Jekyll Island

On Monday, after getting parked and getting lunch at Blythe Island Regional Park, we headed out to visit Jekyll Island.

We had never really heard of Jekyll Island, but our friends Keith and Ruth Ann had recommended visiting it, so we added in a visit on this trip south.

In case you are likewise uninformed about the history of Jekyll Island, here are a few interesting points, first from https://www.jekyllisland.com/history/timeline/ :

In 1886, the island was purchased by the Jekyll Island Club, a turn-of-the century vacation resort patronized by the nation’s leading families. Club Members included such prominent figures as J.P. Morgan, Joseph Pulitzer, William K. Vanderbilt, Marshall Field, and William Rockefeller. In 1904, Munsey’s Magazine called the Jekyll Island Club “the richest, the most exclusive, the most inaccessible club in the world.”

For those who represented 1/6 of the world’s wealth at the turn of the century, the Jekyll Island Club became an exclusive retreat. Families with names like Rockefeller, Morgan, Vanderbilt, Pulitzer, and Baker built the elegant Clubhouse and “cottages” in Victorian architectural styles.

Also from https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/jekyll-island-conference:

In November 1910, six men – Nelson Aldrich, A. Piatt Andrew, Henry Davison, Arthur Shelton, Frank Vanderlip and Paul Warburg – met at the Jekyll Island Club, off the coast of Georgia, to write a plan to reform the nation’s banking system. The meeting and its purpose were closely guarded secrets, and participants did not admit that the meeting occurred until the 1930s. But the plan written on Jekyll Island laid a foundation for what would eventually be the Federal Reserve System.

(You may be interested to read more about that meeting and driving factors using the second link I've provided.)

In my research before going, I found that there were a number of bike paths, a historic district with some of the "cottages" on view, and, at Christmas time, a self-guided lights tour.

We stopped at the visitor center just before going through the toll payment booth (identified as "parking payment") to understand what the fee was going to pay for... turns out that the island is an "independent" Georgia State Park, which means that it does not get funding from the government, and if they charged an "entry fee", they would need to pay taxes to the state on that, but, they don't need to pay taxes on parking fees (as my brother says, "follow the money" to find out why things that appear strange are occurring!).

We stopped at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center but did not go in as there was a separate entrance fee and we decided we'd prefer to spend our time in other areas.

We parked near Faith Church (built in 1904 as an interdenominational church for members of the Jekyll Island Club) in the Historic Area and walked around.

Jekyll Island's Avenue of Palms -- nearly 300 cabbage palms, planted in intervals along Plantation Road, from the north end of Stable Road to Faith Chapel.

One of the "Cottages" - this is Cherokee Cottage (https://www.jekyllclub.com/cottages/cherokee/)

We also looked for and found "Plantation Oak"...

...a huge live oak tree!

To give an idea of size -- I'm the small figure under the tree taking pictures...

The central trunk of the tree.

As the largest branches extend further out from the main trunk of the tree, the weight of each branch actually causes them to rest on the ground, providing the tree with greater stability.

Crane Cottage (https://www.jekyllclub.com/georgia-weddings/wedding-venues/crane-cottage/)

The next building down from Crane Cottage was the Jekyll Island Club Resort - we walked through some of the first floor:

The Grand Dining Room(https://www.jekyllclub.com/jekyll-island-restaurants/grand-dining-room/), used only for breakfast service at this time.

A sitting area

Some of the Christmas decorations

We enjoyed sitting out on the porch for a few minutes, then returned to the car to drive around the island. The day was rather grey and spitting a little rain, so we decided not to use our bicycles.

We drove around the north end of the island, driving through the Jekyll Island Campground (nice but the sites are rather close together and the trees make driving a big rig around a bit of a challenge),

... and then on around to Driftwood Beach (https://www.jekyllisland.com/activities/beaches/driftwood-beach/).

Beautiful weathered trunks and roots...

...arrayed up and down the beach.

A picture with me in it to give size perspective.

Looking up the beach -- Brunswick is across the water in the center and right.

Carl on the beach framed by branches of one of the trees.

From what I understand, the name is actually misleading, as these trees did not "drift" here but rather:

The mighty oaks you see toppled today stood at the time of the Jekyll Island Club Era. Through natural occurrences, like tropical storms and hurricanes, the sand supporting the trees eroded away and exposed the roots systems. Eventually, the trees fell and were petrified by the salt air and sun. (from Jekyll Island Facebook page)

We continued our drive around the island, rounding the southern end and then stopping at St Andrews Beach Park.

It was nearing sunset...

... so we stopped to enjoy the gulls...

... and as much sunset as was on display with the rather cloudy day.

We had decided that we wanted to stay until after sunset (we usually prefer to be back "home" by sunset so we aren't driving after dark) -- so we could view the lights displays in the Historic District... to be shown in another blog entry!