When Invisible Lines Rule: State, County, and City Borders

Some South Carolinians have gone to bed in one state and woken up in another - without ever moving. When surveyors corrected centuries-old border errors, residents discovered their property had legally "teleported" overnight. Katy and Nathaniel reveal how colonial mapmakers with faulty compasses, river disputes, and political maneuvering created the bizarre patchwork of boundaries that now determine your tax rate, emergency response times, and even whether you can keep backyard chickens. Discover why city maps look like Swiss cheese, where you really are when you're floating down the Savannah River, and how these invisible lines from the 1600s are silently shaping your daily life in 2025. Listen to uncover which services you might be missing based on your address, then grab your hiking boots to walk the actual zigzag Carolina border yourself.

Links:

• Palmetto Trail
• Episode on Places
• Episode on Home Rule
• Episode on Annexation
• Episode on Special Purpose Districts

_

Produced by Podcast Studio X.

Simple Civics: Greenville County is a project of Greater Good Greenville.

Get in touch.

Support Simple Civics with a tax-deductible contribution.

Sign up for the Simple Civics newsletter.