Assistance was also provided by Hightower Construction, Berkeley County Public Works Department, the BCD Council of Goverments, East Coast Dive Connection and Charleston Scuba. This Underwater Diving Trail was sponsored in part by the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology of the University of South Carolina and the National Recreational Trails Program in cooperation with the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism and the Federal Highway Administration of the US Department of Transportation. During 1995 and 1996 South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology staff and trained volunteers recorded a number of vessels located on the banks of the Ashley river near Summerville, South Carolina. This historic waterway was an important economic artery for the colonial town of Dorchester, colonial plantations and postbellum phosphate mining operations. The river trail is an approximately six-mile tidal float trip by canoe offering captivating views of historic shipwrecks, wharves, old river houses and modern waterside homes.
Wildlife is abundant especially wading and shorebirds like egrets, herons and woodducks.
Charleston's famous Middleton Place Plantation is located at one end of the trail and Bacon's Bridge, originally built by the colonial residents of Dorchester, now a state park, is at the other. In the upper reaches, the river is narrow and twisting with many overhangs continuing into an estuarine area comprised of a labyrinth of golden swampland. The tidal range is as much as four feet. Most of these wrecks are only visible at low tide. Waterproof Trail Map Nine historic submerged sites, both wharves and watercraft, are concentrated in this stretch of river.