Committed to Jekyll Island

At Ameris Bank, our customers and the community are always at the center of everything we do. From big-ticket decisions to everyday services, we’re committed to serving our neighbors on Jekyll Island.

40 The Water and the Blood

In 1858, Georgia’s last slave ship dropped anchor off Jekyll Island. This is the story of its deadly voyage and enduring legacy. By Rosalind Bentley

46 Frame Worthy

Photography is a vacation activity in its own right on Jekyll. Discover the island’s most iconic photo ops, and get pro tips on how to capture images you’ll treasure forever. By Jeanée Ledoux

56 Shades of the Past

Whether or not you believe in ghosts, you’ll feel the bewitching aura of history at these Jekyll haunts.

By Tony Rehagen

64 Chef’s Choice

Noted Brunswick chef-farmer Matthew Raiford shares his favorite spots to dine and drink on the island. By Osayi Endolyn

32

For the Birds

Thousands of migratory birds pass through Jekyll each fall, bringing tidings of the planet’s health. Meet the volunteers who track them, and unleash your inner birder with our field guide. By Margaret Evans

Dear friends,

executive director

C. Jones Hooks senior director of marketing

Meggan Hood marketing communications manager

Regan Young creative director

Claire Davis publisher

Sean McGinnis editorial director

Kevin Benefield design director

Cristina Villa Hazar senior editor

Elizabeth Florio art director

Katy Miller photo director

Lisa Sparer associate publisher

Jon Brasher travel sales director

Jill Teter production director

Whitney Tomasino

Michael D. Hodges chairman St. Simons Island, GA

Robert W. Krueger vice chairman Hawkinsville, GA

I had no idea there was so much here! Time and again I hear this from visitors and friends, and they’re right—there is so much on Jekyll Island that many folks never see. From its Native American beginnings to the colonial settlement to the well-known Jekyll Island Club and state park era, Jekyll Island’s rich cultural and natural history is often truncated because of how far it reaches.

For many years, pieces of Jekyll’s history were shared in an unair-conditioned working stable in the historic district. This environment made it impossible to tell the island’s complete story. In early 2019, the new Jekyll Island history museum, called Mosaic, will open in the repurposed facility. The construction will be transformational, and the exhibits will be stimulating!

Our construction and design teams have taken the building down to its studs. The stables, which once belonged to the Jekyll Island Club, are now woven into the experience and will guide visitors through Jekyll’s remarkable past. New meeting and learning spaces will allow these stories to be passed on in meaningful ways, and climate control will allow delicate artifacts to be shared with the public in a far more comfortable setting.

For the first time ever, much of Jekyll Island’s history will be displayed in one place. As stewards of this special island, we are honored to share and preserve Jekyll’s unique story through this magazine and, soon, the Mosaic. I invite you to join us in the new year, to visit the Mosaic, and to discover a piece of Jekyll Island you’ve never seen before.

Jones Hooks

Executive Director, Jekyll Island Authority

Jekyll Island Authority Board Of Directors

William H. Gross secretary/treasurer Kingsland, GA

Joy A. Burch-Meeks

Screven, GA

Mark P. 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

Joseph B. Wilkinson St. Simons Island, GA

What the Tide Brings In

Last summer, a couple biking on a northern Jekyll beach stumbled upon a mysterious weathered object in the surf. Experts determined it was a remnant of a World War II–era Liberty ship, built in Brunswick (page 12). It’s merely the latest wartime relic to materialize on the island; cannon emplacements from the Spanish-American War cropped up in the forest in the 1960s.

The problems of society tend to wash up on islands. Currently the world’s coasts—along with the oceans themselves—are under siege by plastic trash. In the past six years, Jekyll’s Marine Debris Initiative has tracked and cleaned up hundreds of thousands of “data points,” aka pieces of garbage. It’s just one small effort to confront a massive global crisis, as you’ll learn on page 21.

As a state park run by a self-supporting authority, Jekyll employs a team of researchers to lead such conservation efforts and another team to study and preserve the island’s rich past, including any artifacts that might wash ashore. If Jekyll were represented by a statue, she would have one foot planted in the environmental world and the other in the realm of human history, with her arms extended to vacationers as if to say, “Come tour architectural treasures and abundant nature.” (Be sure to bring the good camera—turn to page 46 for a guide to getting the best pictures.).

But history doesn’t always leave physical traces. In 1858, a luxury yacht stole onto what is now Jekyll’s St. Andrews Beach Park. Decades after the importation of enslaved Africans was outlawed, it harbored a secret deck containing some 500 captives. On page 40, writer Rosalind Bentley tells the story of the Wanderer, the slave ship whose chief reverberation was not the headline-grabbing criminal trials of the white conspirators—as you might have guessed, they got off scot-free—but the journeys of hundreds of Africans who, wrenched from their homelands, planted forced roots that now extend across America. As far as we know, the Wanderer didn’t scatter its parts in the sand, but it surely leaves a weight.

Elizabeth Florio Editor

1 Photographer Andrea Fremiotti splits his time between New York and Atlanta. On free days, he wanders through national parks with a medium-format camera or relaxes in a vintage recliner near his wife and dog. He says shooting Jekyll Island was an outdoor-loving photographer’s ideal assignment: live oak forests, historic architecture, beautiful beaches, and amazing sunsets all within easy reach.

2 Rosalind Bentley is an enterprise reporter at the Atlanta JournalConstitution. Previously she worked as an enter- prise/feature reporter at the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Her stories have appeared in the New York Times, Longreads, and Essence and Ebony magazines. Rosalind’s work has been anthologized in Best American Newspaper Narratives 2012. She has also been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for a special project on race relations in Minnesota.