Chapter 2:
Building Bigger: South of the Border and I-95
From the day that the doors of Schafer’s beer depot first opened in 1950, U.S. 301 served as an important asset to South of the Border. The highway carried beer drinkers, fireworks buyers, honeymooners, families, and tourists of all backgrounds to the border. Even before South of the Border first appeared however, Dillonites were aware that 301 might someday be replaced by a new type of road – a superhighway – that would carry an unimaginable volume of traffic through the area at increased speeds.
This chapter will consider the influence of the proposal and construction of Interstate 95 on South of the Border, and the changes that occurred following its completion. I-95 not only altered how motorists traveled past South of the Border, but transformed their image of it as well. Added factors, such as economic troubles and Alan Schafer’s rise to political prominence during this period shaped who visited South of the Border and how they viewed it. As a result the direction of South of the Border shifted although the emphasis on kitsch and border businesses did not cease.
In 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt gave Bureau of Public Roads chief Thomas McDonald a map of the United States with six lines drawn on it, three running north to south and three going east to west. This map represented one of the earliest outlines of a national system of interstate highways.[1] World War II prevented Roosevelt from funding the proposed interstate system, but by the end of the War Dillon residents were already concerned about the path of the proposed superhighway.
As early as 1947, two years before Schafer opened South of the Border, the Dillon Herald followed every report and rumor about where the road might go. An erroneous article in the Laurinberg Exchange stating that the north / south interstate route on the eastern coast would follow the path of US 15 rather than US 301 prompted frantic letters to the North Carolina State Highway and Public Works Commission. The Commission referred Herald readers to a map published earlier that year showing the projected path of the interstate following 301. [2]
Even as business along US 301 boomed, Dillon anticipated news of the final route of the proposed interstate. Full funding for the interstate program did not appear until the Interstate Highways Act of 1956, which mandated 41,000 miles of new interstate highways but failed to specify exactly where they would go.[3] By 1963, South Carolina as a whole was growing restless over the location of the “superhighways” they had expected to already be bringing increased traffic and tourist dollars into the state. President John F. Kennedy flew to the Maryland/Delaware state line (the Mason-Dixon Line) on November 4, 1963 to officially open I-95, by then well known as the primary north-south interstate route being built from Maine to Florida. [4]South Carolinians were still waiting, meanwhile, to see where the North Carolina Highway Commission elected to build their portion of I-95.
On December 16, 1964 the North Carolina Highway Commission finally announced that the North Carolina terminus of I-95 would be at the point where the state border was crossed by the railroad.[5] This meant that the necessary relocation of Highway 301 would result in an interchange on the interstate at South of the Border.In January 1965, the South Carolina State Highway Department announced a change to the design of the interchange that was expected to “…end complaints by some Dillon interests that the original version favored South of the Border motel operator Alan Schafer.”[6]
This move generated rumors that would persist for decades suggesting that Schafer had somehow affected the final course of I-95, whether through bribery, blackmail, or even murder. Suspicions have been traded for years about whether or not Schafer had the political pull to influence interstate planning. South Carolina historian Walter Edgar has been widely quoted giving his opinion, that Schafer “ had the political influence to get I-95,” pointing out that the Interstate “…makes a little jag there to go through South of the Border.”[7] Rumors were first promoted state-wide by a 1966 lawsuit raised by Charlestonians contesting the proposed inland route for Interstate 95 and calling for re-apportionment of the South Carolina Highway Commission before construction on the road began in earnest.[8] This lawsuit led many South Carolinians to speculate that backroom politics was to blame for the inland route of the road, and many pointed to Schafer as the man behind the decision.
Both the Charleston lawsuit and rumors about Schafer’s role in the path of I-95 were born out of disappointment many along the route felt when the traffic of a “dozen or more roads” that A.B. Jordan so enthusiastically wrote about in 1948 zoomed past tourist establishments now out of view of cars on the road. Though once positive about the construction of the interstates, small business owners along the roadside soon came to regret their enthusiasm as the effects of interstate travel became apparent. Articles with titles such as “When the Highway Leaves You” appeared in motel trade journals instructing motel owners to either move their businesses to an interstate off-ramp, invest in enormous signage necessary to catch the attention of speeding motorists, or to get out of the business all together. [9]
In Dillon, “Gold Coast” businesses that had once benefited by being close to town were now going to be by-passed by the Interstate. Seeking ways to pull traffic off of I-95, improvements on 301 including expansion from two to four lanes were undertaken, unfortunately to no long-term success at increasing traffic. [10] Motels in towns off the interstate met the same fate as the motels in Allendale, South Carolina, farther south on 301. According to Allendale town leaders, the constant tourist traffic that had filled motels nightly disappeared within two weeks of the opening of I-95. By 1976, almost all the motels in Allendale had closed due to a lack of business.[11] Dillon businesses were granted a short reprieve, however, as the stretch of I-95 from the border to Dillon remained partially constructed but unfinished into the early 1970s.
With the construction of the first South Carolina exit on I-95 at his doorstep, South of the Border literally became the border. While many other motels and businesses prepared to close their doors in dread of the day when traffic would stop rolling by, Schafer almost cheerfully accepted the required destruction of several buildings to make way for the new interchange.[12] To replace the buildings that were demolished to make way for the road, Schafer expanded the forced rearrangement of his property required by interstate construction into a $100,000 improvement program to remodel and redecorate every aspect of the restaurant, motel, stores, and attractions in anticipation of “extra beezness” he expected to flood in during the coming summer.[13]
Arguably, Schafer’s preparations in 1965 were more than just for the summer rush, but rather, were early measures to insure that South of the Border would be able to attract the “new” motorists on Interstate 95. This new breed of interstate travelers seemed to have their speedometers locked on seventy-five miles per hour and their mind set on the ever-growing number of tourist attractions glittering in the Florida sun. DillonCounty businessmen worried that such travelers did not have the time or interest to stop along the way or to gather souvenirs along the roadside. In truth, however, the speed-demon interstate traveler and the souvenir-hunting highway motorist were still one and the same. Schafer and other entrepreneurs of the roadside only needed to provide them with a good enough reason to stop.
Though he gambled on the path of I-95 and emerged as a big winner, the realities of interstate travel presented Schafer with a challenge. For years, Schafer had relied on his ever-growing string of billboards up and down U.S. 301 and the roads that fed into it to draw travelers’ attention. Interstates were designed to cut out distractions for drivers by limiting the number of signs along the roadside. In a move that did not help assuage suspicions that Schafer had a hand in setting the path of I-95, Schafer had purchased land up and down the proposed route of I-95 allowing him to post signage with in the perimeters allowed on the Interstate.[14] With this added space, Schafer was able to redouble his advertising efforts.
Schafer threw himself into developing billboards for I-95 that were larger than those on US 301 and that featured eye-catching three dimensional effects along with the now traditional cheesy puns. For example, “You never sausage a place! (You’re always a wiener at Pedro’s)” was topped with a three dimensional Pedro and a giant sausage. Another billboard featured a complete wrecked 1964 Mustang with the caption “Smash Hit!’ Schafer retained the black background and fluorescent writing that was familiar to his customers. He was also able to move some of his most popular billboards to the interstate, including a favorite featuring a mechanical sheep jumping over a moon declaring “Your sheep are all counted at South of the Border.”[15]
The new larger billboards helped to draw the attention of the quickly moving traffic on I-95, but Schafer recognized the need to make the South of the Border complex more visible from the road as well. Due to the construction of the interchange at the South of the Border exit, the complex now sat below road level. Schafer realized he needed an eye-catching larger-than-life sign. Motel owners across the country were faced with the same need to upgrade their signage, as large-scale national chains began to dominate the roadside. Leading this trend was Holiday Innfounder Kemmons Wilson who designed what came to be called the “Great Sign” for franchises of the Holiday Innchain. Fifty feet high with 500 lights and 10,000 pounds of steel, this massive sign with its glowing star and arrow set a Las Vegas –scale standard for independent motel owners to live up to. [16]
Building on his previous success with the building-topping yellow sombrero and the Mexican theme, Schafer was ready to compete. Liberally applying neon to brightly painted steel, Schafer created “Pedro”(see Figure 11). Dressed in neon orange and yellow clothes, the massive mustachioed “Pedro” sign was topped with a giant sombrero complete with red and yellow tassels that lit up. Many people remember “Pedro” standing astride US 301; “Pedro” was later moved to stand astride the parking lot of the Mexico Shop.
Just in case some inattentive motorist might still miss South of the Border, Schafer also covered the exteriors of almost all the buildings in the complex with neon. Schafer was lucky that a neon sign plant had opened in nearby Little Rock in 1950, making it easy for him to obtain new signs quickly and cheaply.[17] The colorful neon that now covered South of the Border shed light on an ever-changing conglomeration of attractions that by the mid-1960s had earned the label of “theme park.”
Even as Schafer expanded upon the established and successful Mexican theme with the new giant “Pedro,” he incorporated other, unrelated themes to compete with other local businesses and to attract new customers. In order to compete with other southern-themed attractions in DillonCounty such as the Tobbacoland Hotel, Schafer added theme park style features that played to Northern travelers’ images of the South. At Pedro’s Plantation, for example, visitors could pick tobacco, cotton, or taste a bit of sugarcane.[18]
ConfederateLand opened in 1961 and aspired to play up the historical and regional connotations of the name for all it was worth. Dr. Dan Hollis of the University of South Carolina’s History Department attended the opening of the ConfederateLandMuseum that housed various Civil War memorabilia, and many of the rides and attractions Schafer included in 1961 and early 1962 had an “old timey” flair.[19] Part store, part museum, and part theme park, ConfederateLandwas a “Stars and Bars” coated play land, complete with a miniature train and miniature golf. Pedro appeared in advertisements wearing a rebel uniform, and the $40,000 miniature train, suffering from a slight chronological and geographical displacement, rolled through places with names like “Haunted Swamp, Tobacco Road, Buffalo Billage, Peacock Alley, and Cactus Mountain” before turning into “Pedroville Station.”[20] Schafer was obviously not greatly concerned by chronology, adding an “Astronaut Ride” in July 1962, complete with “eight space capsules.” [21]
At ConfederateLand, Schafer attempted to add any attraction which potential patrons might be interested in. The centenary of the Civil War popularized the “Confederate” theme among both northern and southern travelers by playing to regional interests and stereotypes. The western landscapes the miniature train rolled past played to the popularity of westerns in film and on television. The “Astronaut Ride,” in tune with the “modern architecture” at the border appealed to an American population entranced with space travel since the 1956 launch of Sputnik. [22] The miniature golf course attracted the increasing number of Americans who had “rediscovered” miniature golf, a Depression era fad, in the late 1950s.[23] Profitable and easily adjusted to fit any theme Schafer could dream up, Confederate Land Golf soon featured a full range of home-made hazards and weekly contests for the highest and lowest score.
ConfederateLandwas frequented by Dillon families as well as motorists, but was most popular among children, like Karen Gale of Dillon, who held her tenth birthday party at ConfederateLand where twenty of her “family and friends” enjoyed the rides and played putt-putt golf.[24] The rides at ConfederateLand were advertised as a safe, fun, family activity that could be followed by an ‘exciting’ meal in one of the South of the Border dining rooms.[25] Schafer soon added other features that appealed to children in particular. He built a South of the Border Zoo, featuring petting zoo style animals, including burros children could ride as well as more exotic creatures such as Bari the elephant and Omar the camel.[26] For parents a little overwhelmed with all the kid –friendly fun, Schafer added a racecourse featuring harnessed horse racing and later featured car racing of various types. [27]
The almost continual refurbishment and construction at South of the Borderthat Schafer began in 1965 represented a continuous cycle of profit reinvestment in the business. In a 1991 interview for a documentary on South of the Border Schafer stated that he reinvested most of each year’s profits back into the business, funding almost continual change.[28] A look at a list of South of the Border postcards in a postcard enthusiast’s collection reveal just a few of the assorted and sometimes odd attractions that Schafer added in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s in the hopes of improving the appeal of the tourist complex. More prominent features included the sombrero-shaped El Toro Steakhouse, the Pink Turtle Restaurant, and the Circus Mexicanus.[29]
These near constant additions were aimed not only at drawing curious first time visitors off the road, but also at cultivating and retaining repeat business willing to stop even after I-95 made it possible to zoom by. Increasingly, some motorists were choosing to make South of the Border a requisite stop on their trips south (or north). As one letter reprinted in the February 26, 1965 edition of “Borderlines” remarked “We made our trip complete by stopping at your place going down and coming back. We are looking forward to coming back next summer and Pedro’s will be our first and last stop.”[30] James Stiffler’s family even had a favorite motel room they requested every year, room 357 located near the pedestrian bridge over US 301 and a favorite pool.[31]
More motorists, in fact, were making annual trips to Florida where established attractions such as CypressGardens, Silver Springs, and Weeki Wachee Springs, and hundreds of other short-lived destinations drew millions of visitors each year. [32] With motorists moving faster and becoming increasingly motivated to reach their destinations, Florida resorts and attractions, Schafer found it necessary in the early 1960s to expend yet more effort to encourage motorists stop.
Aside from developing a theme park with something for everyone, Schafer’s efforts to expand the themes and merchandise available at South of the Border coincided with efforts to create a resort-like atmosphere. Hoping to compete with features flourishing at Florida attractions, Schafer began a concentrated attempt to make South of the Border look and offer similar features to the resorts where the majority of his customers were heading.
The $100,000 improvement program announced by Schafer in June of 1965 included not only “spring cleaning” and refurbishing of aging motel rooms, but also the addition of enough parking space for 550 cars, a double capacity “fluffy fluffy laundry,” extra seating in the Acapulco room and the Sombrero Room, and new lighting fixtures for every room of the motel, aimed at making the rooms “more luxurious than ever.”[33] Each room in the motel now featured a themed décor, with themes along the lines of “Pedro likes hockey,” and the Gamecock room.