Tar Heel Travels
Sea Trail at Sunset Beach
The golf enclave is the story of four
local boys who made good
By Bill F. Hensley
Sea Trail Plantation at Sunset
Beach has been one of my prime travel destinations for
more than a decade, and it has been a thrill to see the
resort grow from its modest beginnings into a cozy home
for more than 400 families and thousands of tourists.
Founded by four Brunswick County business men in 1977,
Sea Trail, at North Carolina's most southern beach, has
become a swanky, self-contained year-round resort for the
traveling public.
Spread about the 2,000-acre complex, which is a short
walk from Sunset Beach's quaint swinging bridge over the
Intracoastal Waterway, are enough rental condos and
villas to accommodate nearly a thousand guests.
There are three 18-hole golf courses, two restaurants,
two clubhouses, a large conference complex, tennis
courts, swimming pools, a shopping center and a medical
center. On the drawing board are a planetarium and an
assisted living center. Last year the three courses -- designed by Dan Maples, Rees Jones and Willard Byrd
-- hosted 128,000 rounds of golf.
“I never dreamed the development would be this big
and this successful,” said Miller Pope, one of Sea
Trail's four owners.
I asked Pope, a longtime friend who lives just up the
beach at Ocean Isle, to tell me the story of this unusual
property. He said that in 1976 he had just sold some
property in Texas and was looking for a local investment.
“I mentioned that to John Williams, a local realtor,
and he asked me to consider joining Ed Gore, Paul Dennis
and himself in a project they were considering
developing. He said it would center around golf and
resort-style living and would be a badly-needed facility
for this area.”
The four purchased 625 acres from International Paper Co.
as a starter. More land was acquired after Sea Trail
began construction.
“Because of the golf craze in nearby Myrtle
Beach,” Pope said, “we thought that golf would
be an attractive feature.” Sea Trail's first course
was designed by Dan Maples and opened in October 1986.
The Jones course followed in 1988 and the Byrd course a
year later. The 54-hole complex is open all year. If
golfers want to test their skills at other courses, there
are 20 within five or six miles of Sea Trail. In the past
decade, Brunswick County has become one of the state's
major golf hubs with more than 30 courses.
As the demand for permanent homes and more rental condos
increased, the development company added to its
inventory. And that meant more recreational facilities
such as tennis courts, swimming pools and restaurants.
And it also necessitated the medical center and shopping
center.
In order to keep up with its Myrtle Beach competition,
Sea Trail completed a 30,000-square-foot conference
center at the end of 1999 that is attracting large and
small groups. A 10,000-square-foot ballroom can seat more
than 700 at a banquet, and there are numerous
“break-out” rooms for smaller meetings. Sea
Trail now has more than 70,000 square feet of meeting and
function space.
“This, along with our other facilities, puts us in
the big leagues as a full-service resort,” said
Pope. “I'm told that we are now the largest meeting
facility on the North Carolina coast. And we can compete
successfully with resorts in the Piedmont and mountains,
too.”
Pope is still active in Sea Trails' management, as well
as his own popular hotel, The Winds, at Ocean Isle Beach.
Paul Dennis, one of the original partners, died recently.
“We look back with pride at Sea Trail,” Pope
said, “yet we know the project probably will never
be completed in our lifetime. Our planetarium, enlarged
shopping mall and assisted living center will keep us
busy. And we also have plans for a couple of small hotels
or inns.”
For more information, call Sea Trail Plantation at Sunset
Beach, at 800-408-7245.
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