One account says that the swamp got its name during the American Revolutionary War from Colonel Banastre Tarleton because the British had great difficulty finding the elusive General Francis Marion.

Both theories are proved false because they are predated by the 1773 James Cook Map of South Carolina which locates the Hell Hole Swamp.

One unique event of the festival is the Hell Hole Gator Trot 10k, colloquially called the Redneck Run.

A group of native sons of Berkeley County boasted of their membership in the illustrious Hell Hole Swamp Gang.

They were 1st congressional district Representative L. Mendel Rivers, Governor of South Carolina Robert Evander McNair, state Senator Rembert Dennis, and Columbia mayor Lester Bates.