MYSTERY PHOTO: Interesting place for a mural

This photo might be difficult for out-of-towners to locate because it’s in an interesting place.  The “who” shouldn’t be tough, but where is it? Send to editor@charlestoncurrents.com.  And don’t forget to include your name and the town in which you live.

Our previous Mystery Photo

Our Nov. 9 photo, “Orange archway?” should have been easy-peasy to anyone who has driven past South of the Border on Interstate 95 in Dillon County. It was a close-up of a Pedro sign.

Hat tip from Pedro to several clever sleuths: Jim McMahan, Susan Highfield, Delia A. Smith and Mia Maness from Charleston; George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; Jay Altman of Columbia; Chris Brooks of Mount Pleasant;  Bill Segars of Hartsville; and Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas. 

Peel shared some info about South of the Border: “Today’s mystery photo is part of the 104-foot tall roadside sign and attraction that features South of the Border’s famous Mexican mascot ‘Pedro,’ a caricature of a Mexican bandito with a rather large sombrero.

“South of the Border is a tourist attraction located just off the U.S. Highway 301 and I-95 interchange, about seven miles northeast of Dillon, S.C. It is so named because it is just south of the border between North Carolina and South Carolina.

South of the Border was started more than 70-years ago by Alan Schafer with the introduction in 1949 of a simple 18 x 36 foot beer stand known as ‘South of the Border Beer Depot.’ The site was located just two miles from the border with Robeson County in North Carolina, which was at the time, one of many dry North Carolina counties that prohibited the sale of alcohol. This allowed Schafer’s business to boom and enabled him to expand his business with the addition of other enterprises, including a 10-seat restaurant and grill and a 20-room motel. In 1962, he opened a cocktail lounge and souvenir shop to sell trinkets that he imported from Mexico. By the mid-1960s, he added a gas station to serve the many tourists and travelers dropping in on their way south to Florida, and he included a fireworks stand to capitalize on the fact that it was also illegal to sell fireworks ‘across the border’ in North Carolina. By the mid-1960s, South of the Border had expanded to include a barber shop, drug store, a variety store, a post office, an outdoor go-kart track (complete with other outdoor recreational facilities). It was around this time that the 104-feet tall sign of Pedro was added to the properties.”

• Send us a mystery:  If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!)   Send it along to  editor@charlestoncurrents.com.