Brookgreen Gardens, south of Murrells Inlet on Waccamaw Neck, opened in 1932 as the first public sculpture garden in the United States and now holds the country’s largest outdoor collection of American figurative sculpture. Created by Archer Milton Huntington and Anna Hyatt Huntington, it blends formal gardens, protected wildlife habitat, a zoo, and trails across Lowcountry rice fields, marshes, and forests. The grounds also preserve a deeper past, occupying land from four former rice plantations tied to slavery, Civil War defenses, and the Alston family. Today it remains both an important art destination and a historic landscape recognized nationally for its cultural significance.