Issue 8, July 3, 1996
The 4th of July holiday should be as busy as ever this year. Accommodations are rapidly filling up, and highway officials are making plans to help control the traffic.
Fireworks are scheduled for North Myrtle Beach at 9 p.m. on the 4th; park at Barefoot Landing behind Alligator Adventure or take the Barefoot Princess Cruise up the waterway (call 803-650-6600 for info).
At Broadway at the Beach (central Myrtle Beach on US 17 Bypass), the fireworks will be at 10 p.m. (simulcast on 97.7 FM), following a Yamaha Waverunners light show at 9:30. The Waverunners will be putting on water shows at 4, 6, and 8 p.m. on the 4th, 5th, and 6th. Various outdoor bands will be performing over the weekend at the shopping complex, and the Bay City Rollers will perform at the Revolutions Club on Friday night at 8. (Too bad they didn’t wait one more day and play on S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night! Forgive me.)
Murrells Inlet will have their annual boat parade on the 4th, also.
Finding a public restroom when you’re visiting the Grand Strand beaches has sometimes been a difficult proposition. For years, facilities have been few, and area officials have begun to address the problem within the last few years. Portable restrooms are available in Myrtle Beach at 3rd Ave. N., 8th Ave. N., and Withers Alley, and city officials are planning to build permanent buildings in the near future. The mini-park at 1st Ave. in North Myrtle Beach has facilities, and portable restrooms are on 50th, 17th, 14th, 10th, and 8th Avenues North, plus 3rd, 6th, 9th, 17th, 21st, 27th, 39th, and 46th Avenues South, and Sea Mountain Highway (the road leading into Cherry Grove). Surfside Beach has permanent facilities at 3rd Ave. N. and 5th Ave. S., both of which have showers and water fountains. There were plans last year to install those new automatic cleaning toilets at the Myrtle Beach park on 24th Ave. N., but nothing has come of this lately. The Pavilion building itself has restrooms on the lower floor. Incidentally, it is illegal to change clothes in restrooms along the coast, a law whose reason for existence I have never understood.
Isle of America, the ambitious half-billion-dollar, 1000 acre resort that Timberland Properties has promised to build at the old Air Force Base, has been making very slow progress. Initially announced in 1994, with an early 1997 opening, plans now call for construction to begin late this year, with a late 1997 opening possible. The company has made all of its deadlines for purchasing the land, issuing construction bonds, and the like, but always at the last possible minute. Some politicians and other companies have expressed doubts about the project’s viability. Burroughs and Chapin, the huge Myrtle Beach operation that runs the Pavilion, doesn’t think the area is ready for this size park at this time, but has said it will compete with any attractions that do open, possibly by moving the Pavilion inland (near Broadway at the Beach) and expanding it.
Land is being cleared now for the Isle of America, and water infrastructures have been implemented (courtesy of tax moneys). A final construction bond must be issued by November 17. Last year, TPI obtained a guarantee from Tishman, a construction company that built Epcot Center, that the park will be built even if TPI itself withdraws from the project. Three previous co-investors have dropped out of the undertaking.
If completed according to plan, the project would be immense: two or three hotels with 3200 rooms, numerous shops and restaurants, a conference center and amphitheater, 27-hole golf course, golf villas, and the centerpiece 300 acre theme park. The park highlights would include a looping roller coaster, indoor roller coaster, mine-train roller coaster, a log flume ride, wild rapids water ride, ten shows, a laser theater, a replica of the US House of Representatives, a jazz club, wedding chapel, antique steam train replica, and nightly fireworks. (An IMAX theater had been announced, but seems unlikely now, with one already in operation at Broadway at the Beach.) Seven themed areas of the park would include: Centennial Exposition, Thunder Canyon, New England Waterfront, Final Frontier, Rock ‘n Roll Square, River City USA, and Explorer’s Isle.
Another park that has been in the planning stages for some time now is the Sandman’s Dream Castle project on the site of the former Magic Harbor in southern Myrtle Beach. The $50 million attraction would be based on a the lead character in a line of children’s books, and the park would mainly appeal to children. A ride patterned after Disney’s “It’s A Small World” would be the central feature of the park. A dinner theater, a children’s theater, and eating and shopping locations would round out the park. Last year, a skeptical city council refused to transfer the lease on the property to this organization. Company officials have said they will try to buy out the company that still holds the lease from the property’s Magic Harbor days, and begin construction soon thereafter.
Early this year another corporation announced plans for a Hawaiian resort, complete with theme park, golf course and villas, hotel, and amphitheater.
Will any or all of these ambitious plans come to fruition? Only time will tell. On the plus side, Myrtle Beach is already one of America’s leading tourist destinations, and may of these visitors now come in the off-season, when the beach is less competition for these resorts. Notice that two of the planned resorts prominently feature golfing. On the minus side, there’s that beach competing for family vacation time, and plenty of other temptations day and night around the area. It is unlikely all these projects will come to pass. If the TPI park falls through, the state will put the Air Base land back up for auction.
The largest nightclub in Myrtle Beach has opened within the last year, in the building that formerly housed the Myrtle Beach Opry theater. Yesterday’s Nightlife is 25,000 square feet and contains sports and video bars and a dance floor. The dance club has a huge decorative jukebox (reminiscent of the old Streamers nightclub in Restaurant Row) and a 1500 square feet dance floor. The sports bar has virtual reality games in addition to the usual pool tables and large screen TVs. Video gambling units are available in the video lounge. A complete menu is served. The Coconuts Comedy club is also now housed within the building. Located at 19th Ave. N. on US 17 Business in central Myrtle Beach, hours are 11:30 a.m. (8 p.m. for the dance club) until around 2 a.m. or later. Admission varies but averages around $8. (803) 626-2582.
The Cowboys nightclub on US 17 in North Myrtle Beach has undergone several metamorphoses in the last year. For a time it featured a family-oriented live show and dinner buffet, operating under the name Country Jamboree. Eventually this was dropped and the name changed to the Texas Tornado, before coming full circle back to Cowboys Country Jamboree early this year.
Some additional news from along the strand:
The city of Myrtle Beach has regulated body piercing. In response to complaints from parents, anyone under 18 wishing to get pierced must bring their parent’s written permission. Shops performing the service must give the customer a written estimate before doing any work. This latter rule complements another regulation requiring estimates before custom t-shirt printing is done. Some unscrupulous shop keepers have charged inflated amounts for these services after the work has been done.
Horses may continue to be ridden along the beach during the winter months, at least for now. A proposal to eliminate all horses from the beaches year round was not approved by the city.
The state government has declared that Grand Strand beaches are in good shape. This September some beach renourishment will occur. Most of the beaches gained sand or were stable within the last year. Some areas gained as much as 100 feet. Those of us who remember the beach from the pre-erosion era (before the 1980’s) miss the huge, wide beaches, even at low tide, that we used to enjoy. Still, the news is basically good. Beach erosion is a worldwide problem, not just a local one, and is believed to be caused by the continuing rise of the world’s sea level from the ice-pack melt off after the last ice age, which is apparently still going on.
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