts.
The Shell Site Down the Road Is About 3,300 Years Younger
Green's Shell Enclosure Heritage Preserve sits beside Skull Creek, next to the Town's Greens Shell Park at 99 Squire Pope Road. The Town's notice refers to "the Green's Shell Rings," which puts the two Squire Pope sites in the same category. The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources manages the preserve through its Heritage Trust Program, and it describes something from a different period entirely.
SCDNR describes the feature as a shell embankment a little over a meter high and about 10 meters across. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal from the site gives a date of about 1335 CE. That falls in the Irene phase of the Mississippian Period. Excavations there turned up deer bone worn into the shape of a needle, stone flakes from toolmaking, and pottery with paddle-stamped, incised and appliqué designs typical of the Irene phase. Based on other sites from that phase, SCDNR says the enclosure probably helped defend a village that had walls, palisades and ditches.
That puts Green's at roughly 700 years old, with Ford's at about 4,000. Here are all three sites side by side:
| Site | Where | Age | What it is | Getting in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ford's Shell Ring Park | 273 Squire Pope Road | About 4,000 years | Two overlapping rings in a figure eight | Public park with free parking |
| Green's Shell Enclosure Heritage Preserve | Off Squire Pope Road by Skull Creek, next to Greens Shell Park | About 1335 CE | Shell embankment, probably defensive | Small parking area, daylight hours only |
| Sea Pines Shell Ring | Sea Pines Forest Preserve | About 4,000 years | Single ring, mostly covered in soil | $10 daily vehicle pass for day visitors |
Green's has a longer public record. SCDNR and the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism bought the 3-acre preserve in 1991, and the site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The Town and SCDNR own it together. SCDNR's visitor rules ban vehicles of any kind, motorized or not, along with camping and horseback riding, and they bar gathering or damaging artifacts, plants and other natural materials. Violations may lead to a misdemeanor charge.
The park next door is a different kind of place. The Town's Greens Shell Park page lists a picnic pavilion, playground, basketball court, restrooms and a trail to an observation deck, all set among large old trees. The park is next to the Amelia White Cemetery.
The Same Era, Behind a Gate
The site that matches Ford's in age is at the other end of the island. The Archaeological Society says Ford's older ring is about as old as the Sea Pines Shell Ring, and that the people at the two sites almost certainly socialized and traded with each other.
The Sea Pines ring is in the middle of the 605-acre Sea Pines Forest Preserve, between Lake Joe and Lake Thomas. Alan Calmes excavated it in 1963, and Sanger excavated it again in 2016 using ground-penetrating radar. The society describes a ring that once stood two to three feet tall and 150 feet across. Today most of it is under soil, and visitors could pass the raised circle of ground without realizing it's an archaeological site if the interpretive signs weren't there.
Getting there from off-plantation costs money. Sea Pines Community Services Associates says the community is open to the public. Visitors without a reserved pass buy one at the Greenwood or Ocean gate, open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. A casual daily pass for a two-axle vehicle is $10, and a casual weekly pass is $30. Day visitors who aren't staying in Sea Pines can't come in by bicycle, and the resort's Forest Preserve page says bikes aren't allowed on the preserve's walking trails.
Before October 16, a north-end household wanting to see one of the island's 4,000-year-old rings with signs explaining it would have driven to Sea Pines and paid at the gate. Ford's Shell Ring Park now offers a site from the same period on Squire Pope Road, free, and it has two overlapping rings where Sea Pines has one.
A Squire Pope Morning, Oldest to Youngest
On Squire Pope Road, the oldest site is the first stop. Start at Ford's and then head to Green's.
- Ford's Shell Ring Park, 273 Squire Pope Road. Begin with the figure eight. The smaller ring is the oldest thing on this route, and the larger ring was built on top of it about 300 years later.
- Green's Shell Enclosure Heritage Preserve, off Squire Pope Road near Skull Creek. Next, see what came about three thousand years after that. SCDNR says the embankment is visible just below a viewing platform, and the preserve is open only in daylight.
- Greens Shell Park, 99 Squire Pope Road. The adjacent Town park has the route's pavilion, playground and restrooms.
The Sea Pines Shell Ring dates to the same era as Ford's, so it belongs at the start of the timeline. It's still a trip for another day: plan on the $10 day pass and come by car, since day visitors can't enter by bicycle.
There may be more than these three sites. The Archaeological Society reports that Sanger, using LiDAR mapping, found a dozen more shell rings on Hilton Head, and it calls the 14-mile island the center of shell rings along the East Coast from Florida to North Carolina.
Squire Pope Road and the neighborhoods around Skull Creek have some of the island's oldest history, and they make for some of its quietest walks. If a morning at Ford's Shell Ring Park has you wondering what your own place on the north end is worth today, The Agency Hilton Head would be glad to help. Request a Complimentary Market Valuation and we'll show you how this part of the island is valued right now.
