Coastal Discovery Museum.

-This brand new exhibition highlights the town of Mitchelville's rich history and recent archaeological discoveries.  Mitchelville, founded in 1862, was home to several thousand former slaves from area plantations.  This town was one of the first self-governed Freedmen's communities in the United States.  In 2012 archaeologists investigated  a portion of historic Mitchelville that will be affected by expansion of the Hilton Head Island Airport runway.  They found evidence of possible houses, several barrel wells, a large refuse pot, and recovered more than 20,000 artifacts.  These artifacts represent the personal belongings, tools and household goods of Mitchelville's former residents and remind us of their efforts to make a new world for themselves as free people.   The results of the investigations and many of the objects recovered during the excavations are presented in a new exhibition sponsored by Beaufort County, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the SC Aeronautics Commission.  The Coastal Discovery Museum will host the exhibition in its main gallery from January 18 through March 31, 2014.  After March 2014, the exhibition will love into the Museum's Sea Island Room, where it will remain through December 2014.

The Gallery is open Monday through Saturday 9 am until 4:30 pm and Sunday 11 am until 3 pm.