We pride ourselves in scenic #Charleston for being a genuinely historic city, and on my walking tours, I want visitors to see and hear the factual aspects about the “Holy City”. We do however, have some instances in which history has been faked, and illusion has been substituted for fact that even though creating a good story, just isn’t true. Such is the case of the infamous cannon barrel now found at White Point Garden. Many years ago, Longitude Lane’s narrow west entrance was blocked by a Revolutionary War cannon barrel buried muzzle down in the ground. Because it was city property, the city eventually decided to remove the cannon and display it in a more historically-accurate setting. Residents of Longitude Lane were upset and within a short period of time, a man came knocking on their doors offering to sell them another Revolutionary cannon to replace the original. Little did this man realize that many Charlestonians know their military history, and inspecting the cannon quickly noticed the piece of pipe protruding from the muzzle. Casting a cannon around pipe was a method once used, but not until long after the Revolution had ended, so the cannon is not what was claimed and the residents passed on purchase, but the city took it and displays the faked cannon today. <img.src=”Charleston Curiosities” alt=”The Fake Cannon”
