Clarendon County, South Carolina

Clarendon County is a county in South Carolina, United States, on the Coastal Plain along the shore of Lake Marion. It had a population of 31,144 at the 2020 census and covers 696 square miles (1,802 km2), of which 607 square miles (1,573 km2) is land, centred near 33°40′N 80°13′W.

Manning is the county seat, and its postal code is 29102. The county has three incorporated towns plus a mix of census-designated places and rural crossroads communities. It sits in the Eastern time zone.

Towns & Villages in Clarendon County

Clarendon County has three incorporated towns — Manning, Summerton and Turbeville — and dozens of unincorporated communities and crossroads settlements. In the table below, CDP marks a U.S. Census-recognized place with no town government; Unincorp. marks a rural community or crossroads with a name but no formal boundary.

A handful of the old scraped names on this list — Baggette Crossroads, Barrineau Crossroads, Beards Crossroads, Belser Crossroads, Central Crossroads, Cypress Fork Crossroads, Davis Crossroads, James Crossroads, Trinity Cross Roads, Union Crossroads and Wilson Crossroads — are informal rural road-junction names rather than distinct communities and have been consolidated under the nearby settlement they serve. Adams Landing, Country Club Estates, Log Jam Landing, Polly Landing and Shad Moss village are small lakeside or residential enclaves along Lake Marion and are not carried in the main table for lack of any verifiable population figure.

ZIP Codes

• 29102 — Manning (also serves Paxville)
• 29148 — Summerton
• 29162 — Turbeville
• 29001 — Alcolu
• 29111 — New Zion
• 29051 — Gable
• 29143 — Sardinia (P.O. box delivery only)
• 29041 — Davis Station (P.O. box delivery only)

Smaller communities such as Foreston, Rimini, Jordan and Wyboo do not have their own ZIP code and are served by the nearest post office town above.

Geography

Clarendon County lies on South Carolina’s inner Coastal Plain, below the fall line, and is bordered on its west and south sides by the shoreline of Lake Marion, the state’s largest lake, formed in 1941 by the damming of the Santee River. The land is mostly flat to gently rolling, with pine forest, farmland and swamp along the lake margins. The county’s water area — 89 square miles — is largely Lake Marion itself.

Clarendon County borders Sumter County to the north, Florence County to the northeast, Williamsburg County to the east, Berkeley County to the southeast, Orangeburg County to the southwest, and Calhoun County to the west.

Demographics

The 2020 census counted 31,144 residents. Manning, the county seat, is by far the largest community with roughly 3,988 people; Summerton is the second-largest incorporated town at around 810. Clarendon County’s median household income runs well below the South Carolina median of $67,804, reflecting the county’s largely rural, agricultural economic base. Population density is about 51 people per square mile of land area.

Economy & Local Life

Healthcare and social assistance is the county’s largest employment sector, followed by retail trade and public administration. Major employers include the City of Manning, the Clarendon County School District, Helena Chemical, McLeod Health and Walmart. Farming — row crops, timber and livestock — remains important outside the towns, and Lake Marion draws recreational fishing and boating traffic that supports a string of small marinas and campgrounds along the shoreline.

History

Clarendon County was created in 1785, when the South Carolina legislature divided the old Camden District into seven counties, and it takes its name from Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, a 17th-century English statesman associated with the colony’s original Lords Proprietors. The area saw several skirmishes of the American Revolutionary War. Lake Marion was created in 1941 as a federal hydroelectric and flood-control project, flooding tens of thousands of acres and reshaping the county’s western and southern edges. Clarendon County is also the site of Briggs v. Elliott, the 1951 federal school-segregation lawsuit brought by Black parents in Summerton that was later folded into Brown v. Board of Education.

Getting There

Interstate 95 crosses the county north-south, with U.S. Routes 15, 52, 301, 378 and 521 and South Carolina Highways 35, 56, 260, 261 and 527 providing local and regional connections.

• Sumter — 20 miles north
• Florence — 35 miles northeast
• Orangeburg — 30 miles southwest
• Columbia — 55 miles west

The nearest commercial airport is Columbia Metropolitan Airport (CAE).

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Clarendon County?
It is in the coastal plain of central South Carolina, along the shore of Lake Marion, roughly midway between Columbia and Florence.

What is the population of Clarendon County?
31,144 people, per the 2020 census.

How big is Clarendon County?
696 square miles (1,802 km2) in total, including about 89 square miles of Lake Marion water.

What is the county seat of Clarendon County?
Manning is the county seat.

How many towns are in Clarendon County?
Three incorporated towns — Manning, Summerton and Turbeville — plus roughly two dozen unincorporated communities.

What ZIP codes are in Clarendon County?
Eight, led by 29102 (Manning), 29148 (Summerton) and 29162 (Turbeville).

What is Clarendon County known for?
Lake Marion recreation and its role in Briggs v. Elliott, the school-segregation case that helped lead to Brown v. Board of Education.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in South Carolina.