Until about five years ago, people driving through Jasper County might have had the easiest time recognizing where they were by looking for the string of fireworks stands along the side of the road.

Today, things are starting to change.

The county is poised for what promises to be the most dramatic economic and population growth spurts in South Carolina, stimulated in large part by plans for a new deep-water port in the southern part of the county.

"We'll be 30 square miles and one of the biggest cities in South Carolina," said Rob Dewig, community development director for Hardeeville, one of the two incorporated towns in Jasper County.

"Give us three years," Dewig said.

It may take a bit longer than that: Hardeeville is now about 5 square miles, and fewer than 2,200 people live there.

While county and city officials say a number of things point to a more prosperous future for Jasper -- nearby cities are expanding outward and the path to Hilton Head Island is dumping more tourist dollars into their towns -- the port is the one project on which people are pinning many of their hopes for economic development.

When they look at a swampy swath of land in the southern end of the county on the Savannah River, they don't see what it is today: a dump, literally. Instead, they see a bustling terminal that will provide thousands of jobs and a ripple effect of hundreds of new businesses.

"We are growing, we are going in the right direction and industry is coming in," said James Taylor, a one-time member of the county's development board. "But really, right now, (the port) is what we're concentrating on. We've really put everything else on hold to focus on this."

Problem is, how and when the new port terminal might be built is still anybody's guess. It's been on the county's to-do list for about 10 years, but there have been and still are legal and logistical hurdles to overcome.

The land that's been pegged for the project is in Jasper County, but it belongs to Georgia. That state uses it as a dump site for material that's dredged from Savannah Harbor.

More recently, South Carolina's space-starved State Ports Authority announced it wants to build its own public port terminal on the site.

Jasper County's deal would mean a public-private partnership with SSA Marine, a port developer that is ready to invest millions of dollars in the project.

The county and the SPA have taken their competing plans to court for what promises to be a long legal battle over who will control the land.

Some state lawmakers believe SPA involvement in the project could thwart private investment in Jasper County and divert attention from what they think should be South Carolina's priority project: a $500 million terminal planned for North Charleston.

"There's no question about it, Jasper expansion would be an asset to South Carolina," said Sen. Yancey McGill, a Democrat from Williamsburg who serves on a newly created Senate committee studying port expansion. "But my focus is protecting what we have going on in Charleston. And it's going to take years of process (for the Jasper County) project to be successful."

Jasper County officials say they don't have that much time. They want to move forward now with their plans for a private terminal and are upset about what they view as the SPA's sudden interest.

"There's something wrong there," said Taylor, who served as development board chairman for decades before leaving the post last fall. "We've done everything you can do to make this project a success, and now, all of a sudden, it turns out it's going to be a wonderful port and the (state) wants to own it. The county has everything lined up, and we can handle it. We aren't hurting on anything at this particular time, except Charleston and the state are trying to take things away from us."

The SPA counters that it long has been interested in Jasper.

To the people in Jasper County who aren't affiliated with the port plans, the details of who's in charge of the project don't seem to matter as much.

"We just need the port," said Donna Rowell, who owns Fiddlers Fish Market in downtown Ridgeland, the county seat. "It would be helpful in bringing people in, and it would be health insurance for a lot of people who don't have it right now. I think it's Jasper County's turn."

GROWTH CHALLENGES

The county, created in 1912 and one of the youngest in the state, has struggled for years with a somewhat deflated economy. Its unemployment rate hovers around 4.7 percent, and the per capita income is about $19,000, much less than the state's per capita income of $26,000.

Jasper County started trying to take advantage of its geography in 2001 when it kicked off its redevelopment plans.

Situated near the growing cities of Beaufort and Bluffton and located between the port cities of Charleston and Savannah, the county is starting to see growth in its residential population from people pouring into those areas.

Over the next year, the towns of Hardeeville and Ridgeland and Jasper County Council are teaming up to create a joint planning district. Leaders hope to annex a few more square miles of the unincorporated county to help grow the tax base and provide better services for people thinking of moving there.

"We are a lot better situated than we were in 2000 to take advantage of the growth," said Dewig, Hardeeville's development director. "There's a lot -- a lot -- of developable land in Jasper County, and people are starting to recognize that."

Over the past few years, a few major corporations have moved into the area. South Carolina Electric & Gas opened a new $450 million power plant in the county last May. The Coastal Carolina Medical Center opened last year and is one of the largest employers in Ridgeland.

Several more lofty county projects are on the horizon, such as a high-tech butterfly sanctuary, ice-skating rink and IMAX Theater.

Four major highways, one of which is the main route for travelers headed to the beaches of Hilton Head, run through the county. Jasper is trying to become a major pit stop on that tourist route, and is seeing a rise in service jobs associated with the travel industry. Its work force jumped from about 9,200 in 2002 to 9,900 in 2003.

The growth in Jasper's population, which last year reached almost 21,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, is most evident in the county's changing school system.

The single-district school system, with an enrollment of about 3,000 students, is building two new K-12 schools in Hardeeville and Ridgeland. The schools will have space for at least 1,100 more students when they open in 2007.

"Is that sufficient?" asked school Superintendent William Singleton. "I don't think so."

In just the four years since the school board asked the county's voters for a $46 million bond referendum to build the new schools, the price of the project has gone up $18 million. The rise is partly because steel costs have increased 33 percent, but it's also because school leaders bumped the buildings from roughly 150,000 square feet to more than 200,000 square feet each to accommodate more students.

"We've had a population explosion in the school district, and there's more growth coming," Singleton said. "In 10 years, the school district will grow from 3,000 to 13,000 students. I don't think anybody is ready for that."

Singleton said much of the growth in the schools in the past few years has come from Jasper County's expanding Hispanic population. In 1999, the county had 29 Hispanic students. Now, there are 460.

Singleton attributes the minority population growth to new jobs in the service industry. People who work at Hilton Head resorts are making their homes in Jasper County, where property and living costs are less expensive.

Officials predict the trend will continue, and that Bluffton and Beaufort will continue expanding past the Jasper County line. They expect the county's population to quadruple and reach almost 90,000 by 2015.

"The growth has just been phenomenal," said Kendall Malphrus, executive director of the Jasper County Chamber of Commerce. "Bluffton and Beaufort just keep going, and they're spilling out everywhere. We're just going to keep adding those amenities to draw people here."

As part of the upgrades, the city of Ridgeland took on a major beautification project a couple of years ago, adding new signs and landscaping and renovating storefronts in its quaint downtown. West Main Street, the main thoroughfare, is now about five blocks of diners, gift shops, electronics stores and employment agencies, and it resembles a bustling market street in a much bigger city.

"We're seeing a lot of people who've left the area come back for that hometown feeling," Malphrus said. "Ridgeland had lost that for a while."

The signs of economic sluggishness still are evident along the main road leading into Ridgeland. The county's section of Savannah Highway still is cluttered with boarded-up gas stations, rundown motels and those trademark fireworks stands.

Yet people like Kenneth Brown, yard manager of Ridgeland's Owens Supply Co., is happy with the turnaround. He said the county is managing its growth fairly well, though he worries that major industrial expansion such as a new port terminal would be more than Jasper officials could handle.

"I'm all for economic development," Brown said. "But I really think we need to fix the problems we've got now before we make any new ones."

Brown said he's concerned that the growing school system needs to make academic improvements, as well as add more facilities, and that the county is struggling, like many other Southern counties, with an influx of illegal immigrants.

Hardeeville officials say they're ready to take advantage of any economic growth that comes their way.

"Right now, when you come that way out of Savannah, the first view you have (of Jasper County) is of a handful of strip clubs," Dewig said.

"In my opinion, when it comes to first impressions, I'd rather have a port."