Native American hunter-gatherers inhabited this site as early as 1564, as shown by ancient shell middens on these bluffs, where breezes off the May River and expansive views helped them keep track of neighboring villages. In 1913, R.T. Wilson Junior completed an enormous mansion named Palmetto Lodge, and the house and its grounds became a village unto itself, with a machine shop, wood shop, power plant, ice plant, and even a school. Dozens of people worked on the site, running the house, entertaining numerous guests, and farming and timbering the 18,000 acres Wilson owned. For ten years following the Wilson fire, Varn Turpentine and Cattle Company farmed the property, with turpentine distilleries and shipping facilities on this very bluff. In 1937, Union Bag Co., later Union Camp, purchased the Palmetto Bluff property, and from then until 2000 it was run as a hunting lodge and retreat that hosted many luminaries, including heads of state.