Finally, the small farmers in the county had a prosperity never before witnessed . Roads became a statewide priority only in the 1920s and Horry County finally got connected to the rest of the world. The land along the coast had supported some fisheries and small farms, but it was generally considered as poor and unproductive. After roads began to appear throughout the state, the potential of the coast as a tourist attraction became apparent to the Woodside brothers of Greenville, SC, and they purchased a large tract along the coast in 1926. Today, the entire stretch of coast along Horry County is one gigantic tourist attraction.
Myrtle Beach is currently the second most popular city for tourists, only behind Orlando, Florida.
From Murrell's Inlet at the southern end of the coast to Little River at the northern end of the coast, beach towns cropped up by the dozens in the 1940s and 1950s. Cherry Grove Beach. Windy Hill Beach. Garden City Beach. All known to the rest of the world simply as Myrtle Beach.