GEORGIA GROWN
D
etour off Interstate 95 along the Georgia Coast and you’ll find a scenic
must look at the terrain—of marsh and islands, forests and rivers. Rice fields and
highway meandering through marshland, historic downtowns and
sugarcane once dotted the landscape. Ruins of the McIntosh Sugar Mill Park, built
old plantations. U.S. Highway 17 was the original auto route to Florida, once known
in 1825, are still evident in St. Marys, while Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation—a rice
as the Dixie Highway. Today, it’s known as the newest “Georgia Grown Trail” officially
plantation dating back to the early 1800s—is now a state park north of Brunswick.
designated by the Georgia Legislature. Drive along the 100-mile stretch, spanning
Rice was cultivated here until 1913, and then fifth-generation Dent sisters started
from Kingsland on the Florida border to Savannah crossing into South Carolina, to
a dairy farm to keep the land and preserve their family’s legacy. A walk of the
experience the bounty of harvest from both the land and sea.
expansive grounds with marsh vistas and century-old live oaks leads you to the
To understand the coast, and its heritage of agriculture and aquaculture, one 64 | www.GuyHarveyMagazine.com
antebellum home where a guided tour gives a glimpse into plantation life. At the
