Port Charles Bandits
City: Port Charles, Captial District, South Georgia
Population: 34,000
Home Field: Gateway Park (capacity: 4,250)
A view of
Port Charles, and it's prominent sea port. It is the oldest port on the island.
So, when and where did this populating of South Georgia start? The answer is in 1987 in an area that would eventually become Port Charles.
Back then, like many settlements that would eventually spring up on the island, it was known as a "Station".... Charles Station, to be exact. Named after Charles, Prince of Wales. A road, Explorer's Road, was constructed to cross what is now the flat lands of the Carse District (where the city of Barrington now stands, more on them later), and down to the rugged coastline of South Georgia's southern coast. This road brought supplies to many research stations which tested the soils and ice in the area. These stations eventually evolved into the towns of Pajt-Vorten, Annenkov, Gall, Penguin Point and Port Smith.
Initially, if you needed to bring in supplies, Charles Station was the only functioning Port on the island. By 1989, when the county became independant, other settlements spread, and in 1992, the town was renamed "Port Charles".
But what about the team's "Bandits" name? Was that a name-the-team contest? .....nope!
Back in the early days, the town of Charles Station kept growing, but policing was sparse, and some disgruntled port employees (who felt they were being underpaid) began to swipe firewood from other townspeople, to keep warm over the long stretch of the year where heating your house was necessary.
For quite a few years, no one knew who the "Port Bandits" were, but eventually they were caught in the act. The "chase for the bandits" was one of the first news stories in South Georgia newspapers, and so the Port Charles' new team was called the "Bandits".