St. Helena Island is one of the Sea Islands in Beaufort County
, South Carolina that are historic sites of early European colonization of North America. St. Helena is also the center of African-American Gullah culture and language. It is sometimes claimed to be the oldest settlement in the United States. St. Helena is today connected to Beaufort, the county seat, by U.S. Highway 21, and its largely rural population is included as part of the Hilton Head Island-Beaufort Micropolitan Area by the U.S. Census Bureau. The island has a land area of 165.212 km? (63.789 sq mi) and a population of 8,407 as of the 2000 census.
