The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, March 26, 2003, Page 5, Image 5
PRITCHARD’S ISLAND
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Pritchard’s
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
million and $1.3 million for the island at
an auction in 1978, to allow McCollum and
a group of students to monitor and protect
the sea turtles.
“They were just going to camp on the
beach, but Phil Rhodes thought it was a
great idea and gave them the keys to his
house and to his Jeep and all this kind of
stuff,” VonHarten said.
By 1983, the turtle project had become
so successful that Rhodes decided to do
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land to the
use
Development
Foundation.
The stu
dents initially
worked out of
what
VonHarten
called the two
“roundhous
es” construct
ed in the ’70s,
but erosion
and exposure to the elements caused the
buildings’ eventual collapse.
“The roundhouse was starting to fall in
the water and started getting a little tilt to
it, and McCollum decided, well, the uni
versity needed their own place,” said
VonHarten.
Through dedicated fund-raising, scrap
collecting and knocking door to door,
McCollum gathered enough material and
volunteers to build the university’s own
facility, soon dubbed the “Loggerhead
Hilton.” This one-room, eight-bed dormi
tory-style building was used from 1986 un
til around 1992, when it also succumbed to
nature.
In 1991, the university began construc
tion on a new facility, the Philip A. Rhodes
Barrier Island Research Facility, boasting
modern conveniences such as hot running
water and air conditioning.
Now equipped with a 3,450-square-foot
research facility/dormitory, four bed
rooms that can fit 22 guests, two Yamaha
Big Bear ATV 4-wheelers, a tractor, a
barge and several boats, USC’s Pritchard’s
Island plays host to nature lovers, re
searchers and artists alike, all seeking to
learn from this barrier island.
“People come for educational purpos
es,” including the sea turtle project, said
VonHarten.
The turtle project is the island’s main
purpose.
“We’ve really increased the research
that’s gone on with the turtle project,” said
Amber VonHarten, island research coor
dinator. Amber VonHarten, who has
helped modernize the process of tagging
and tracking sea turtles, said Pritchard’s is
becoming internationally known for its
turtle work. “We’ve done several conser
vation-management-techniques kind of
studies, and we presented at three inter
national sea turtle symposiums.”
Whether it be a local high school sci
ence class learning about water chemistry,
students from a Georgia private school ex
amining marine ecology, art classes from
USC Columbia seeking inspiration, or vol
unteer nature conservationists from the
South Carolina Wildlife Federation, peo
ple of all ages, genders and backgrounds
come to Pritchard’s Wand to learn about
and enjoy its unique ecosystem and envi
ronment.
“You can read in a book all you want
about ecology and everything about bar
rier islands, but if you actually come and
experience it, then you really get a good
feel for it,” Amber VonHarten said. “So
many people come down, and they’ve nev
er been on the coast before, and they’re
just exposed to so many different things
out here — it’s really a unique experi
ence.”
It is this experience and the fulfilling
work with turtles that continues to attract
visitors.
“Most of these groups have been here
for the turtle season, so pretty much that’s
j.1__• __
uro mum i ca*
son I guess a
lot of us come
— for the tur
tles,” said
Cheryl
Marlowe, a
volunteer
from the
South
Carolina
Wildlife
Federation
who has been
coming to the
island for about two years. Besides, she
said, “not everybody gets to go to a barrier
island.”
Amber VonHarten said: “I don’t know
what it is about those turtles, but they
make people do crazy things. People just
love them, and they want to help in every
way that they can.”
Bo VonHarten said, “A lot of these peo
ple have been coming for 10 and 15 years,
and they’ve never missed a summer.”
Ed Close, another Wildlife Federation
volunteer, agreed.
“I just love coming out here so much
that I’ll do just about anything,” he said.
Close also said he enjoys working with the
turtles. He said he was able to count the
largest turtle nest of the season in July last
summer, “and then got to come back Labor
Day weekend and actually inventory the
same nest after it hatched.”
Bo and Amber VonHarten, who look
after the facilities and the island, ar
range for groups to visit, and conduct the
research and education on the island,
have high hopes for the island in the fu
ture.
“With all the development going on on
the coast, especially in Beaufort, if you
think this place is a jewel now, what is it
going to be in 50 or 100 years when every
thing around it is all built up and devel
oped and there’s a million people living in
Beaufort?” Bo VonHarten said. “What’s
this island going to be worth then?”
To the volunteers and workers who
spend their time at Pritchard’s, it is worth
a lot already.
What was once a deserted island is now
a bustling place of relaxing and reward
ing activity where visitors can appreciate
the beauty of nature, learn about the
ecosystem and give back to the world.
To Bo VonHarten, this is no coinci
dence.
“Phil Rhodes bought a house on Fripp.
If Dave McCollum hadn’t moved to Fripp,
it probably wouldn’t have happened. If we
weren’t getting turtle nests, it probably
wouldn’t have happened,” he said. “It’s
just like all the stars and planets lined up
for it to happen, and it did.”
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PHOTOS BY JONATHAN GOLEY
Top: Pritchard’s Island is mostly marshland. Left: A skeleton of a loggerhead sea turtle sits on a shelf in the
house and is used to help Amber and Bo VonHarten research sea turtles. Above: Bo VonHarten takes the boat
out for a ride. The boat is the VonHartens’ main source of transportation to and from the island.
BY ALEXIS STRATTON
THE GAMECOCK
It’s not easy working with your
spouse — especially when you live on
an uninhabited island.
Bo and Amber VonHarten, island
manager and research coordinator, re
spectively, for USC’s Pritchard’s Island,
live and work on an island inhabited by
only themselves and periodic visitors.
And while they say it’s been hard at
times, both agree it’s worked out for the
best.
“Working with your spouse is hard
— it really is,” said Bo VonHarten. “It’s
definitely for the better, but, God, we’ve
had our moments though.”
The VonHartens both have USC ma
rine biology degrees, and, before they
were married, they each took different
jobs — Amber in Tallahassee, Fla., and
Bo at Pritchard’s Island.
“The deal was whoever liked their job
the most or hated their job the least or
whatever — I was either going to move
to Tallahassee or she was going to
move” to Pritchard’s, said Bo. “It turned
out that Amber ended up moving here.”
Amber said they got married on May
15,1999, and “had to be at work Monday
morning.”
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“I think there’s just a huge miscon
ception about what we do out here,”
said Amber. “I think a lot of people
think that we just lay in a hammock all
day and roll over to grab our fishing
poles.”
The logistics of living on a
semideserted island, however, can at
times be confounding.
“Just getting drinking water, or tak
ing the trash out, or having to go to thef'
hardware store in Beaufort for the 50
cent nut that you need
— yeah, it’s a lot of plan
ning,” said Bo. “You al
ways look in the week or
five days or four days
ahead of time, trying to
anticipate what you
need because you just
can’t stop by the store on Amber
the way home.” VonHarten
Simply to go grocery
shopping, they have to drive 23 minutes
to Beaufort, plus a 10-minute boat ride.
“It’s a good lesson in discipline be
cause you really find out what you real
ly need and what you can really live
without,” said Amber.
Their work as a married couple has
been key to the island’s cohesion. The
two distribute responsibilities carefully
to avoid conflict and try not to carry any
conflicts they have back to their island
home, a cottage just a short walk down
the beach from the island dormitory/re
search facility.
seems nice iaoa lot more repair
work and maintenance and boat work
and boat captain and logistics, and
Amber’s the grant writer; she’s the
brains of the operation,” Bo said.
Amber, who does most of the work
with the turtles and research, said the
division of labor has been helpful.
“We try to be really careful about
drawing a line on whose responsibility
certain things are,” said Amber. “It’s
definitely made (our marriage) stronger
because it just takes a lot of patience and
working together to work through prob
lems or even just day-to-day issues that
happen out here."
The couple has made a lot of
progress on the island during the past
five years.
“Since ’92 or ’93, they’ve had a care
taker out here every year or two, said
Bo. “A year or two was all you wanted
to spend. That was all they could keep
anybody on for.”
With diligent work, Bo and Amber
worked to make the island more hos
pitable for visitors and themselves, and
one of the first things they added was a
washer and dryer. They’ve also refur
bished their house on the island, barged
a tractor over, revitalized the cistern
system to increase the freshwater sup
ply, and replaced the engines in the
boats.
With the improvements, the couple
hopes future caretakers will enjoy the
same longevity on the island they
have.
“We just tried to make it more livable
so they’ll keep attracting higher caliber
people,” Bo said. “We just want to leave
it in a lot better shape than it was when
we came.”
As for when they expect a successor
for the job, the VonHartens don’t
know. >
"When we first took this job, some
body told us we wouldn’t be here six
months, and it’s almost been five years
now,” Bo said.
“One day, I know we’ll just wake up
and say, ‘You know, this really isn’t fun
anymore,’ and we’ll know then it’s time
to move on,” he said.
That time hasn’t come for the cou
ple, yet. "The husband-wife team kind
of thing has really worked because
you’re able to live out here and actual
ly have a life besides work and have
your spouse there,” said Amber. “It’s
a true test of our marriage, and so far
we’ve made it.”
Comments on this story?E-mail <5r
gamecockudesk @hotma il.com