O n Arthur Champen’s half-acre property in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina , a thicket of southern live oaks, palmettos and pine trees muffle the roar of cars on nearby highway 278. His haint blue house, lightened by the sun, sits on stilts to protect it from flooding that comes with the high tide. During the spring, it is common for the marshland adjacent to his land to turn into a muddy soup. “Other than the cars,” Champen, 81, said, “you hear how peaceful it is?” About a decade ago, Champen’s family nearly lost the grassy marshland next door that their family bought several generations ago. In 1892, Champen’s great-great-grandparents, civil war veteran Richard White and his wife, Amelia, bought 24.2 hectares (60 acres) of land for $600. For nearly a century, the land was heirs’ property – family-owned land passed through generations usually without a will – until Champen’s grand uncle hired a surveyor and divided a portion of the land between the Whites’ descendants in 1983.…