The City of Myrtle Beach is in the center of the Grand Strand, a 60-mile crescent of beach on the South Carolina coast.   In the last 30 years, Myrtle Beach has developed into the premier resort destination on the East Coast.  Our 25,000 permanent residents welcome millions of visitors each year to this full-service resort community.  Guests come to enjoy the wide beaches, the Atlantic Ocean, and an incredible range of activities, entertainment, golf, shopping and dining. 

     Myrtle Beach was incorporated as a town in 1938 and became a city in 1957.  Its name comes from the wax myrtle, a shrub which grows abundantly in the area.  History records that a party of Spaniards from Hispaniola landed about 50 miles north of present-day Myrtle Beach in 1526 and eventually established the first European settlement  in the U.S. about 30 miles to the south.  The settlement, San Miguel de Cauldape, was abandoned the following year, though, and the group returned to Hispaniola. 

     In the next three centuries, the region's population grew, but slowly.  Landowners developed large plantations in the area, with rice as the principal crop.   In the late 1800s and early 1900s, people began to "vacation" here, although it was quite rustic.  Houses and camps were sparse, and there were few permanent residents at the turn of the century.  But, drawn by the ocean, sand and trees, people began to call Myrtle Beach "home" as the 1900s progressed.