31•81, the Magazine of Jekyll Island: Vol 2, No 1

34

Alpha Cats

Bobcats have arrived on Jekyll. Will the powerful new predator bring balance to a fragile ecosystem? By Tony Rehagen

54

Closer to Nature

On Jekyll, golfers tee off where native plants flourish and animals roam.

By Charles Bethea

62

Retro Retreats

Vibrant midcentury homes honor their architectural heritage and place in island history. By Jeanée Ledoux

70

Independent Streak

Island shops celebrate the locally made, family-owned, and truly unique. By Jennifer Senator

Down by the Seashore

Shell hunting on Jekyll will yield a pail full of treasures, but the search is its own prize. By Christine Van Dusen

Photograph by Theresa Rowan with The Darkroom Photography

Find

@JekyllIsland

100 James Road • Jekyll Island, GA 31527 jekyllisland.com

executive director

C. Jones Hooks

senior director of marketing

Meggan Hood

marketing communications manager

Regan Young

creative director

Claire Davis

Photography courtesy of Jekyll Island Authority unless otherwise noted. This magazine was published by the Jekyll Island Authority in cooperation with Atlanta Magazine Custom Media. All contents ©2017. All rights reserved.

publisher

Sean McGinnis

editorial director

Kevin Benefield

design director

Cristina Villa Hazar

senior editor

Elizabeth Florio

art director

Katy Miller

photo coordinator

Savanna Sturkie

associate publisher

Jon Brasher

travel sales director

Jill Teter

production director

Whitney Tomasino

Committed to Jekyll Island

At

Dear friends,

The “off” season is my favorite time on Jekyll Island. The temperature cools, but it is still warm enough to enjoy the beach and ride my bike. The busyness of summer relaxes into a slower rhythm. Even the land reflects the shift. The surrounding marshes positively light up as green turns to gold, while the native muhly grass adds vibrant pinks and purples to the glowing landscape.

All year, I look forward to the color change that gives the Golden Isles their name. It’s easy to see why the poet Sidney Lanier paid tribute, in his famous ode, to “the length and the breadth and the sweep of the marshes of Glynn.”

It’s not just nature that reflects the season. Around the island, our history team decks the millionaires’ cottages in holiday finery, while our roads and grounds crew hangs more than 30,000 twinkling lights on curling live oak limbs. The Jekyll Island Skating Village, the only oceanfront rink in the state, welcomes “ice” skaters of all experience levels, and movie lovers enjoy seasonal favorites on the big outdoor screen in Beach Village. In January, our “Beach Buddies” hide glass treasures around the island for our annual two-month Island Treasures hunt.

The off-season is the perfect time to enjoy a host of activities, or to simply experience the quiet beauty of Jekyll Island. Whichever you choose, I hope to see you around Jekyll real soon.

Jones Hooks

Executive Director, Jekyll Island Authority

JEKYLL ISLAND AUTHORITY BOARD OF

All year, I look forward to the color change that gives the Golden Isles their name.”

DIRECTORS

Michael “Mike” Hodges chairman St. Simons Island, GA

Robert “Bob” W. Krueger vice chairman Hawkinsville, GA

William “Bill” H. Gross secretary/treasurer Kingsland, GA

Joy Burch-Meeks Screven, GA

Mark Williams commissioner, georgia dnr Atlanta, GA

Dr. L.C. “Buster” Evans Bolingbroke, GA

A.W. “Bill” Jones III Sea Island, GA

Hugh “Trip” Tollison Savannah, GA

Joe Wilkinson St. Simons Island, GA

Powers of Attention

Not long ago I went for a jog on a riverside trail outside Atlanta. At the sound of a high-pitched chirp, I reached for the phone in my pocket— and pulled it halfway out before realizing I’d heard a bird.

This depressing moment surfaced in my memory as I read about Jekyll Island artisan Lydia Thompson, profiled on page 29. A printmaker whose primary subject is birds, Thompson is exceptionally tuned in to the world around her—watching, listening, honing senses we screen junkies have all but lost. And though she possesses an artist’s imaginative spirit, she’s an expert in the field of ornithology—a true naturalist in the tradition of John James Audubon.

Among Jekyll fauna, humans are well established. A drive around the island reveals layers of architectural history, from pre-Colonial tabby ruins to brightly colored midcentury ranches (“Retro Retreats,” page 62). But I’m always struck by how the dwellings give way to the forest, a fringe of dense greenery hinting at mysteries contained within. Jekyll has some 2,000 acres of forest, and they house a world invisible to even the most attentive observer.

It took cameras strapped to trees, in fact, to confirm that a mysterious set of paw prints belonged to bobcats, new arrivals on the island as of 2014 (“Alpha Cats,” page 34). Last year those same cameras captured bobcat kittens and, with them, the imagination of regional media. But few Jekyll visitors will ever lay eyes on the animal in the flesh.

Novice naturalists may find more reward in combing the beach for interesting seashells, which hold their own mysteries. Turn to page 44 for a guide to doing just that. In fall and winter, the humans have scattered, and cooler weather invites idle strolling. It’s a perfect time to look up to the skies or down at the surf—or anywhere really, except at your phone.

Elizabeth Florio Editor

1 Kristin Karch is an award-winning photographer whose work is heavily based on the South and familial bonds. She graduated from the University of Georgia’s Lamar

Dodd School of Art in 2015, and her work has already appeared in numerous publications, including Garden & Gun, Wine Spectator and Huffington Post. A native Georgian, she makes an effort to travel whenever possible but continues to return to the South, where she finds her greatest sense of home and inspiration.

2 Jeanée Ledoux is an Atlanta-based writer and editor with a passion for good design and its creators. She contributes to magazines such as Dwell Domino, and Travel & Leisure. When she’s not busy running her freelance business, FinelyCrafted.net, she’s probably scouring a vintage store for midcentury treasures, doing yoga, or playing fetch with her blind dog.

Claim Your Perfect Campsite

158 spots for your tent or RV, 18 wooded acres, and all the s’mores you can eat.

jekylli slan d.com/campground

Jekyll has some 2,000 acres of forest, and they house a world invisible to even the most attentive observer.”

HOLLY JOLLY JEKYLL

Nov. 18, 2017–Jan. 7, 2018

Christmas is always magical on Jekyll, but this year’s celebration will be a bit more flavorful thanks to Merry Shrimpmas a one-time-only mashup of the Shrimp & Grits Festival—canceled in September due to Hurricane Irma—and the annual Tree Lighting. On November 24 and 25, restaurants from around the region will show off their shrimp-and-grits renditions while attendees enjoy an artists’ market, story time with Santa, fireworks, and even snow. The fun culminates Saturday evening when the great tree is set aglow.

Island Treasures

Jan. 1–Feb. 28, 2018

This two-month treasure hunt for colorful, handcrafted glass orbs is a nod to the old glass floats used in fishing nets, once the prize of beachcombers.

Bluegrass Festival

Jan. 4–6, 2018

This traveling fest brings three days of jamming to the Jekyll Island Convention Center.

Jekyll Island

Marathon & 10K

Jan. 14, 2018

The inaugural event— the only marathon on a Georgia barrier island— showcases Jekyll’s evershifting landscape.

Whiskey, Wine & Wildlife

Feb. 8–11, 2018

Caffeine & Octane at the Beach

March 16–18, 2018

Atlanta’s cars-and-coffee series heads to the beach, where enthusiasts show off their vehicles and enjoy special events like a scenic motorcycle ride.

Easter Egg Stroll

March 24, 2018

Jekyll’s National Historic Landmark District hosts a bonnet parade, petting farm, and continually replenished egg hunt.

Shell-e-brate

April 5–6, 2018

Like-minded conservation groups from around the region mark Earth Day with a festival on the Georgia Sea Turtle Center grounds.

Jekyll Book Festival

April 7, 2018

Jekyll Comic Con

Throughout the season, take a spin on an oceanfront skating rink. Tour Victorian cottages arrayed in holiday splendor. Shop for gifts at Goodyear Cottage’s Merry Artists’ Show and Sale Deck out your golf cart (or just join the fun) in the Holly Jolly Jekyll Parade See the full roster of events at jekyllisland.com/holidays Visit

Dec. 9–10, 2017

Cosplaying superheroes and mythical characters take over the Jekyll Island Convention Center.

The series of culinary celebrations includes a whiskey dinner, a wine cruise, and an afternoon of tastings under the tent.

Jekyll Island Arts Association Arts Festival

March 9–11, 2018

This long-running festival showcases toptier work from 400-plus painters, potters, weavers, woodworkers, and more.

The inaugural event will bring book signings and author lectures to Beach Village, with an emphasis on children’s and young adult lit.

Turtle Crawl Weekend

May 11–13, 2018

Jekyll is the serene setting for four competitive races—a 5K, a 10K, and two triathlons—benefiting the Georgia Sea Turtle Center.

Photograph by GABRIEL HANWAY

In 1955, a couple from Decatur, Georgia, visited Jekyll Island and fell under the spell of an abandoned historic cottage called Villa Ospo. Entranced by its decaying grandeur and striking architecture, Dewey and Grace Scarboro signed a long-term lease with the state. When they returned to their newly acquired property, they were greeted by a huge rattlesnake in a grate at the entryway. The flooded basement was home to a knot of water moccasins and cottonmouths.

Once they’d banished the serpents, the Scarboros began restoration of the weather-rotted manse, the 1920s vacation home of Walter Jennings, a former Standard Oil director. Dewey, a real estate developer and former Georgia Tech football star, half-joked

Villa Ospo

The home of a Roaring Twenties tycoon embodies the welcoming spirit of past owners

BY REBECCA BURNS

in 1958 to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter that he’d erected entire subdivisions faster than it took to restore the moldering stucco and crumbling woodwork of Villa Ospo.

Dewey scoured New Orleans for lavish antiques, and Grace, an artist, obsessed over the Spanish Eclectic exterior. They transformed the property, called Ospo after the original Native American name of the island, into a lavish showplace and for several years operated it as an attraction. Guests could sleep in a bed rumored to have once belonged to Napoleon’s second wife.

The luxe furnishings wowed 1950s visitors but were not in keeping with the original decor of the home, which Jennings built as a winter getaway

Villa Ospo circa 1928

for his family in 1927. Like many of the Northern industrial tycoons who built retreats on Jekyll, the Jennings embraced a relaxed style. “They would have been comfortable here, but [the house] was not furnished in the same style as their mansions up North,” says Andrea Marroquin, curator of the Jekyll Island Museum.

But like the Scarboros, the Jennings filled the home with people. Walter and his wife, Jean, were deeply involved with the Jekyll Island Club and made it a mission to greet newcomers and visitors to the island, turning Villa Ospo into an informal welcome center.

The club members considered themselves a close-knit family, and in the case of Jennings, that was quite literal; his three sisters were also members. In 1927, just a year after joining the club, Jennings assumed the club presidency following the death of his brother-in-law, Dr. Walter James.

Designed by John Russell Pope, architect of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., Villa Ospo is one of the most modern structures in the island’s National Historic Landmark District, reflecting the Roaring Twenties. The building contains ten bedrooms, five bathrooms, and a magnificent great room. As with a good vacation home, there’s a seamless connection between indoors and out. The grounds include a cypress-lined alley and a secret garden with a lily pond. A notable feature: historic Jekyll’s only garage. Jennings and fel-

low auto enthusiasts would bring their cars on their yachts, or send them by train to be brought out by barge. Like the furnishings, the island cars were comfortable. “They’d bring their beaters so they could drive them around on the beach,” says Marroquin.

Jennings’s enthusiasm for driving led to his death just six years after the villa was completed. A collision with another motorist left him battered and weak and contributed to a fatal heart attack.

Over the years, visitors to Villa Ospo have claimed encounters with Walter and Jean Jennings: a creak here, a rumble there, the scents of cigar and perfume. For curator Marroquin, it’s a different kind of spirit that echoes in the mansion, part of which now operates as a special events facility and is outfitted with period fixtures in keeping with the original decor. “There is a real openness and welcoming spirt of the house,” she says.

OSPO TODAY Villa Ospo houses the offices of the Jekyll Island Foundation. The home and grounds can be rented for special events through the Jekyll Island Museum (call 912-635-4168 or visit jekyllisland.com/villaospo).

“It’s a photographer’s dream,” says Brooke Roberts, who is based in Brunswick, Georgia, and has shot

several weddings at the site. “It encapsulates the feeling of Jekyll and the Golden Isles, the way the outdoors is incorporated into the home.”

While the interior is not part of regular tours, you can walk the grounds, including the signature cypress-lined alley. 381 Riverview Drive, 912-635-4036

Left to right: Villa Ospo garden circa 1935; Walter and Jean Jennings, 1926; the home today

Live Oak

If these boughs could talk, they’d tell centuries of stories

BY BILL WARHOP

The languid coastal plain of Jekyll Island teems with Southern live oaks, Quercus virginiana, dripping with fuzzy tendrils of Spanish moss. Georgia’s state tree is a symbol of strength and a bulwark against time itself.

Most of the tree’s mass is in its long, drooping limbs. The longest, heaviest branches swoop low to rest on the forest floor before soaring upward again, stabilizing the tree against hurricanes and other storms.

One of the oldest and largest live oaks on Jekyll is the majestic Plantation Oak in the National Historic Landmark District. It dates to the mid-seventeenth century and at seven feet eight inches in diameter is a foot wider than LeBron James is tall.

It’s one of the few “evergreen” oaks; leaves cling through the winter and are replaced over several weeks each spring.

The keel of the USS Constitution, launched in 1797, was built with live oak “ribs” sourced from coastal Georgia. The ship resisted British cannon fire so spectacularly in the War of 1812 it earned the nickname “Old Ironsides.”

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American MINK

The strange and elusive animal leaves its footprints on Jekyll Island

BY CANDICE DYER

Amink is astoundingly short, standing around two or three inches tall and weighing only a couple of pounds. But what it lacks in height, it makes up for with lithe, lissome length.

Typically, from its snout, accented with a “soul patch” of white fur, to the tip of its tapered tail, a mink can grow to two-and-a-half feet long—a sleek torpedo darting for long periods underwater. Minks are unusual in that they kill an excess of prey, including fish, small mammals, crustaceans, and waterfowl, which they stash to consume later.

“For such a small animal, they have large canine teeth,” says

Joseph Colbert, wildlife manager for the Jekyll Island Authority. “They have been known to take down marsh rabbits.”

Baby minks, called kits, are adorably frolicsome, sliding on the mud and moss and generally making a splash, and a contented mink will purr like a cat. But when cornered, the animals will hiss, screech, and emit a pungent musk, much like a skunk. Humans rarely experience such encounters, though.

“You usually don’t see them, but if you notice a hole that’s around four inches in diameter in a riverbank, that likely is where a mink has burrowed,” says Kara Day, a wildlife

biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. “If you’re really observant, you may see its footprints in the silt when the tide goes out, but you have to know what you’re looking for. They’re very furtive, elusive, and secretive animals.” And no wonder they’re dodgy, given how prized their lustrous, chocolatey pelts remain. (Mink trapping, along with any sort of hunting or animal collecting, is illegal on Jekyll.)

“The brackish marshes and dunes are a real stronghold for minks,” Colbert says, noting that the stealthy creature can sometimes be glimpsed crossing the causeway.

Villas by the Sea Resort is a beautiful oceanfront condo-hotel located adjacent to Jekyll Island’s famed Driftwood Beach. Guests can enjoy our award winning restaurant, conference center, sparkling pool, plus many more onsite amenities. Perfect for your next vacation or meeting.

The versatile predator can climb trees and dive up to ten feet under water

guardian

Jekyll Fire and EMS

Island Heroes

When disaster strikes, this tiny island has a dedicated team of protectors

BY JUSTIN HECKERT

BAJA MEXICAN CUISINE WITH AN OCEAN VIEW

PHOTOGRAPHY BY GABRIEL HANWAY

Jekyll Island fire chief Jason Richardson steps into an ATV driven by firefighter Steve Rojas

Jekyll Island fire chief Jason Richardson has this memory that sticks with him from last October.

“It was very, very surreal,” he says. “It was raining and dark. We had to get off the island. The wind speeds were picking up; it was coming.” Richardson, who has been chief on Jekyll for the past eleven years and normally is more concerned with, say, rescuing lost and dehydrated beachgoers, was tasked with evacuating the island in advance of Hurricane Matthew. He had already spent three days encouraging residents to leave, utilizing a reverse 911 system to implore the holdouts and in some cases actually driving people himself.

Now, with the category 3 storm less than twentyfour hours out, he and other members of Jekyll’s crisis response team prepared for departure. Under a dark sky and thin rain, as the second-to-last person in the convoy, he paused on the barricaded causeway, soaking in the eeriness, the emptiness. For the first time under his tenure, Jekyll Island was effectively closed.

When the team came back the next day, they saw the damage—shingles blown off houses, hundreds of trees on the roads and golf course, power out for three days—but the island had been mostly spared. The dunes had done their job protecting the land. Richardson and fellow firefighters— along with the Jekyll Island Authority grounds crew and the Department of Natural Resources chainsaw strike team—worked to clear the roads until 9 that night. It was a performance they would repeat eleven months later, when Hurricane Irma toppled trees and power lines and brought intense storm surges to some residential streets. Once again, the island underwent a full-scale evacuation. Again, the dunes blunted the worst of the storm’s impacts.

In early May, Jekyll firefighters faced another potential disaster: a wood fire of unknown origin, burning for an entire week. Due to wind and dry conditions, it ended up taking six acres and required the aid of Georgia Forestry, the Georgia State Patrol’s aviation division, and the Department of Natural Resources. The Jekyll fire team—which employs twelve firefighters, the same number of firefighter EMTs, and ten firefighter paramedics who work five at a time in twenty-four-hour shifts—all took turns combating the blaze using a water line and two of the island’s three fire trucks.

The Jekyll Island Fire Department originated in the 1950s from a legislative act granting the Jekyll Island State Park Authority its own fire and EMS service. The

first Jekyll firemen bunked in a historic carriage house still redolent of horse manure. The current station on Stable Road opened in December 1961 and, through two renovations, has been there ever since.

At the station, behind the captain’s desk in the lobby, there’s a huge mural depicting the department’s current fire truck and ambulance, with a firefighter posed in between. The firefighter embodies the station’s dayto-day operations: quelling emergencies on the island, rescuing people in distress, administering first aid. His position between the vehicles symbolizes employees’ dual training in EMS and fire rescue. Though the setting is idyllic, Jekyll’s firefighters work the same hours and with the vigor of any other fire team. And in good times, they drive the trucks to parades and events such as the Shrimp & Grits Festival, the Christmas tree lighting, and the Georgia Sea Turtle Center’s Turtle Crawl races. The department hosts a chili cookout every January benefiting the United Way; the firefighters make the chili.

“I meet people from all over the world here,” Richardson says. “You still get to be a firefighter, and secure the island, and we help people who are having a bad day. But I can leave my office and in forty-five seconds look at the beach if I want to.”

Left: Firefighter Adam Humkey lets young Cooper Santillo try out his gear. Above: Firefighter Daniel Collins shuttles water to a Georgia Forestry Commission vehicle.

Jekyll’s fire and EMS team has operated out of the station on Stable Road since 1961.

The Great Copper Pot

How Georgia’s first brewery was born

BY REBECCA BURNS

In March 1733, merchant Samuel Eveleigh journeyed from Charleston (then Charles Town) to the fledgling colony of Georgia and was impressed by residents’ temperance under the leadership of James Oglethorpe. “I never saw one of his people drunk,” wrote Eveleigh.

Indeed, when English trustees founded Georgia, they issued a prohibition against alcohol. But the founders were specifically concerned with “that cursed evil rum.” Beer, thanks to the brewing process, was actually safer to drink than coastal Georgia’s brackish water. The first settlers were deposited on the future site of Savannah with “ten tuns,” or casks, of beer.

While the British brew staved off dysentery and other maladies, it suffered from the long journey overseas and from storage in the Southern heat. When William

Horton, Oglethorpe’s compatriot, was deeded Jekyll Island, he set to work solving the problem, planting barley, rye, and hops and ordering distilling equipment, including a pot of “Great Copper.”

Visitors to Jekyll in 1745 recorded that “after dinner Horton took us out about a mile to see a field of barley which is an uncommon thing in this colony.” By the following year, he possessed “a very Large Barnfull of Barley, not inferior to ye Barley in England.”

Horton’s enterprise was the first recorded brewery in the South. Its exact location is unknown. Popular belief once held that a ruined tabby structure dating to Horton’s era was the brew house, and although archaeological excavations have since suggested otherwise, the structure is still commonly known as “the Brewery.”

Excavations of “the Brewery” in the 1960s

Lydia Thompson

Printmaker

Her inspired etchings combine a naturalist’s curiosity with an artist’s eye for beauty

BY CANDICE DYER

PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN AUSTIN LEE

If you are motoring around Jekyll, don’t be surprised if you find yourself behind a slow-poke car that moseys along and stops occasionally; please don’t honk your horn and startle the wildlife. That’s just Lydia Thompson, who is doing her omniscient best to notice every flicker of a feather around her.

“I drive really, really slowly around here,” she says. “There might be a wood stork in the marsh, and I might need to stop and snap a photo before it flies away. I am always hungry for inspiration. I am an image junkie.”

Thompson is a renowned printmaker who employs her meticulous, time-consuming art in the service of conservation. Her primary subject is birds. “I’m a traveler, a wanderer, and birds inspire wanderlust,” she says. “Why? Because they fly!”

An avid birder since she was a child growing up, often riding on horseback, in Natchez, Mississippi, she still speaks about these creatures with awe. “Birds lend definition to a place,” she says. “I especially love shorebirds such as the Wilson’s plover.”

Thompson, who has traveled through all fifty states on the trail of various avian subjects, captures their enviable freedom and flight in

printmaking, an ancient art that involves etching a subject onto a plate to create a relief, running it through a press, and in her case, hand-coloring the end result.

In the studio behind her house, Lydia Thompson creates prints using a French Tool press, which she calls her “pride and joy.” In this series, she works on an etching of brown pelicans titled Breaking Formation

“Lydia’s work is extremely intricate and distinctly beautiful,” says Susan Wiles, executive director of the Glynn Visual Art Association, which displays some of Thompson’s creations. “Her knowledge of birds is incredible, and her ability to capture them in her art is such an asset to our community.”

It is not easy, Thompson says, to render the wispy, wind-borne tines of a feather in an etching, but she thinks of her work as

simple drawing. “I was born to be a printmaker,” she says. “As soon as I met other printmakers, I knew this was what I was meant to do.”

Thompson earned a degree in commercial art from Mississippi State and then worked for a while in advertising in Atlanta. “It wasn’t satisfying,” she says flatly. In 1977, she discovered Jekyll Island, relocating there permanently in 1985. “This is a place of quiet, a place of healing, a place that offers birds both freshwater and saltwater, so there is great variety.”

Those salutary qualities figured into her battle with breast cancer in 2014. “The treatments were

brutal,” she recalls, “but my friends would take me to the sanctuary where all of the painted buntings would gather in the birdbath. That was solace, and inspiration.”

Some of the old-school printmaking tools such as nitric acid are toxic, she says, and she currently is employing “green” soybean-based inks in her work. “It’s new for me, but I’m excited to explore with different materials.”

One of the feathers in Thompson’s cap is the Earle R. Greene Memorial Award from the Georgia Ornithological Society. “I am humbled,” she says, “by everything I see around me, and art helps you look outside yourself. It’s amazing what you can see if you really look.”

“Our dogs are water dogs; they love the beach as much as I do. We have to hold them back from running into the ocean. Even our oldest, Darcy, who is twelve, wants to run right into the water. But they also like to dress up; they wear tutus in the Fourth of July parade, and all four of them are going to pull me down the aisle in a wagon when I get married at the Westin next year. They’re part of my family—they really are.” —jennifer vinge

As told to JENNIFER SENATOR • Photograph by GABRIEL HANWAY

jennifer vinge, a teacher, has been coming to jekyll since she was a baby and continues to enjoy its dog-friendly beaches with her daughter, taylor, and three newfoundlands, darcy, willow, and rosie. a fourth “newfie,” gunther, will join their pack when she marries her fiance, jeff arent, on jekyll next year.

the sudden appearance of bobcats on jekyll could be a game-changer for the local food chain

By TONY REHAGEN

CATS Alpha i

it was monday, september 15, 2014, and yank moore was at his desk on the second floor of the jekyll island authority offices, staring at his computer, trying to solve a mystery. Moore is the conservation land manager for the Jekyll Island Authority, and as part of his job, he makes daily patrols of Jekyll’s beaches, dunes, wetlands, and woods. He is familiar with every form of fauna, from ghost crabs to feral cats, that roams the island. But in the late summer and fall of 2014, he had begun to notice strange tracks in the sand among the brush just beyond the beach on the island’s south side—partial paw prints that seemed too big for a fox or feral cat and shaped unlike those of any dog he’d seen. On this morning’s patrol, he had collected ten motion-activated cameras that he had scattered across the island as part of a detection network to document rare or invasive wildlife. Moore was hoping that somewhere among the 10,000 or so photos on these cameras, he might just catch a glimpse of the mysterious beast.

bbracing himself with a cup of coffee, moore prepared to page through the first hundred or so pictures on the disk retrieved from the first camera, which had been strapped to a tree south of Summer Waves Water Park. He quickly slid into a rhythm, so much so that by the time he realized he might have found what he was looking for, he was already several clicks ahead. He riffled back through the slideshow—and there it was. At the bottom of a shadowy black-and-white snapshot

stamped 5:49 a.m., a feline eye glowed in the camera flash. The cat striding through the brush was about three to four feet long and maybe twenty to thirty pounds, too big to be a house cat or feral cat. It had spots like a leopard, but its pointed ears and stubby tail were a dead giveaway. Jekyll had a bobcat.

Moore printed off the photo, jumped up from his desk, and ran down the hallway and down the stairs to interrupt his colleagues in a meeting. Like Moore, they were elated. “There was lots of high-fiving,” says Moore.

Yank Moore, conservation land manager for the Jekyll Island Authority, discovered the presence of bobcats with the aid of motionactivated trail cameras.

A bobcat kitten was recently immobilized by a tick-borne disease, giving Jekyll wildlife experts their first and only glimpse of the animal in the flesh. It made a full recovery.

breanna ondich

“it had spots like a leopard, but its pointed ears and stubby tail were a dead giveaway. jekyll had a bobcat.”

tthe reason for the impromptu welcoming party for jekyll’s newest resident was twofold. first, moore’s case of mysterious tracks had been solved. Second, and more important, the bobcat sighting signaled the arrival of an apex predator, something the island’s isolated, tight-knit ecosystem had not really had and something that was desperately needed. Without an alpha hunter sitting atop the food chain, rodents, rabbits, and deer multiply relatively unchecked by nature. On Jekyll, white-tailed deer are especially prolific and are the subject of an ongoing study assessing their environmental impact.

Bobcats are extremely adaptable animals found all over the United States, from the mountains of the north to the deserts of the west to the swamplands of the Deep South. The wildcat has historically thrived

in the coastal Southeast, but it has not been seen on Jekyll for nearly a century—if ever. “Whether or not bobcats had ever been on the island had been a discussion around here,” says Ben Carswell, conservation director for the Jekyll Island Authority. “It’s part of the discussion as to whether our deer population had ever had a natural control.”

The only evidence Carswell has that a bobcat had ever crossed the Jekyll River was an old black-and-white photo from the early 1900s, a portrait of a taxidermist in the old Game Keepers’ Cabin posing in front of an assortment of pelts, a couple of them belonging to bobcats. Moore’s motion-capture snapshot is the first definitive proof that a living bobcat has ever set foot on Jekyll. Subsequent surveillance footage has shown the carnivorous feline on the causeway, Moore says, so

Top: Trail cameras capture motion by day and rely on infrared sensors to detect movement by night. Their light is invisible to most animals.

Above, left: A female bobcat prowls near a fresh kill in January 2017.

Right: Bobcats are highly aware of their surroundings. This one noticed the click of the trail camera.

there’s reason to believe the animal wandered here on its own, searching for food away from the bobcatcrowded mainland. And the conservation team hopes it’s here to stay. “The consensus among experts is that predators are good for an ecosystem as a whole,” says Carswell. “That sort of control is something the ecosystem evolves with.”

Carswell and Moore got a good indication that their new predator was laying down roots in January 2016, when the cameras revealed a second, slightly smaller bobcat with fewer spots—a female. Nearly a year later, photos and video captured two kittens bounding through a patch of dead leaves, evidence of the first naturally occurring bobcat reproduction not just on Jekyll but on any Georgia barrier island. The kittens’ arrival was

oa sign that the species might be here to stay, to help regulate the barrier island’s sensitive ecosystem, at least for the foreseeable future. on a balmy sunday afternoon in september, moore is notified of a call into the island’s twenty-four-hour wildlife response hotline. A man and a woman were walking on the beach on Jekyll’s north end and had wandered off into the woods along an overgrown trail. They had just turned around at a felled tree when they heard a furious rustling in the brush: a bobcat, they said—growling and possibly injured, unable to move.

It’s been three years since Moore first spotted a bobcat on his candid camera, and neither he nor Carswell has glimpsed the nocturnal animal in person. Instead they’ve seen traces: paw prints; droppings, which the wildlife team analyzes for diet (all meat) and DNA (to track lineage); even a deer carcass that had been drug into a shrub thicket for the family to feed on—a sign of a capable predator. So when they report to the secluded trail that evening, they aren’t sure what they will find. But there, thrashing and snarling amid the undergrowth, is one of Moore’s male bobcat kittens in the fur and flesh.

The animal is struggling, its hind legs paralyzed. Still, Moore and company take extreme caution when noosing and sedating it for the hour-long drive to Jacksonville

Top: A historical photo of a taxidermist with bobcat pelts provides potential evidence the animal once prowled on Jekyll before vanishing. Bottom: This photo of a four- to six-month-old kitten, taken in December 2016, provided the first confirmation of natural bobcat reproduction on any Georgia barrier island.

Joseph Colbert, wildlife manager for the Jekyll Island Authority, collects bobcat scat samples for genetic testing.

Zoo and Gardens. There, after a battery of tests, the staff veterinarian makes a diagnosis she has never seen before: a rare, non-contagious form of tick paralysis. The parasite is removed, the kitten rebounds, and after two weeks of daily check-ins between the zoo and Jekyll’s wildlife experts, the animal returns to the wilds of Jekyll healthy—and wearing a brand-new tracking collar.

Now, rather than relying on off-chance snapshots, Moore and his colleagues can keep tabs on the animal’s movements and monitor how the new resident interacts with its environs. Thus far, in the few years

bobcats have been known to inhabit Jekyll, their cultural paw prints have been minimal. Bobcats tend to steer clear of humans, and so long as pet owners keep dogs and cats from running out of the yard and follow island leash ordinances, they’ll be lucky to know the bobcats are here. There’s been no evidence of bobcats disturbing the nests of Jekyll’s endangered animals, the Wilson’s plover and the loggerhead turtle. In fact, the apex predator may help protect those hatchlings by hunting nest raiders like foxes and scaring off fish crows and ghost crabs.

As for the animal’s overall impact on the ecosystem, Carswell says it’s too soon to tell. “At this point, we don’t know how many bobcats Jekyll can support,” he says. “But the answer will determine the extent of their role, and tracking one will give us some important clues.”

Moore is hopeful the predators can stay and flourish on the island. After all, nature brought them here. “Nature does a pretty good job of balancing itself,” he says.

“thus far, in the few years bobcats have been known to inhabit jekyll, their cultural paw prints have been minimal.”

Top and above left: Dr. Meredith Persky of Jacksonville Zoo and Dr. Terry Norton of Jekyll’s Georgia Sea Turtle Center tend to a sick bobcat kitten. Above right: The team prepares to release the kitten back to the wild. Opposite page: The kitten now wears a radio collar sourced from the bobcat research program on South Carolina’s Kiawah Island. exam photography courtesy of jacksonville zoo and gardens; release photos: breanna ondich

Seashore

By CHRISTINE VAN DUSEN

Photography by BRIAN AUSTIN LEE

sky is such an impossibly beautiful blue and its white-capped waters so serene, even the most stressed and cynical city person could get lulled into a Zen-like state. But not me. I’m not looking at the sky or the sea. My head is down. My eyes are focused a few inches in front of my feet as I tiptoe down the beach. I’m barely blinking as I scan the tideline that’s scribbled on the sand in silt. Because I’m not here for the scenery. I’m here for the shells.

I’ve come to Glory Beach—named after the 1989 movie Glory, which was filmed here—with my husband and two sons, ages five and seven, to explore what I’ve been told is one of the best stretches of sand for finding Jekyll Island’s most interesting seashells. It’s unraked and unmolested. No one is sweeping the sand with metal detectors (they’re forbidden). The only marks I see are footprints both human and avian, as well as the occasional turtle track from the water to the dunes.

Jekyll’s beaches are awash in remnants of marine life, including Georgia’s state seashell, the knobbed whelk (far right), and the knobbed whelk’s serpentine egg case (right).

Shell hunting is an exercise in patience and attention to detail, two qualities I often lack. I don’t like to browse, bargainhunt, or comparison-shop. I like to point to the first big, shiny thing I see and say, “That’s good enough.” I also don’t like to get up early in the morning, which is when you can find the finest shells on Jekyll Island. Even better is the morning after a big storm has churned up the ocean’s contents and coughed them onto the shore.

The kids go off to build a sandcastle and protect it from the creeping tide. I continue my quest, stepping over a dead jellyfish to examine the mottled shell of a speckled crab. The wet sand is dotted with adorably tiny coquina clam shells, which I inspect before coming upon what at first appears to be a branch cluster from a

tiny tree. It’s actually the skeleton of a sea whip coral, formerly covered in a colony of tiny polyps. I’m wishing for something like a knobbed whelk, Georgia’s state seashell, or even a couple of sand dollars, which I’ve mostly seen on the 1970s jewelry my mom used to wear. Even if I do come across them, I have to make sure they’re dead. A sand dollar, for one, should only be taken if it’s smooth and bone-white or nearly so; if it’s brown-gray and covered in fuzzy little hairs that move, or if it leaves a yellow residue on your hand, you need to put it back where you found it so it can go back to the business of living.

Coquina clams

Sand dollar

Speckled crab shell

Knobbed whelk

I also tell myself not to get greedy. It’s important not to pick the beach clean because animals like hermit crabs need empty shells for when they’re ready to move to bigger digs. I remind my boys about this, and they each grumpily empty one heaping pocket back onto the beach. I’m now twenty minutes into my mission, and I’m thinking about giving up when I come upon it: my first good find. It’s a shark eye. The shiny shell—built and once occupied by an Atlantic moon snail—fits snugly into my cupped palm. I stare into its dark inner whorl, which curls out toward the edge of the shell. It has an almost opalescent sheen. And suddenly I understand the appeal of beachcombing. It reminds you to take it slow and steady sometimes, and that patience and persistence can be rewarded. That nature has tiny treasures to offer those who take the time to look for them. And now I have a memento I can bring home to remind me of that message, and of what makes Jekyll Island so special.

If you’re planning to hunt for shells or learn more about living creatures while on Jekyll Island, pack these references in your beach bag. Both are available at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center gift shop.

Living Beaches of Georgia and the Carolinas by Blair Witherington and Dawn Witherington (2011) When experts hunt for shells on Jekyll Island, they consult this book. The guide’s color photos make IDs a snap.

A Beachcomber’s Guide to Georgia’s Barrier Islands by Jennifer Smith and Taylor Schoettle (2011)

Illustrations give shell hunters an easy way to identify marine life, resident animals, and the creatures responsible for every ripple in the sand.

Jekyll Island is a veritable treasure trove for the patient beachcomber. But before you start sweeping the sand, bear two things in mind: Let living things lie, and leave some shells behind for creatures that need new homes.

You know how, in old cartoons, a character’s eyes would get all swirly when he was hypnotized? That’s what this glossy and globe-shaped shell looks like, with a dark spiral that lightens as it widens. Fun fact: The shark eye snail softens the shell of its prey by secreting an acid, then drills a hole using a toothed tongue. 2

The ridges along the edges of this slim, white shell can look a little bit like feathers, with little ribs. It seems fragile, but it’s not; experts say this mollusk can dig through coral, wood, and some rock.

3

If you have a quilter in your family, you’re likely to understand where this scallop gets its name. The creature’s shell resembles the inexpensive cotton fabric that’s often printed with tiny flowers and popular for quilting squares. In the wild, this scallop can swim as fast as nine body lengths per second to avoid predators. By the time you see it on the shore near shallow

waters, the scallop will likely be gone from its fan-shaped shell.

4

With spiky knobs on its “shoulders” and the ability to grow as long as twelve inches, this glossy, thick, and strong shell—typically sand-colored with an orange to brick-red interior— tops beachcombers’ lists and is therefore difficult to find. After a storm, you should look along the shoreline and in shallow water for this, the state seashell since 1987. When you hold it so the opening is facing you, you’ll see it has six clockwise coils. If you find this shell, you might also come across what looks like a snake’s shed skin. Called a mermaid’s necklace, it’s actually a paper-like chain of egg cases that once held the knobbed whelk’s eggs.

5

Though this shell has an adorable name and a white exterior with the graceful curve of a little ear, don’t be fooled. The moon snail that lived inside it was predatory and carnivorous, with the ability

to extend its body so far outside its home it could almost cover it.

6

Smooth and cylindrical, this cream-colored and narrow shell gets its name from the red markings that—if you squint and use your imagination—can look something like letters. The predatory sea snail that once lived inside used its foot to capture and drag prey below the surface of the sand.

7

In these tiny shells that dot the wet sand, you might spy a little hole in the top that makes them look ready-made for stringing on a necklace. That’s the mark of the shark eye snail’s tooth-studded tongue (see number 1).

8

This shell has broad concentric ribs and two siphons, one for feeding and the other for expelling water. You’re unlikely to find both halves. If you do, the clam is probably still living inside, and you should leave it be.

on jekyll, golfers

share the links with lush native plants and roaming wildlife

By CHARLES BETHEA

Nature Great Dunes

Photography by GABRIEL HANWAY

In the late 1800s, golfing on Jekyll was a privilege reserved for America’s elites. Today, the island is home to the largest public golfing facility in the state. Then as now, its chief appeal lies in the unspoiled beauty surrounding the fairways. With sixty-three holes spanning four ocean-breeze-cooled courses, Jekyll Island is where Davis Love III played as a young man, among the oaks, pines, and free-ranging fauna. Golf and nature are in balance here: “The two coexist,” says Aaron Saunders, the island’s golf superintendent. “There’s not one without the other.” Gators, gray foxes, roseate spoonbills, painted buntings, wood storks, and even bald eagles are some of the animals golfers might see in these Audubon Cooperative Sanctuaries. A recently renovated driving range, a golf academy for club fitting and lessons, and a commitment to a light environmental footprint are more reasons to swing through the island.

p Jekyll’s oldest course was built in 1927, and nine of its original eighteen holes are still in play. The course is links-style, with expansive Atlantic Ocean views. Historians believe it was the last course designed by Walter J. Travis, the American amateur golfer, journalist, and innovator.

Oleander

Jekyll’s second-oldest course, opened in 1964, is considered the most challenging for golfers, but there are pleasant distractions along the way should you lose a ball: A saltwater pond, fed by the tide, is home to jumping mullet, blue crab, oysters, and clams. Big alligators, too. The fragrant oleander flower blooms white, pink, and yellow in late summer and early fall.

the Jekyll Island Golf Club was chartered in 1894, the thirty-sixth in the nation. today, golfing on the state-run island is open to the public

Pine Lakes

Opened in 1968, Pine Lakes was renovated in 2002, becoming the first family-friendly tee-box course in the United States, allowing all ages to compete fairly. It’s Jekyll’s longest, at 6,700 yards. Outside areas of play, former bunkers have been converted using native grasses, reducing mowing needs. There’s also a rookery for wading birds, with more than 200 nests.

jekyll island golf club and its four courses are recognized, through audubon international, as Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuaries, meeting high standards in areas like water conservation, habitat management, and chemical reduction.

Ѕndian Mound

Opened last, in 1974, this course is generally considered Jekyll’s easiest, with elevated and undulating greens that still pose some challenges. No actual Indian mounds are present, but there are several that resemble them. The course could just as easily be named American White Water Lily, which abound here, or Crayfish.

loblolly bay tree, American white water lily, and sweet grass are just a few of the comely plants on the courses.

Retro RETREATS

JEKYLL ISLAND’S MIDCENTURY RANCHES SPEAK TO THE TRANSITION FROM PRIVATE RESORT TO PUBLIC PARK WITH AFFORDABLE LOTS.

By JEANÉE LEDOUX

Photography by KRISTIN KARCH

The story of a place is in its structures. On Jekyll Island, the Tudor cottages, Mediterranean Revival mansions, and other grand turn-of-the-century buildings in the historic district tell the tale of the island’s past as a private club for elite families. But Jekyll’s clusters of midcentury modern homes, with their clerestory windows framing views of loblolly pines, have something to tell as well.

Jekyll Island was destined for an architectural rebirth in 1947, when the Georgia State Department of Parks bought the island. In 1950, a legislative act created the Jekyll Island Authority (JIA) to run the park like a

In Jean Poleszak’s California-style ranch, south-facing windows capture the sunset and help to heat the home in cooler months. “It’s a very efficient way and a very intelligent way of building the house,” she says of architect Cormac McGarvey’s 1962 design.

business, which included leasing residential parcels of property. Over the next two decades, families of relatively modest means—compared with the oil and lumber barons of earlier years—built their dream homes, many of which reflect the design concepts of pioneer modernist architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier.

“These [homes] are just now becoming appreciated on a larger scale,” says Taylor Davis, a historic preser-

Showoffs

MIDCENTURY HOMES PROUDLY DISPLAY THE ELEMENTS OF CONSTRUCTION—RAFTERS, JOISTS, CONCRETE BLOCKS—WHILE VICTORIAN HOMES HIDE THEM.

This 1961 beachfront home on Albright Lane, dubbed “Duneside Cottage,” models many hallmarks of midcentury modern architecture, such as concrete blocks, vaulted wood ceilings, and large banks of windows that create a feeling of connection with the serene landscape. It is available for rent from Parker-Kaufman Realtors.

“Pulford Cottage” (this page and opposite, top) features roman brick—a favorite building material of Frank Lloyd Wright—and the original knotty pine kitchen. A glass-wrapped sitting porch provides a year-round haven for guests of this rental (Parker-Kaufman Realtors), which sleeps six.

vationist with the JIA. “Midcentury structures are in danger and have been for the past few years, and now people are finally starting to look at them. Luckily for us on Jekyll, a lot of these are very much intact.”

Many of the Mad Men–era homes are defined by concrete blocks, sometimes solid and sometimes pierced to welcome ocean breezes and sunshine. Those repeating units of masonry form “kind of a broken-down, ‘coastal Brutalist’ architecture,” Davis says, coining a

term. Generous windows, which create a feeling of connection with the nearby beaches and golf courses, are another hallmark.

Jean Poleszak, a former teacher who relocated to Jekyll with her husband from Buffalo, New York, owns what some consider to be the island’s quintessential midcentury modern home—though it would fit in just as well in Southern California. Her 1962 white and turquoise ranch, designed by Brunswick-based architect Cormac McGarvey, rambles alongside the Jekyll River and just north of the

MANY MIDCENTURY HOMES ON JEKYLL STILL CELEBRATE FLAMINGO PINK, SEAFOAM GREEN, AND OTHER COLORS THAT CHARACTERIZE THE ERA.

Some ranches ramble, but this 1963 brick beauty on Ogden Street soars. The pierced concrete blocks promote air circulation in the hot climate, a signature of the so-called “coastal Brutalist” style found throughout the island’s residential areas.

historic district. “You couldn’t have a nicer retirement home. It has a beautiful view, and it’s an easy-care house,” she says.

Poleszak made minor updates throughout, such as replacing one bathtub with a walk-in shower, but honored the original architecture. “It’s just painted cement block. I haven’t had it tabbied or anything. We kept it exactly the way [McGarvey] built it,” she says of the exterior.

According to Davis, most of the midcentury abodes’ owners tread lightly when it comes to renovations. “The people who come here and invest and want to make Jekyll Island their

Explore

BIKING THE PATH ALONGSIDE BEACHVIEW DRIVE NORTH IS A FUN WAY TO SEE THE ISLAND’S LARGEST CLUSTER OF MIDCENTURY HOMES.

home, they have an appreciation of the architecture. They typically don’t come in and rip out everything and slap up [new] everything,” he says.

Like the Gilded Age homes in the historic district, could the island’s midcentury gems be more widely esteemed and even open to visitors in the future? “Speaking on behalf of the historic resource staff, we already appreciate [the midcentury homes] immensely,” Davis says. “And maybe one day, there might be house museums in these neighborhoods. It’s a pretty great mix of architecture here on this island.”

“Mellow Yellow” is a popular rental thanks in part to an open floor plan and vaulted ceilings in the living area, which make the modest ranch feel bigger, says Anita Crockett, an associate broker at Jekyll Realty.

Owner Cindy Hall inherited this 1972 vacation home from her parents, who put the main gathering area on the second floor and surrounded it with glass to achieve panoramic ocean views.

independentstreak~

YOU’D BE FORGIVEN if you didn’t think of Jekyll Island, sea turtle sanctuary and Victorian time capsule, as a shopping destination. But among the tidy storefronts of Beach Village and the quaint cottages on Pier Road are an array of unique businesses. Most are locally owned, and many have had a presence on the island for decades.

One such establishment is Whittle’s Gift Shop, opened on Jekyll in 1964. Owner Nana Ferguson began working at Whittle’s—purveyor of saltwater taffy, wind chimes, and other beachy souvenirs—in 1976. She’s the type who is “everyone’s Nana,” according to her son John, and enjoys getting to know customers. “I get Christmas cards from all over the world,” she says.

Whittle’s and other Jekyll shops temporarily operated out of trailers to make way for construction of the Beach Village retail center, opened in 2015. The complex houses specialty shops and restaurants and a communal village green. One of its busiest tenants is the multipurpose Jekyll Market. It, too, is a family establishment, owned by Steve and Leigh Baumann as well as their daughter, Maggie, and a cousin, Matt McCown. The Baumanns have experience operating community-driven spots; they previously owned a longstanding bookstore in Jekyll’s historic district. Now the market “has really become a gathering place for visitors and residents alike,” says McCown.

By JENNIFER SENATOR

KARCH

Some of Jekyll’s oldest shops are located on Pier Road, an oak-lined promenade in the National Historic Landmark District. The Commissary, which now sells Georgia-made edibles, was built in 1915 as the island’s general store. Most of the businesses in this area have an artsy bent, like the Cottage, which stocks American-made and fair-trade gifts, or Just By Hand, dedicated to handcrafted jewelry and art. All are independently owned, so in addition to your keepsake, you’re likely to pick up a restaurant recommendation or a story about the island’s history.

Shopping on Jekyll is best suited for wandering and discovering, but if you’re on a mission, here are a few places to start.

The shops of Jekyll Island carry vacation essentials and one-of-a-kind keepsakes

Photography by KRISTIN

Goodyear Cottage

GOODYEAR COTTAGE ART TO COMMEMORATE YOUR TRIP

Home to the Jekyll Island Arts Association, this light-filled cottage in the historic district displays a rotating selection of works from more than 500 artists. Items range in price from $5 to $500 and vary from sculptures and large seascape paintings to little handmade notebooks and handwoven placemats.

“People find things here they truly cannot buy anywhere else,” says Bonnie Householder, Jekyll Island Arts Association

president. Popular items include delicate sand dollar necklaces, handmade scarves, and pottery featuring carved images of the island’s famous sea turtles. If you happen to be in town after Thanksgiving, prices are heavily discounted during the shop’s “Merry Artists” event, which lasts through the end of December. 321 Riverview Drive, 912-635-3920, jekyllartsassociation.org

TONYA’S TREASURES FOR GIRLFRIEND, WEDDING, AND BABY GIFTS

“People get married on the beach literally every weekend,” laughs manager Alexis Lee, “so people are always coming in here for last-minute wedding gifts.” She says a recent bride popped in and purchased a Kate Spade notebook in which to write her vows. Others pick up gifts from favorite lines such as Lilly Pulitzer, Bridgewater Candles, Mud Pie, the Naked Bee lotions, Simply Southern tees, and Scout beach bags and coolers. Nearly everything can be monogrammed or embroidered, says Lee, including beach towels, beach bags, and adorable kids’ seersucker swimsuits. 21 Main Street, 912-3192068, tonyastreasures.com

THE GIFT SHOP AT THE GUEST INFORMATION CENTER

PIT STOP, COMING OR GOING

This cheery yellow cottage near the island’s entry gate is an ideal place to pick up a book, T-shirt, or

lovely token of handmade art or to chat with a guest information representative. For a truly unique keepsake, the gift shop is the only place on Jekyll selling official “Island Treasures,” or hand-blown glass orbs made by local artists for the annual Island Treasures hunt each January. “No two are alike,” assistant manager Darek Ikhwan says of the hollow glass balls, modeled after the glass floats fishermen used to mark their nets in the early 1900s. Available in two sizes (think ornament or grapefruit), the Island Treasures sold here are the only ones marked with a commemorative stamp. 901 Downing Musgrove Causeway, 912-635-3636

BUILT FOR browsing

Jekyll Island is home to some thirty shops and boutiques carrying everything from beach and athletic gear to home accents, art, and cigars. For a full directory of stores, visit jekyllisland.com/shopping. Or just set off and start exploring.

Tonya’s Treasures

The Gift Shop at the Guest Information Center

Right: Steps from the ocean, Beach Village is a hub for dining and shopping.

Below: On Pier Road, artsy shops are clustered in circa-1900 cottages.

THE COLLECTION

COASTAL APPAREL

Not feeling quite beach-ready? Outfit yourself from covered head to open toe at this Beach Village shop, packed with colorful bathing suits, sundresses, hats, polos, comfy tees, and sandals. Favorite brands for sand and surf include Sperry, Southern Marsh, Havaianas, Panama Jack, Southern Tide, and Scala. Don’t forget eyewear from the likes of Costa, Maui Jim, and Ray-Ban. For kids’ suits and beachwear, head over to their recently opened sister store, Snappy Turtle. 21 Main Street, 912-319-2056

THE COMMISSARY

GIFTS GROWN IN GEORGIA

The staffs of Jekyll’s wealthiest families once bought pantry staples from this historic cottage; today, owner Juliana Germano continues the tradition by offering locally made specialty food products such as jams, relishes, hot sauces, salad dressings, and

pickled items (okra, garlic, dilly beans). Create your own gift basket with a combination of items such as the bestselling Vidalia onion and Georgia peach salsa (“people buy it by the case,” says Germano), Vidalia onion barbecue sauce, a regional cookbook, and a bag of flavored coffee, available in “Jekyll Moonrise” and “Jekyll Sunset.” 24 Pier Road, 912-635-2878, thecommissaryonjekyllisland.com

JEKYLL BEVERAGE CENTER

STOCK YOUR VACATION BAR

This isn’t your typical liquor store. Instead, shoppers find a thoughtfully curated selection of beer, wine, liquor, and cigars. “We try to be funky, not generic,” says manager Athena Jordan. While the shop carries many popular brands, it stands out with its large selection of rosés and Georgia craft brews. For the convenience of vacationers, many wines feature twist-off caps, and since glass is

prohibited on the beach, Jordan and her team offer plenty of beverages (including wine) in cans.

31 Main Street, 912-635-2080

JEKYLL ISLAND MARKET

ONE-STOP SHOP

This 8,400-square-foot food and shopping hub is stocked with vacation essentials. The gourmet market includes grocery staples, fresh produce, a salad bar, and straight-from-the-water seafood— plus a growler-filling station, a wine bar, a sweets shop, and three eateries. For beach supplies and gifts to take home, the straw-market-style Cabana Gift Gallery carries everything from Yeti coolers, T-shirts, and upscale sunglasses to hand-drawn postcards and candles. Owner Leigh Baumann says the cabanas were designed with historic Charleston City Market and gourmet European markets in mind. 11 Main Street, 912-6352253, jekyllmarket.com

“In addition to your keepsake, you’re likely to pick up a restaurant recommendation or a story about the island’s history.”

The Collection

Jekyll Beverage Center

The Commissary

Jekyll Island Market

CLAM CREEK MARSH

To the black boat-tailed grackle perched on a high oak branch, Clam Creek at low tide is not a creek at all. It is a puddle-strewn trench with walls of saltmarsh cordgrass. But as afternoon wears on and the grackle’s jeeb is drowned out by the shrill chorus of cicada and cricket, the winding waterway slowly rises from the mud. The tide spills in from St. Simons Sound, instantaneously turning the arid landscape into a vast salt marsh. Fish, crab, and shrimp ride this murky current inland and soon, royal terns follow. They fight the incoming wind just long enough to spot their prey in the water below. Then dive and splash and carry their dinner back out toward the sea. —tony rehagen

PATHS