Columbia Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau 1101 Lincoln Street P.O. Box 15 Columbia, SC 29202-0015 (803) 545-0000 Population 98052 Time Zone Eastern Latitude/Longitude 33.99° /-81.04° Today's Forecast HIGH: 73 LOW: 36

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Attractions

Occupying the former Columbia Mills textile factory, the South Carolina State Museum devotes each of its four floors to a different area of interest: history, natural history, art, and science and technology. This is the largest museum of its kind in the South, and many of the exhibits are hands-on. The laser displays in the section on laser technology are especially impressive and fun to watch. Right next door, youngsters will find plenty to do, experience, and learn about at EdVenuture, the South's largest children's museum. The facility, which opened in 2003, features eight exciting galleries, hosted by 40-foot tall Eddie, "the world's largest child."

The Columbia Museum of Art offers paintings, sculpture, and furniture of the Baroque and Renaissance periods as well as American art of the 20th century. Fine and decorative arts, along with natural history exhibits, may also be seen at the McKissick Museum of the campus of the University of South Carolina.

The Historic Columbia Foundation offers tours of several notable 19th-century homes. The Mann-Simons Cottage was owned in the years before the Civil War by Celia Mann, a former slave who earned her living in Charleston in the 1840s as a midwife. The restored Hampton-Preston Mansion dates from 1818 and features many original furnishings. The house served as headquarters for the Union Army and was spared during the burning of Columbia. The Robert Mills Historic House and Park is surrounded by lovely rock gardens. It was designed by Columbia's most famous architect, Robert Mills, designer of the Washington Monument. The boyhood home of Woodrow Wilson has original furnishings and the bed where the future president was born in 1856 in Staunton, Virginia. More historic homes and buildings of the early 19th century are displayed at the Lexington County Museum in nearby Lexington. Displays at the Fort Jackson Museum highlight the training of the American soldier from the earliest days of the country to the present.

Fans can watch professional sports at the Colonial Center, where the Stingers play arena football, and at the Carolina Coliseum, where the Inferno play ECHL ice hockey. The USC Gamecocks provide exciting NCAA Division I action year-round in football, basketball, baseball, and other sports.

For a day outdoors, the Riverbanks Zoo and Garden has penguins and eagles, elephants and giraffes, and a farm filled with domestic animals. After watching the daily sea lion feeding, take a stroll through the celebrated botanical gardens — 70 acres bestrewn with some 4,200 species of native and exotic plants. Recreational opportunities are offered at Sesquicentennial State Park, just east of the city. To the southeast, enjoy the nature trails at Congaree National Park, site of one of the country's last stands of old-growth river bottomland hardwood forest.

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