The written history of Hilton Head Island began in the 16th century with the arrival of French, Spanish and English explorers and settlers. English sea captain William Hilton was sent from Barbados to the Carolinas to find new land. On September 28, 1663, aboard his ship The Adventure, Hilton sighted today's Hilton Head Island. Early in the 1700s, One of the successful settlers, John Barnwell, received a 500 acre land grant from the King of England. With the help of a neighbor and a new type of fertilizer, record crops of Sea Island cotton brought fame to the island.
   Hilton Head Island remained an agricultural based land, continuing after the Civil War with farming and lumbering. Once a two-lane swing bridge was built in 1956 things began to change. Years ahead of his time, Charles Fraser envisioned an environmentally friendly Hilton Head Island resort community where no building would be taller than the island's famous sea pine trees. City streets would spare the island's trees. Home paint colors followed natural earth tones and the oceanfront views would be open to as many as possible. Following designs of charming villages on the Mediterranean, construction of the Sea Pines Resort began in 1956. The Harbour Town Basin, complete with an octagonal lighthouse, was originally designed to be circular. But with the discovery of an ancient live oak, the harbor was redesigned to save the Liberty Oak. Charles Frasier died in 2002 and is buried next to the Liberty Oak tree.

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