While just a few miles from the hustle and bustle of Myrtle Beach, Murrells Inlet, known for its relaxing atmosphere and second- to-none seafood, has quietly become a favorite retirement spot for those seeking the easy going water-front lifestyle with all of the modern conveniences of a near by city.
Named after a notoriously brutal pirate, Captain Murrell, who used the quiet inlet as a home base between pillaging trips down island, the village of Murrells Inlet looks out onto Drunken Jack Island. Legend has it, a mutinous pirate, Jack, was marooned on the sandy spit of land by his shipmates with nothing but his wits – and a few bottles of rum – to get him by. When his former ship came back by several months later, he found the beach littered with empty bottles and a pile of sun-bleached bones, presumably Jack’s. Local legend also asserts that none other than Blackbeard hid his ill-gotten booty somewhere on the island. But despite several archeological digs, no treasure has been found. Treasures of another kind are abundant on Murrells Inlet – in the form of centuries old live oak trees, and other beautiful vegetation that grows along the many salt marshes and tidal creeks in the area. Inlet residents can hike at nearby Huntington Beach State Park which, along with Brookgreen Gardens, was once part of a massive plantation owned by the railroad heir Archer Huntington, stepson of Colis Huntington, one of four men who built the Transcontinental Railroad (and from whom California’s Huntington Beach is named).
Brookgreen Gardens is the very first, and still the largest, sculpture garden in the United States, featuring over five-hundred works, including a piece by Archer’s wife, Anne Hyatt Huntington. The close proximity to Myrtle Beach affords Murrells Inlet residents and visitors almost unlimited recreational options. There are 27 golf courses within ten miles of the village. Not surprisingly, the quiet town has become increasingly popular with retirees. The town now has over 1,000 senior citizens (20 percent of the population) living there on a full-time basis.