Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Headed north this morning toward Jekyll Island.  It was 73 degrees by 8:00.

First stop was the "Guest Information Center" just before the causeway to the Island and LaRee was very helpful.  The Island is 8 miles long and about a mile wide.

We parked at the museum first and watched a brief film about the Island.  It was originally seasonally inhabited by native Americans more than 2,000 years ago.  The first whites to settle there were from England and the remnants of one home remains from that era - the William Horton House.

It and many of the original buildings were made from tabby - a mixture of sand, lime and oyster shells.

In the late 1800's a group of wealth industry leaders - Rockefeller, Pulitzer, J.P. Morgan, Vanderbilt and others went together and purchased the entire island to use primarily as a hunting escape.  They built the large Jekyll Island Club, as well as many "cottages" which are actually mansions.  Gradually the hunting faded, replaced by golf courses, tennis courts, cycling, etc. and it became more of a family vacation spot for the wealthy members.  At its' height in 1920 there were about 120 buildings on the island, many service-oriented.

The Jekyll Island Club disbanded in 1942 and the State of Georgia purchased the island with the stipulation that 65% of it must always remain undeveloped. So when they build something new it is usually replacing an old building.

 The Jekyll Island Club is now a luxurious hotel and many of the "cottages" still exist.  We walked around the beautifully landscaped grounds which is dotted with huge, Spanish moss-covered live oak trees. The moss is neither Spanish nor moss - but an air plant that is distant relative to the pineapple!   A sunny day but we were seldom in the sun.

Here are a few of the cottages:

there are at least three butterflies in this pic, but they blend so well!

The gardens at one of them had lots of lantana and other flowers and hundreds of butterflies!

Amazing.  We paused at The Cafe at the Jekyll Island Club Hotel for this photo, and then for some tasty sandwiches 

- wanted to do fancy lunch but the dining room was closed for a special event.

We visited the Turtle Rescue Center, which rescues and treats injured turtles and tortoises.  They also help with monitoring nests and helping ensure greater longevity.  Only about 1 of each 4,000 survive to maturity. Most injuries are from boats. We watched one tiny hatchling being treated in the hospital and saw many of the turtles that are being treated. There are five species native to the Georgia coast including loggerheads and green turtles.

We drove around the island a bit and stopped to walk Driftwood Beach.   Beth splashed in the surf and we found a few nice shells.  I really liked this shell, but the resident hermit crab liked it too, so I left him/it.

Lastly we stopped at a freshwater pond, called Horton Pond, where a woman was feeding the fish and turtles.  They were making quite a splash, which attracted another resident - this 6-7' alligator.

Some pretty and unusual water flowers too.

We completed the drive around the island, which included Glory Beach where part of the movie Glory was filmed, and St. Andrew's Beach which has the dubious distinction of being the landing point for the last of the slave ships to America.  Run by some gents from Rhode Island, The Wanderer landed here in 1858 - 30 years after slave trafficking became illegal!

We left the island and drove north till we found this boon docking spot at the James Allen Williamson Chimney River Park, which was mainly a boat ramp with some picnic tables. We gathered up some scattered trash when we arrived, but next morning there was more - Greg came eye to eye with the culprit- a raccoon.