DARLINGTON

county, northeastern South Carolina, U.S. It lies for the most part on the rolling hills of the Coastal Plain, bounded to the northeast by the Great Pee Dee River and on parts of the southwestern border by the Lynches River. Baptists from Delaware came to the region in the 1730s and settled in the Welsh Tract settlement granted by King George II of England. Darlington county was established in 1785 and named for Darlington, England. In 1894 when the governor of South Carolina ordered the search, without warrants, of private homes for concealed liquor, the Darlington War between residents and the state militia and constables resulted. Kalmia Gardens, the Coker College arboretum, contains a virtually complete cross section of South Carolina terrain, along with hundreds of varieties of flora native to the Atlantic seaboard. H.B. Robinson Unit 2, the state's oldest operating nuclear power plant, is located near Hartsville. Darlington is the county seat, and Hartsville, the site of Coker College (founded 1908), is the largest town. Tobacco is the principal crop of this fertile farming region, and soybeans, wheat, eggs, and dairy products also are important; textile, paper, chemical, and electronic products are leading manufactures. Area 562 square miles (1,456 square km). Pop. (1990) 61,851; (1998 est.) 66,366. town and unitary authority, geographic and historic county of Durham, northeastern England, bounded on the south by the River Tees. The main population centre, old Darlington town, lies on the River Skerne near its confluence with the Tees. The town is Anglo-Saxon in origin, and its parish church of St. Cuthbert dates from the 12th century. In the 19th century textile industries were overshadowed by locomotive manufacture and railway repair work. The Stockton and Darlington Railway, the world's first passenger line, opened in 1825, and Locomotive No. 1, the first engine to run on a public railway, is on exhibition in Bank Top station. Darlington remains a centre of heavy and construction engineering, but telecommunications and service activities are increasingly important. Area unitary authority 77 square miles (198 square km). Pop. (1991) town, 86,767; (1998 est.) unitary authority, 101,400. city, seat of Darlington county, northeastern South Carolina, U.S. Settled in the 1780s, the city and the county (formed 1785) were both named for Darlington, England. Its basic agricultural economy (tobacco, cotton, livestock, soybeans, and timber) is supplemented by manufacturing (building materials, electronics, paper products, and steel). The city has a large automobile auction market and is the home of Darlington Raceway (opened 1950), noted for stock-car racing events including the TranSouth Financial 400 in March and the Mountain Dew Southern 500 in September, on Labor Day. A stock-car museum was opened in 1965. Inc. town, 1835; city, 1950. Pop. (1990) 7,310; (1998 est.) 6,992.