Category:South of the Border, South Carolina

This page is under construction. Check back often as it fills in with research, pictures and more! 

History of the Collection

The beginnings of a beer distribution joint, founded in 1949.

Road trips to Dillon, South Carolina were first conducted by Museum staff in the early 1980s. Sensing the intrinsic cultural value of the site, photographs and drawings were made of the environment, structures and outdoor three-dimensional pieces. Later, artifacts were collected from some of the Native Vegetation (Flora) found on site and notes were taken on the various animal specimens (Fauna), many of which appear to be unique to the location.

South of the Border is a rest stop and roadside attraction on Interstate 95 and U.S. Route 301-U.S. Route 501 near Dillon, South Carolina, so named because it is just "south of the border"–the border between the U.S. states of South Carolina and North Carolina. The attraction features not only restaurants, gas stations and a motel, but also a small amusement park, shopping (including, formerly, adult entertainment at the "Dirty Old Man Shop"), and, famously, fireworks. Its mascot is Pedro, an extravagantly stereotypical Mexican bandido. This character has morphed over the years but has featured elements which can be seen as racist and offensive yet also floating above these concerns, in the manner of any cartoon. South of the Border--or SOB, as it is called on its water tower--is advertised by hundreds of billboards along surrounding highways, starting 175 miles away. Well-known landmarks in the area, the irreverent signs feature Pedro, wearing an oversized sombrero and poncho, counting down the number of miles to, and promoting, South of the Border.

The Evolution of a Vernacular Structure

The early images of the Attraction can be found in the advertising postcards from its inception in 1949 to the present day. The slow change from a cement block beer outlet to a "decorated shed" to "Mini Las Vegas' in Dillon, South Carolina is the bloom of a large organic structure, all based on the success of the personal auto in America. A simple place to buy beer soon morphed into a destination that merged what customers dreamed about (the Old South, Mexico, their Dream Wedding) with smaller, more manageable things that could be offered for sale (key chains, cheap meals, a tank of gas, beer can cozies, rubber dog turds...The list goes on and on.)

In this transition photo, the old cement block structure has been dressed up with a veneer of rustic stone and some fine, moderne elements, including a neon sombrero motif, soon to go viral over the entire attraction.

Items in the Collection

• Clothing
• Glassware
• Housewares and Restaurant Items
• Numismatics
  • Flattened Pennies
  • Good Luck Tokens
• Postcards, Matchbooks and Promotional Material
• Tiny Shoes
• Writing Implements

A classic thunderbird parked in front.

Overview

Full fledged kitsch.

A Call for Entries

Anyone who has journeyed over the hills and down into the Piedmont--anyone who has crossed the North Carolina/South Carolina border on interstate 95--has run across multitudinous billboards advertising a destination that is both sacred and profane. It is a place that symbolizes all that is hopeful, special and unique in America. And all that is crass and exploitive--at the same time. This place is "South of the Border" (historically also known as "Pedroland", or "Confederateland", etc.) a bizarre theme park of shops, motels, fireworks outlets and restaurants from the golden age of the automobile. It is a dreamland brutally decked out in Las Vegas-tinged-Mexican motif. A cartoon-Mexico-cum-Hollywood sensation, the glow of which--even without billboards--can be seen for miles through the soft Southern piney woods.

Countless of travellers have paused here on their journeys from New York City--or Vermont even--and gassed up; devoured cheap tacos or fried chicken; been bemused or even stupefied by encounters with giant cement gorillas in tshirts, turquoise, saddle wearing jack-a-lopes as large as horses, or thousand-foot-tall towers featuring giant sombreros. What is this place of mystery? Why the tiny dwarf rhino? Why the immense, oversized chicken?

The Museum is currently researching all these things and more. Our already sizable collection of artifacts (placemats, menus, keychains, glassware, pencils, postcards, object d'art and natural historical specimens--primarily Biological specimens) will be put on display starting in the summer of 2010, alongside photographs, sketches and paintings all featuring South of the Border, Dillon, South Carolina.

The general public is invited to submit their own objects, artwork and the like for exhibit this year with an opening reception in the Fall; date TBA!

Oral histories will also be collected for use in our labeling and descriptive material.

Historic Background

South of the Border was developed by Alan Schafer (1914-July 19, 2001), who founded a beer stand at the location in 1950 and steadily expanded it with Mexican trinkets and numerous kitsch items. He had a great deal of success turning South of the Border into a tourist mecca because of his location, which was immediately across the border from a dry North Carolina county, and grew his small business into what was, by local standards, an economic empire. South of the Border grew to over a square mile, required its own infrastructure, and had its own fire and police departments. Schafer became reclusive, building a large compound of interconnected houses outside the Dillon city limits. At South of the Border, he kept secret apartments hidden in the backs of restaurants and shops.

"Yanqui food done Confederate style" was an early motto of the attraction.

The Diaspora in the Cotton Kingdom

Images of Unreality. Stereotypes of Mexico in the American Piedmont

Notable Features

Part of the film Forces of Nature was filmed at South of the Border. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, originally from nearby Dillon, South Carolina, worked for a summer as a poncho-wearing waiter at South of the Border to help pay his way through Harvard.

Architectural Styles and Decor

The entire motif of South of the Border can be described as intentionally campy. Adobe style ornament is applied over inexpensive cement block structures and combined with neon signage in Modern, or Roadside high-camp style. Most of the architectural styles of South of the Border are of the "Decorated Shed" type (Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown) however some aspects are "ducks" i.e.: designed as stand-alone advertisements for actual attractions—particularly the trademark giant, sombrero-clad neon figure which functions as the park's motel front signage and the illuminated sombrero-shaped tower which is visible for miles from the Carolina countryside.

External Links

• Roadside America features some of the best descriptive text concerning this roadside Legend.
• Raychel Severance has put up photos of SOB on her wonderful blog!
• The town of Dillon is proud of its most famous cultural heritage site.
• Jeffrey Sward has photographed the "exceptional scope" of the site.