| Show 4T The Salt Lake Tribune South Carolina Sunday March 27 1988 With golf and tennis Hilton Head is an adult playlan By Horace Sutton HILTON HEAD SC — There are a dozen plantations on this balmy island off the South Carolina coast but nobody’s planting cotton No soft spirituals caress the night and no mammy with a kerchief tied 'round her head bakes biscuits Here in the Low Country of marsh grass magnolias and live oak 30 miles north of Savannah Georgia the night is more likely to be split with a disco din and the cook at the stove is probably a French import whipping up mushrooms sauteed in chablis finished with cream and enclosed in a wisp of puff pastry Planted alongside the Intracoastal island Waterway this five miles wide in places girt with beaches and laved by the Atlantic s has become one of the prime of the planet Less than 20000 people live here — half its population during the War Between the States — but nearly a million visitors take up temporary residence eve-- y year As playlands go it has 23 golf courses the handiwork of such architects as George Fazio Robert Trent Jones and Arthur Hills It has 300 tennis courts — more than any resort in the world — and the surfaces range from clay to grass There are eight places to park your yacht and if you left yours at home you can rent one Or charter a fishing boat (at $300 for four to six people on the water for four hours) A full day means rising at 3 a m for the Gulf Stream is 60 miles away But then the prize is marlin sailfish tuna or play-land- wahoo Hilton Head has nothing to do with Conrad Hilton Barron Hilton or any Hilton Hotel It was named for a man who never set foot on the island — Captain William Hilton who sailed the Carolina coast in 1663 looking for sites to plant sugar and indigo As he passed Port Royal Sound (there is an Hotel there now) he made a note in his log "The Ayr is clear and sweet the Countrey very pleasant and delightful” It still Inter-Continent- is Settlers were on the island before the American Revolution and plantations were laid out in 1717 and when a new fertilizer was found to produce long-steSea Island cotton the planters become prosperous But then seven monhs after the shots were fired on Fort Sumter 90 miles away the Union Navy put troops ashore — at one time more than 40000 were based here Settlers departed the boll weevil attacked the cotton and Hilton Head went to sleep for a century Then in 1956 Charles Frazier a young graduate of Yale Law School whose family owned timberland on the island came up with the idea of creating a controlled resort Private homes were built condominiums — regulated in size — were built and the lands gardens and beaches w ere divided into a dozen “plantations” as they are still called The first was Sea Pines on the southwest end facing Daufuskie Island and famous for its red and w hite striped lighthouse which isn't really a lighthouse at all The harbor is be Ten best inns ing dredged anew and will have space for 110 slips From here the “Vagabond" takes sightseeing trippers poking among the nearby creeks Condos none higher than five stories rim the covd At the edge is the 18th hole of Harbourtown Golf Course handy to the first bar on the island called the Quarterdeck Now it is being converted to an elegant nook to be called Windows on Harbourtown At the opposite end of the island the Port Royal Plantation is the newest resort its elegant architecture reminiscent of the grand Southern homes of the Low Country It expanse two and opened on a a half years ago Here guests sit by the fire in the Gazebo listening to the piano taking tea and other more formidable libations Dancing goes on in The Battery until 2 am Of the three championship golf courses two are open for public play with Robber's Row considered the most challenging Barony edged by some of the island's handsomest homes and Planter's Row the choice for many tournaments The Racquet Club is one of four tennis centers in the nation with all three Grand Slam playing surfaces: four hard courts 10 paved with clay and two covered with grass Six are lighted for night play Plantations have names like Wexford Shipyard Spanish Wells and Hilton Head but one Palmetto Dunes with three miles of the Atlantic beach on one side and a stretch of Broad Creek lagoon on the other prefers to call itself a resort It has to rental villas some in privately owned town houses Rod Laver runs the tennis center The Hyatt has just peeled off $38 million in renovation Among the improveone- - four-bedroo- rt 505-roo- ments: The bellmen now wear tweed caps plus fours and argyle socks Mariner's Inn next door puts kitchenettes in all rooms — large enough to fix breakfast You’ll have to descend to Pisces for low country pie and Daufuskie crab soup Marriott is just over the border in Shipyard Plantation and there at Pompano's they'll feed you “Incredibly Large Shrimp" ($2 25 each) raw oysters and mussels in a crock Marriott hangs on the edge of the beach where the passing view fittingly has homebound shrimp enough boats and frolicking porpoises As Capt Hilton said back in 1663 “the Ayr is clear and sweet” 24-acr- e tr i r i : 1 :UJ At U v 4 77 ' As ' — " There are a dozen ‘plantations’ on IHlton Head Island in South Carolina ’s Low Country but you won't find anyone picking cotton That’s just another word for new Inter-Continent- Visit Idaho’s Famous Ten Best New Inns in the country are Pillar Point Inn Capistrano Calif Stonepine Carmel Valley Calif Lakeside Inn Mount Dora Fla Wheaton Inn Wheaton 111 Columbus Inn Columbus Ind Big Bay Point Lighthouse Big Bay Mich Harbor House Inn Grand Haven Mich Meadowbrook Inn Blowing Rock NC Fearrington House Pittsboro NC and Jail House Inn Newport RI TSR8 ©P Craters of the Moon National Monument near Arco Idaho is it has 83 located on US 93 of miles astonishing square landscape of vast lava fields studded with cinder cones that resemble the craters of the moon! a Walking and driving tours Visitor Center is located at the site AN ELEVEN DAY NORWEGIAN COASTAL VOYAGE Near ARCO IDAHO dbsiPIMMMi wnpinwai Visit this Summer or Any Weekend! 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