31•81, the Magazine of Jekyll Island: Vol 6 No 2

THE MAGAZINE OF JEKYLL ISLAND FAL L / WI N T ER 2023

A TIMELESS Southern Favorite Discover your tranquil island sanctuary surrounded by majestic live oaks and picturesque riverfront vistas.

Our storied history and grand traditions remain at the Jekyll Island Club, yet much has changed. With modern amenities and all the comforts of a southern resort, return to simpler times and explore our island paradise by bike, walk the beaches, or play a round of croquet while you recharge.

J E K Y L LC L U B . C O M | 8 7 7. 7 8 5 . 8 5 6 6 | J E K Y L L I S L A N D , G A

T H E M AG A Z I N E O F J E K Y L L I S L A N D

Fall/Winter 2023 • Vol. 6 No. 2

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Space Invaders

Interlopers on Jekyll Island?

At least we have no wild pigs

By Tony Rehagen

38

A Thread in Time For seven decades on Jekyll, Sea Island cotton was king

By Rebecca Burns

46

By the Numbers

Discover the island's beauty and mystery, a digit at a time

By John Donovan

64

Castaways

Real treasure may be scarce, but trinkets abound on shore

By Denise K. James

56

Gilded Age Getdowns

brian photo au crstin ed it lee

During the Club Era, millionaires learned how to party on Jekyll

By Mary Logan Bikoff

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departments

traces

12

The Big Dig What's that canal doing in the Historic District?

flora 14 Beauteous Feast A bountiful berry and its many uses

19

fauna 16 Hello, Armadillo An island newcomer settles in on Jekyll

guardian 19

12

Team Sea Turtle A hospital lends its tech to help hurt ones home

firsts 22 Back to School Banned from learning here, Anna Hill returned to teach

22

my jekyll 28

25

DJ Zachry Well-known restaurateur finds bliss on a bike ride

paths 72 Angels & Anglers A little patience and a little faith pay off

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12, 19 & 25: BRI AN AUSTI N L EE; 22: MO SAIC , JEK YLL ISLAND MU SEU M

artisan 25 Simply Brilliant A dazzling homegrown display lights up the island

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On the cover

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

executive director Mark Williams director of marketing & communications Alexa Hawkins

T H E MAG A Z I N E O F J E K Y LL I S L AN D FALL/ W I NT ER 2 02 3

The monarch butterfly is known for its remarkable annual migration and its distinctive orange and black wings. If you want to catch a glimpse of these beauties on Jekyll Island, the best time to do so is in late September and October.

Photograph by Brian Austin Lee

creative director Claire Davis digital content manager (photographer) Brian Austin Lee marketing communications manager Kathryn Hearn 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 ©2023. All rights reserved.

Find us on social media:

publisher Sean McGinnis

@jekyll_island

editorial director Kevin Benefield

@JekyllIsland

ab ou t 31 · 81

editor John Donovan art director Tara McCarthy

Published twice a year, 31·81 pairs stunning photography with thoughtful articles to tell the stories of Georgia’s unique barrier island.

associate publisher Jon Brasher

Jekyll Island lies at 31 degrees north latitude and 81 degrees west longitude.

production director Whitney Tomasino

s u b s c r ibe To subscribe at no charge, sign up at jekyllisland.com/magazine.

To update your subscription information, email magazine@jekyllisland.com.

4

GEORGIA

Reflect

IN THE GOLDEN ISLES, THE SONGS OF Y E S T E R D AY F L O W O V E R T H E M A R S H L A N D S AND LUSH LANDSCAPES. THE STILLNESS B E H O L D S Y O U , L E T T I N G Y O U R E F L E C T, I N S P I R I N G YO U R S O U L .

jeremy h arw el l

#1 BEST U.S. ISLANDS

goldenisles.com ©2023. Travel + Leisure® is a registered trademark of Travel + Leisure Holdco, LLC, a subsidiary of Wyndham Destinations, Inc. Travel + Leisure® World’s Best Awards is used under license. Travel + Leisure® is published by TI Inc. Affluent Media Group, a Dotdash Meredith company, which is not affiliated with Wyndham Destinations, Inc. or its subsidiaries.

Nestled Amongst the Live Oaks on Jekyll Island.

For decades, we have been celebrating life and love on our breathtaking stretch of beach on Jekyll Island. Weddings, group events, family reunions, anniversary celebrations and more are special affairs at the Beachview Club Hotel. Experience our Concierge style champagne check in, daily housekeeping, turndown service and our award-winning exceptional service level. Named as Best of Georgia Winners for 2021 & 2022 and most recently awarded Unique Hotel of the Year for the State of Georgia, the team at the Beachview Club is eager to serve you.

The team at Beachview Club can't wait to welcome you!

721 N. Beachview Dr. Jekyll Island, Georgia 31527

(912)635-2256

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welcome

Dear friends,

”Jekyll Island is more than a typical beach vacation destination, it’s a collection of experiences."

While I settle into my new role as Executive Director for Jekyll Island State Park Authority, I want to express my gratitude for the opportunity to lead the charge of continued stewardship for Jekyll Island. As a lifelong Georgian, I knew even as a child that Jekyll was a treasure on our beautiful coast. My siblings and I would join our parents on Jekyll each July during their annual conference for educators. It was a six-hour drive in a station wagon, and I still remember the anticipation of turning off Highway 17 and onto the island’s sixmile causeway. As a kid, that causeway felt thousands of miles long, especially with my stickler-for-the-speed-limit father behind the wheel.

Now, as I drive across that same causeway every day, the memories of those summers often resurface. I am reminded of the feeling of triumph I had in finally finding a shark’s tooth among the sea of seashells, or the cool relief that only an Icee could bring after a long day of swimming or the anticipation of wondering what kind of fish I would reel in at every bend of the pole.

And as I have grown older, I have had the privilege of seeing Jekyll for the first time through the eyes of my children and grandchildren. Except now, Jekyll Island is more than a typical beach vacation destination, it’s a collection of experiences tailored to each of their interests. Jekyll’s amenities allow them to explore every inch of the Island—riding along on a trolley through the Historic District, splashing around at Summer Waves Water Park, and discovering facts about sea turtles that are mere feet away from them. These experiences have all been thoughtfully crafted, making Jekyll Island a desirable place for families just like mine to cross its causeway once again.

As you enjoy this new issue of 31•81, The Magazine of Jekyll Island, I too hope its collection of stories spark a memory of your time on Jekyll Island.

And for those who haven’t yet experienced the magic of Jekyll, I hope they inspire you and your family to make some new memories here.

Mar k W i l l i a ms

Executive Director, Jekyll Island Authority

JEKYLL ISLAND AUTHORITY BOARD OF DIRECTORS Dale Atkins

Robert “Bob” W. Krueger

William “Bill” H. Gross

Baxley, GA

Hawkinsville, GA

Kingsland, GA

Walter Rabon

Ruel Joyner Savannah, GA

Glen Willard Richmond Hill, GA

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

Joseph B. Wilkinson St. Simons Island, GA

chairman

commissioner, dnr Monticello, GA

Joy Burch-Meeks Screven, GA

vicechair

secretary/treasurer

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editor’s note

Charms and Mysteries

” Throughout its rich history, Jekyll Island has exhibited an ability to surprise us. "

Jekyll Island would be much less tourist-friendly these days if, deep in its maritime forests and wallowing on the edge of its marshes, packs of feral swine (technically, the packs are sounders) were digging up roots, back-scratching bark off trees, and leaving big piles of pig scat.

Nobody needs that kind of sightseeing on vacation.

Luckily, Jekyll Island has a group of conservationists whose charge it is to keep invasive species like feral pigs—which, not that we're naming names, have made their way onto neighboring islands—away from these pristine shores. How do they hold them off? Well, that's just one of the surprises we'll reveal in this issue of 31•81, The Magazine of Jekyll Island. Check out Tony Rehagen's story on page 30.

At one time, when cotton was king, a rare strain of the plant, Sea Island cotton (Gossypium barbadense L.) was the cash crop on Jekyll Island. How did it get here? How was it lost? Where can you see it now? Rebecca Burns has more answers to a Jekyll riddle (page 40).

Throughout its rich history, Jekyll Island has exhibited an ability to surprise us. At the turn of the 20th century, the world's wealthiest families threw parties here that would make Hollywood shindigs of today look humdrum.

Tuxedoed men, women in fine gowns, lavish feasts, dancing into the night: How over the top were these parties?

At one, the hosts gave away a yacht. Mary Logan Bikoff unearths the historical details of Gilded Age get-downs (page 56).

The mysteries and charms of Jekyll, past and present, make this a special place worth exploring. So go ahead and dive in. You won't even need to dodge any pig scat along the way.

J oh n Do no va n Editor

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contributors

Michele Cohen Marill is a freelance writer based in Atlanta, a longtime contributor to Atlanta magazine and contributing editor of Georgia Trend. Her work has appeared in WIRED.com, USA TODAY, and WebMD/Medscape, among other publications.

Denise K. James is a freelance writer and editor based in Atlanta.

Her work has appeared in Charleston Magazine, South, Simply Buckhead, and other publications.

Her first chapbook of poetry, Lost in Midair, will be printed this year.

Tess Malone is an Atlanta-based writer and editor. A former Atlanta magazine editor, she now writes about research at Georgia Tech and about food, culture, and travel whenever she can.

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Whether your visit to Jekyll Island is for leisure, a meeting, or to attend a wedding, the hotel’s modern, spacious 138 guestrooms feature generous services and amenities. Guests will enjoy complimentary breakfast, outdoor pool, kids pool and jacuzzi, and full service lobby bar. Pet friendly rooms are also available.

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SEE THE JEKYLL ISLAND

Tours depart daily from Mosaic, jekyll island museum. RESERVE your spot: 10

JEKYLL ISLAND explorer

Traces p.12 | Flora p.14 | Fauna p.16 | Guardian p.19 | Firsts p.22 | Artisan p.25 | My Jekyll p.28

Morege on pa

Patients at Jekyll Island's Georgia Sea Turtle Center find some much-needed help on the mainland

brian austin lee

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Unearthing a Mystery What's this about a canal in the Historic District? And pirates? BY JOSH GREEN

A

nyone who drives into the Jekyll Island Club National Historic Landmark District from the south passes through a three-way stop where Riverview Drive meets Stable Road. Beneath the intersection is a canal, which is also traversed by a nearby bridge on the popular Crane Road Trail. The canal is clearly man made, a vestige of Club-related activities from more than a century ago.

But exactly what those activities were was a mystery … until recently.

For years, Ben Carswell, the Jekyll Island Authority's

12

first Director of Conservation, had been working to develop restoration plans in the tidal marsh system near the Historic District. Using old aerial photos and maps, Carswell found the flow of water in and out of the marsh had been altered sometime during the island's Club era (roughly 1879-1947). Then, a couple years ago, while searching the online archives of long-dead Atlanta newspapers, Carswell stumbled onto a blurb in the April 9, 1887 issue of The Sunny South, detailing a contract to build a canal between the Jekyll River and a pond.

PHOTOGRAP H BY BRIA N AUSTIN LEE; OP PO SI TE : MO SAIC, JEK YLL IS LAND MUSEUM; ILLUSTRATION BY AMY HOLLIDAY

traces

The reason for the dig became clear: Once infused with brackish saltwater, the pond would serve as "just the place to plant [oysters] and make them grow and fatten," the article reads. "The [Club] will by this means always have an abundance of these luscious bivalves always ready for use and secure from the grasp of the outside oyster gatherers."

The members of the Club, which had been founded in 1886 as a hunt club for the wealthy, evidently demanded a bounty of fresh seafood to go with their game.

Records show the Jekyll Island Club Executive Committee authorized construction of a wooden tidal gate system in 1897, and the canal was deepened at that time to further regulate water flow.

"No one knew for sure what the Club's objectives in installing the canal were until I stumbled on that article," says Carswell, now a coastal liaison and a public service assistant on the faculty of the University of Georgia's Carl Vinson Institute of Government.

"So, it's a piece of historical legacy on the landscape that visitors see frequently, and that the JIA Conservation Department has been deeply engaged with."

Carswell's discovery also illuminated a problem that Club members faced at the time, which the article called "outside oyster gatherers." Andrea Marroquin, the curator at Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum, says "oyster pirates" remained an ongoing problem despite an 1899 law intended to thwart poaching.

A letter dated January 13, 1900, from Jekyll Island Club Superintendent Ernest Grob to Frederic Baker, a Club member, sheds

light on why a more secluded oyster harvesting habitat may have been crucial: "We caught [an oyster thief] the other day and took him up to court and upon his payment of the cost of court, and his promise not to do so again, being ignorant of the law, we let him go," Grob wrote. "But today we have another one and have sent to Brunswick for a Deputy to come down to arrest him. Whether anything can be done to them or not seems to be a question, as the law positively states that all private oyster grounds must be staked. We staked ours several years ago, but they have all rotted off and disappeared, and Judge [A.J.] Crovatt says … it is important that we stake them out again. If I remember rightly it cost us in the neighborhood of about $100 to do this. Shall I have it done again?"

The answer, presumably, was "yes."

Whether that solved the Club's pirate problem, though, remains a mystery.

Just as in decades past, oysters remain a delicacy for visitors to Georgia's coast.

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flora Beauty's Bounty

This purple berry nourishes the island

BY TESS MALONE

Beautyberry's purple pop of color is speckled across Jekyll Island. From marsh hammocks to the maritime forest, the plant sprouts mostly purple (sometimes pink and white) petals in late spring and early summer, and grows clusters of purple berries around its woody stems come late summer and fall.

Home gardeners can plant this pollinator aid in their yards as understory shrubs. While humans can make a nice jelly or wine out of the berries, they're not the only ones who use the fruit for sustenance. Small mammals munch on it. And many different songbirds eat the berry and spread its seeds across the island and beyond.

Bees enjoy the flower's nectar.

Native American tribes rely on beautyberry roots to alleviate dizziness and stomach aches, the leaves to repel mosquitoes, and a combination of the two to treat everything from malarial fever to rheumatism.

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PHOTOGRAP H BY BRIA N AUSTIN LEE

Still, its best use may be medicinal.

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fauna Hello,

ARMADILLO Jekyll newbie turns out to be a fine neighbor

BY TESS MALONE

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more likely to see one of their burrows than one of them. Their round-shaped homes range from three- to six-feet deep. They dig holes that aren't quite as deep, too, called hides that they use to lie low.

Their burrows and hides are co-opted by many other animals— rodents and insects, for example, and occasionally birds looking for insects—which alone makes armadillos pretty hospitable neighbors.

But all that digging can be a little frustrating to humans: Fences and flower pots are used to discourage armadillos from landscaping local yards.

When they're out and about, armadillos employ a keen sense of smell to find their meals, mostly insects. Their eyesight, though, isn't very sharp, and that has led to catastrophe and a common nickname: "hillbilly speed bumps," which refers to their unfortunate penchant for ending up as roadkill. (Fortunately,

a single fertilized armadillo egg spawns identical quadruplets, all male or all female.) Armadillos also have a strange habit, when they're startled, of jumping straight into the air—as high as five feet. (That, along with their poor eyesight, may contribute to their dismal roadway safety record.) They're able to ford small bodies of water, too, by inflating their lungs and swimming across, or expelling all their air to run along the bottom.

Other than watching out for armadillos on the road, it's probably wise to give them a wide berth.

Another strange fact about them: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, armadillos may be able to transmit leprosy, though the chances of that are slim.

Mostly, they're fine neighbors, if a little out of the ordinary.

"Frankly," Colbert says, "they're one of the most interesting animals on the island."

Armadillos made their way to Jekyll in 2014.

shutterstock ; illustr ation by amy h olliday

A

lthough they're a relatively recent addition to Jekyll Island, nine-banded armadillos have been on the eastern seaboard since they were first brought by humans to Florida in the early 1900s. It took a while for them to find their way to Jekyll, but the armored mammal, roughly cat-sized, has been here since 2014.

"A lot of old-school land managers still consider them invasive," says Joseph Colbert, a wildlife biologist with the Jekyll Island Authority. "But most people have grown to accept armadillos and acknowledge how they are part of the ecosystem now."

Armadillos are an odd and unique critter. They're in the same family as sloths and anteaters. They sleep a whopping 16 hours a day, mostly stirring at dawn and dusk.

If you're out during the day, you're

Taste Beach Style on Jekyll Island The Beach House sits just yards away from the beach with breathtaking views of the Atlantic.

Whether you prefer to dine inside or at the bar, under the spacious screened in wrap around ƖŲƙĐľ Ųƙ ŲƵƭ ŲŦ ŲƵƙ ƖóƭŃŲɏ ǎĞ ľóǍĞ ƭľĞ ơƖŲƭ ĶŲƙ ǔŲƵɔ Our culinary team takes tremendous pride in creating something for everyone in a family friendly atmosphere. From home made deserts, hand crafted salads, appetizers, and Artisan pizzas to the stars of the show with fresh local seafood. We feature a full wrap around bar with one of the largest draft beer selections in Southeast GA. From Porters to Ciders, we are able to showcase a variety of regional craft beers on one of our 24 tap handles. ÞĞśĐŲŤĞ ƭŲ ƭľĞ ĞóĐľ PŲƵơĞɔ

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guardian

Local Hospital Chips in to Help Save Sea Turtles High-tech CT scans at Southeast Georgia Health System pay off for island patients BY MICHELE COHEN MARILL 19

C

raning her neck as she lay on the exam table, Bandit peered at the donut-hole opening of the stark white, conical CT scanner she was about to enter. Perhaps it looked like just another scary piece of ocean debris to the injured green sea turtle.

Bandit had been struggling to recover since a boat propeller struck her in the head and injured her spine.

This trip to the Southeast Georgia Health System MRI and Imaging Center in Brunswick was the first step in a last-chance effort to save her.

The Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island has rescued more than 1,500 turtles and assorted other creatures since its founding in 2007. It has its own hos-

pital, with a surgical suite, X-ray machine, and rehabilitation tanks. But it doesn't have a CT scanner, which can provide sharper images of internal injuries.

Thanks to the partnership with the Southeast Georgia Health System, CT scans can reveal the precise location of an embedded fish hook or the extent of injury to a turtle's spinal cord.

"A CT scan can tell you exactly what's going on in the lungs. It's key to identifying pneumonia," a common infection found in sea turtles in the subtropics, says Dr. Shane Boylan, a veterinarian. "Without it you really are making a guess."

At the Brunswick facility, no human patient ever sees sea turtles in the waiting room. They come in

PHOTOGRAP HY BY BRIAN AUSTI N LEE

guardian

after hours, through a private entrance. Juvenile green sea turtles arrive in a large bin, while loggerheads (weighing 200 pounds or more) might be rolled in on a stretcher or cart.

CT technologist Jennifer Armstrong covers her exam table with plastic and works quickly, knowing that these patients can get squirmy and bent on escape. Some are sedated for the short procedures; the scanning takes only about 30 seconds.

"I scan them from the tip of the nose down to the tail," says Armstrong, who never minds staying a bit late to help a sea turtle. "It is absolutely something I love doing. I fell in love with these little guys. They're just amazing creatures, and they're beautiful and sweet."

Before he came to Jekyll, Boylan participated in the first-ever spinal surgery on a sand tiger shark at the Mississippi Aquarium in Gulfport. Surgeries are done at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, too, where visitors can observe patients through a viewing window and catch a glimpse of procedures sometimes based on CTs. A surgery to relieve pressure on the spinal cord could be Bandit's best hope to regain the ability to dive and swim that she needs to survive in the open sea, Boylan says.

Having access to a CT scanner has proven critical.

Thanks to the partnership with Southeast Georgia Health System, patients like Bandit are getting a second chance.

Opposite page: Georgia Sea Turtle Center rehabilitation technician Nancy Keenan with patient Jordan. Above: Jordan is prepped for a CT scan at Southeast Georgia Health System. Jordan's CT scan.

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firsts Lessons Taught, Lessons Learned Jekyll's first school wouldn't accept her; she returned to teach

A

lthough she grew up in a small cottage on Jekyll, Anna Hill did not attend classes in the island's lone schoolhouse. The school opened in 1901, a few years before Anna's birth, but it was reserved for white children. Instead of taking classes on Schoolhouse Lane on Jekyll, then, Anna was forced to travel by boat to get an education in nearby Brunswick. She eventually ventured even further, moving to Atlanta to earn a teaching degree.

After she graduated, though, Hill returned home to the island, hired as a teacher in a different school. It had opened in the 1920s, becoming the first school for children of the Black employees of the historic Jekyll Island Club. Tucked into the first house on Red Row, the small community built for the club's Black workers, the school was equipped with desks and a blackboard. At any

22

given time, 10 to 15 students were enrolled in grades One through Five.

By the 1930s, the school catered to the Black employees of the Club, too, and included some summer school.

The Brunswick Board of Education furnished books and materials for both the Red Row school and the original school for white students on Schoolhouse Lane. In both cases, members of the Jekyll Island Club paid the teacher's salary and organized events for the island's children. "The club members considered this an important philanthropy," says Andrea Marroquin, curator of Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum. One of the lead proponents of school funding was Frances Baker, one of several women who were members of the Jekyll Island Club.

Hill, who married a man named Jesse Arnette, eventually moved to Brunswick and continued teaching

until she retired years later. She remained an active member of the Retired Teachers Association.

Taking over the Red Row schoolhouse was Catherine "Katye" Merchant, who moved to the island after her 1929 marriage to Jekyll Island Club employee Thomas Cash.

Thomas was an avid hunter known for the carvings he made from wild boar tusks. Katye was more interested in dancing, and with her ballroom partner Arthur Hill won multiple dance competitions. The couple lived on Jekyll while their daughter, Elaine, was a toddler, but later moved to Brunswick. Elaine and her younger sister, Gloria, both worked as teachers until their retirement, continuing the family legacy as educators.

Students pose in front of the first schoolhouse for Black children on the island, located at the end of Red Row.

MOSA IC, JEKY LL ISL AND MUSEUM

BY REBECCA BURNS

Idyllic. Historic. Fascinating.

The Jekyll Island Foundation is proud to support the welfare of Jekyll Island and the initiatives of the Jekyll Island Authority. Experience what Jekyll Island has to offer—and partner with us today!

J EK Y LL I SLAND FO U NDATI O N

Conserve. Preserve. Educate.

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artisan Simply Brilliant A small and talented team crafts an island wonderland for the Holly Jolly Jekyll season

BY JACINTA HOWARD PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN AUSTIN LEE

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artisan

J

ekyll Island brims with natural beauty, but one of the most dazzling attractions is a decidedly human endeavor; the annual holiday light display.

Every year, a crew of about 10 welders, carpenters, and other craftspeople who work in the roads and grounds department engineer a massive light display that spans the island, capturing the attention and imagination of even the Grinchiest of passersby during the annual Holly Jolly Jekyll season.

Phillip Kidney, the roads and grounds superintendent for the Jekyll Island Authority, has lived in the area for 40 years. He took over the light display project about 11 years ago. It's since become an integral part of the holiday season, with its appeal rooted in the sheer magnitude of the glowing, jovial displays—more than 350 total, and counting. Add that to the 600 ornaments and more than a million light bulbs used to illuminate the island during the festive season, and you have a truly magical wonderland.

"The people are just amazed," Kidney says of the

26

reaction to the elaborate holiday displays. "They're more amazed by the volume than anything. I don't know that the public realizes that we actually fabricate all of these, by hand, on the island. Every now and then I have a conversation with someone who's here visiting and they want to know where we got them from, and I tell them that we actually craft them here, and they're blown away by that."

The team works practically year-round brainstorming new ideas and determining their feasibility. By September, they're beginning to get everything up so that it's ready for the Holly Jolly Jekyll season, which begins on the Friday after Thanksgiving and lasts until the Sunday after the first full week of the New Year.

While there are lights all over Jekyll Island during the season, the majority of the hand-crafted displays are in the Historic District, where guests can explore the lights via self-guided tours or trolley.

Innovative and enchanting, the intricate displays have become a holiday staple. Some of the standout installations include a large replica of J.P. Morgan's yacht

(the Corsair), peacocks, flowers, sea turtle ornaments hanging from live oaks, and even three custom bear cubs hidden within the 12 Days of Christmas light display. This year, a small troupe of shrimp will join the collection.

"We're constantly trying to come up with something," Kidney says, adding that it's taken them several years to build up the volume of displays they have now. He also says the crew tries to simplify their ideas, so that they can be easily replicated. "You have to cut [the displays], paint them, bend them, weld them and then put lights on them … it's a process."

JIA craftsmen put the finishing touches on a new light display.

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27

my jekyll

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"Jekyll Island is beautiful yearround, but October is the best month. The fishing picks up, the temperature drops, and you can hop on a bike and ride around the island with no traffic. It's like going back in time. The trails here are amazing and cover the entire island, from the beaches to the Historic District. The Jekyll Island Authority also puts together some great events.

The big ones are the Shrimp & Grits Festival and Holly Jolly Jekyll, but there are also a lot of smaller events … that draw visitors and locals alike."

– DJ ZACHRY As told to FRAN WORRALL Photograph by BRIAN AUSTIN LEE

DJ Zachry owns Zachry's Riverhouse, a popular restaurant on Harbor Road.

In 1987, his parents opened the original Zachry's in the old Jekyll Island shopping center, where his first job was washing dishes. Unsure of where he wanted to settle after completing college, he found his answer while driving across the Jekyll Island causeway one morning at sunrise.

Overwhelmed by the beauty of his surroundings, he says he knew in that moment he had found his home.

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ANGLERS AMONG US Fishing is a leap of faith. You’re a hunter not quite sure of what you’re hunting, or where, or how you're going to land it, or whether your quarry is actually lurking beneath the dark depths at all. But you shoulder your pole and you walk the long concrete pier all the same. You tie on your hook, thread it with a wriggling nightcrawler, and rear back. You cast. The sinker plops as it meets the water's surface. The wait begins—and so does the magic of angling. Silently, you breathe in the salty sea air. A gentle breeze brushes your face. You spot the fin of a dolphin playing just feet away. You imagine a trophy flounder or redfish or trout circling your red-and-white bobber. And, as you finger the line feeling for the slightest tug, you whisper a prayer. —tony rehagen

BRIA N AUSTIN LEE

PATHS

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YOUR BEACH

ESCAPE

RECHARGE AND REJUVENATE WITH OCEAN AIR AND ELEVATED COMFORTS. Plan your island escape to our 40 all-suite oceanfront boutique hotel. Located just steps from the beach, all of our suites are lushly appointed with classic comforts, including a spacious living room, private balcony and porch. Enjoy Eighty Ocean Kitchen and Bar onsite for breakfast, lunch, and dinner favorites. Come and stay awhile.

J E K Y L L C L U B . C O M | 8 7 7. 3 1 5 . 7 1 0 3 | J E K Y L L I S L A N D , G A

Jekyll Numbers BY THE

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DISCOVERING THE BEAUTY AND MAGIC OF THE ISLAND, ONE DIGIT AT A TIME.

By JOHN DONOVAN Let’s start with the title of this magazine: It’s 31•81, numbers which identify, in landlubber’s terms, the latitude and longitude of Jekyll Island. (31.0735° N, 81.4114° W seemed a little unwieldy for the cover.)

Numbers such as those have guided seafaring explorers to Jekyll for centuries. These days, we have a few more numerals to help you find your way around.

7

From the age-old natural monuments of Driftwood Beach to the family-friendly openness of Great Dunes Beach Park, Jekyll has seven distinct beaches to explore, offering a spot for just about every type of sand-and-sea lover.

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24 There may be no better way to discover a little Jekyll magic than on two wheels. Jekyll has two dozen miles of bike paths that wind through forests and along pristine beaches, much of the trip under the forgiving shade of the island’s majestic tree canopy.

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2

photos - pr e vious s pr ead: brian austin lee. left: brian austin lee. to p: jo hn valadas. right: gabriel hanway

The image of a soaring bald eagle is often associated with mountains and wide-open vistas.

But Jekyll boasts two bald eagle nests, where pairs of Haliaeetus leucocephalus perch in the fall and hatch new eaglets in the mild winters.

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Some like it hot, some like it cooler, but you won’t hear many complaints when the mercury stands at 71 degrees, the average annual temperature on Jekyll Island. Some call that perfect.

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photos - left: brian au stin lee. r ight: yank mo ore

The island’s most famous residents are its sea turtles, who nest on local beaches from late May to mid August. The sea turtle population, revered and rehabilitated at the island’s Georgia Sea Turtle Center, enjoyed a record year in 2022.

Conservationists counted some 243 nests.

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51

Solomon is the biggest and, at around 51 years old, the oldest alligator on-island. And, like many Leos (gators typically hatch in late July and into August, under the sign of Leo.), Solomon loves the spotlight.

He’s often seen basking on the golf course.

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1,100

1743 52

Nearly 300 years ago, a military man named William Horton established a plantation on Jekyll to grow food for soldiers. He built a house on it in 1743, parts of which—it’s now known as Horton House—remain as one of the oldest tabby structures in Georgia.

photos - left: brian au stin lee. above: m osaic, jek yll island museum. righ t: allison leotis

In order to join America’s first transcontinental phone call in January of 1915, AT&T president Theodore Vail ordered some 1,100 extra miles of copper cable to be strung from New York to Jekyll Island. Vail popped in on the historic call while wintering on the island.

400 The largest Live Oak on the island is the Plantation Oak, located just north of Crane Cottage in the Historic District. The tree measures more than 120 wide feet, limb to limb, and better than 23 feet around. It’s considered the oldest tree on-island, too, at about 400 years old.

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0 You can find stop signs throughout any leisurely drive around Jekyll Island. There’s even a newfangled traffic circle (a roundabout?) at the entrance to the Beach Village. But traffic lights?

Nope. Not a one of them. Nada. Zilch. Zero.

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4,351

photos - left: brian au stin lee. r ight: yank mo ore

It should be clear to anyone who visits Jekyll Island that the natural beauty of this place is paramount. The island measures some 5,950 acres. Only 1,599 of them are developed (and those are strictly managed). That leaves 4,351 acres of unspoiled beach, waterways, dunes, marshes, and maritime forest for everyone to enjoy.

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64

CASTAWAYS A chest full of gold doubloons would be sweet, but these real-life finds suit some folks just fine

BY DENISE K. JAMES PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN AUSTIN LEE

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S

ongs, stories, and films have long told of mysterious treasures beneath the surface of the ocean.

Some who stroll the shores of Jekyll Island have seen them firsthand. An assortment of fascinating (if not particularly valuable) items—whole boats, a piano, a rubber duck or two—have made their way to Jekyll's beaches, washed up with the tides and into local lore …

Chinese rubber ducks

The book Moby-Duck tells the story of the 1992 wreck of a cargo ship carrying bath toys from China, including 28,000 rubber ducks. "The Department of Natural Resources [DNR] told us we might find some," says Jeannie Martin, who previously led the Georgia Sea Turtle Center's Marine Debris Initiative. "So when we found the ducks, which is not uncommon, we confirmed their origin with the code on the bottom. They looked like regular rubber ducks!”

The Chinese-made ducks—Martin said only a couple were found on Jekyll—were sent to the DNR, where they are used in research about oceanography and currents, according to Martin.

"The ducks could have gone down and around South America or on a more northern trek and come back down," she says. "Or all the way around!"

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Native American arrowhead

Mara Weber, husband Greg, and daughter Gracie love the natural beauty Jekyll offers and, one day during a seashell search, they found something unusual: a Native American arrowhead.

"It was right before my daughter's birthday in 2017, and she wanted to find whelk shells," Mara says. The family headed for the tidal pools of Driftwood Beach, taking the suggestion of Ray Emerson, the lead park ranger for the Jekyll Island Authority. That's where they spotted the object. They later learned their discovery was between 3,000 and 5,000 years old.

The arrowhead is now on display as part of an exhibit at Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum.

Usually twice a year the Webers visit the museum, where they check up on the spearhead and some soapstone pottery that they discovered on the same trip. "When we come down, we go to the museum and take a picture with our spear point," Mara says. "We want other people to see it, too. And my daughter is doing a 4-H project on geology.”

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The Mary Ann shrimp boat

The shrimper Mary Ann sank in 1995 on the south side of the island after a rising tide flooded the 60-foot vessel. In the years since, the beach has grown so much that now just the top of the ship, a few feet of its mast, emerges from the sands, a stark and poignant reminder of the power of tides and the shifting nature of barrier islands.

The entirety of the Mary Ann, all 60 feet of her, is about 30 to 40 feet below the sand.

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PINE rosin

In the words of historic preservationist Taylor Davis, it's common for "elements from other eras to pop up on the beach" after severe weather. This can include materials from pine trees used to build ships, things like turpentine, rosin, tar, and pitch.

Pine rosin recently turned up on Jekyll, along with the iron base of a ship mast—possibly from a vessel, Davis surmises, wrecked in the late 19th or early 20th century. Though island officials prefer to leave such items as they are found, visitors posting on social media—some mistaking their finds for amber—prompted ranger Emerson to bring the turpentine and rosin indoors for safekeeping.

Even more has washed ashore since.

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Heinz salad cream bottle

Recently, an empty condiment bottle for a British salad cream—common on salads and sandwiches in the UK— showed up from across the pond on the shores of Jekyll, discovered by ranger Ayron Moleen during her regular beach patrol. While picking up trash from the dunes, she spotted the bottle, pulled it from the sand and saw the words "Heinz of the U.K." on its bottom.

Moleen decided to keep it, placing it in the back of the club car. Although the bottle was accidentally discarded by a colleague, it was retrieved and is now sitting on the ranger's desk. "I'm definitely the ‘one person's trash is another person's treasure' type," she says. "It's probably one of the cooler things I've found and verified."

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Piano

Years ago, an upright piano was discovered on Driftwood Beach. "Our best guess for how it got there was a washin from a recent storm," Martin says. "There weren't any obvious vehicle marks or drag marks through the woods to where it was." It took four or five people to remove it. "The keys clunked a little when we pressed them," Martin says.

rig ht: photo cour tes y of ben car swell

Glass fishing floats

Glass fishing floats, or Japanese glass floats (page 64), have long been part of the commercial fishing world, used to keep nets and other fishing gear afloat. The term Japanese glass floats is a bit misleading because they were not used in Japan until the 20th century. But the beauty we associate with the floats is a result of the Japanese eye for design.

Today, these floats are considered a collector's item, especially since the advent of the more mundane plastic floats. Many have ended up on Jekyll Island. Each winter, local authorities hide a number of the treasures throughout the island for hunters young and old to discover. It’s part nostalgia, part marketing endeavor, an island-wide game of "hide-and-seek" that prompts visitors to get out and discover the beauty of Jekyll Island. It's been a southern tradition now for more than two decades.

Visit jekyllisland.com/island-treasures for how to find your own one-of-a-kind glass treasure.

Please, Do Not Disturb

Remember, artifacts on public lands or in public waters—even those that might look like natural treasures or someone's discarded trinket— are not to be taken home as a prize. Jekyll Island is a state park, and is covered under Georgia law, which prohibits removing artifacts from any property without written permission from a landowner (like the Jekyll Island Authority).

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BY MARY LOGAN BIKOFF PHOTOS COURTESY OF MOSAIC, JEKYLL ISLAND MUSEUM

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W

hen the monied members of America’s high society arrived at the Jekyll Island Club in its early years, in the late 1880s, they came—much as visitors do today—for relaxation, pleasant climes, and merriment. But while they sought simple pleasures, their social diversions were often a bit more elaborate than throwing a blanket on the beach.

This was the Gilded Age, a time of an explosion of industries—railroads, steel, and oil among them—that created a new social class with breathtakingly lavish lifestyles. It is said that the uber-exclusive Jekyll Island Club member list, which included names like Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Pulitzer, and Astor, comprised one-sixth of the world’s wealth at one time. These industrialists and their families—American royalty—fled from their extravagant homes in the wintry urban north for the easy gentility of the island, where they sunned, yachted, rode horseback, hunted in the wild pine forests and, yes, threw many a festive event that defined an era like no other.

Frequent gatherings, from banquet-style picnics on the beach to stately dinner dances at the Club, were the order of the day. Costume parties, dinners for dozens aboard opulent yachts, balls with ragtime music, swinging Big Band dances, genteel afternoon teas, and lawn tournaments on immaculate grounds were among the amusements. No expense was spared.

Still, the upper-upper-crust families who wintered on Jekyll considered their time at the resort to be quite simple and rustic, compared to the over-the-top grandeur of their summer homes in ritzy locales like Newport, Rhode Island. On Jekyll, Spanish moss–draped live oaks and shell roads took the place of manicured acres and imposing gates.

"They viewed Jekyll as a place where they could let down their hair," says June Hall McCash, author of The Jekyll Island Cottage Colony. "They still dressed to the nines, but they really believed they were living their simple lives there.

"What was considered rustic by Gilded Age millionaires would be deemed outlandish by most others.

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McCash notes the vacationers packed enormous wardrobes for the season. Women donned a different gown to dinner each night, while men turned out in tuxedos. Formal dinner dances at the turreted Victorian clubhouse, filled with mahogany and wicker furniture and custom rugs, were common. Tables teemed with engraved silver, crystal, imported china, cut florals, garlands, and palm fronds. Historical menus from the era reveal bountiful, indulgent dinners featuring sardine canapes, diamondback terrapin, fresh local oysters, and desserts like English plum pudding with brandy and baked bananas au Jamaica. The club’s fishermen hauled in local seafood each day for dishes like shrimp salad and crab ravigote. Butter was imported from Tennessee. The best chefs were brought down from New York restaurants for the winter, and some members were served by personal waiters.

According to The New York Times, one such dinner party hosted by Mrs. T.W. Pearsall in 1889 was notable for its extravagant party favors, which included typical trinkets like cards and candy but, for a few lucky guests, a horse and cart, a dog and gun, an alligator… and even a yacht.

Less formal were the frequent picnics on the beach, though those required a great deal of orchestration, too, mostly by the family’s large arsenal of personal servants and employees of the club. (Staff outnumbered the guests.) Old photographs show long wooden tables set up with ice buckets stocked with wine, and women lounging under parasols in voluminous hats overflowing with trim, plumes, and flowers, wearing gloves up to their elbows. Multi-course meals were served, and beach diversions arranged.

Marian Maurice, the daughter of prominent bridge builder Charles Stewart Maurice and Charlotte Maurice of Pennsylvania, who often hosted festivities in the magnificent Jacobean cottage Hollybourne, wrote to her grandmother of one such oyster roast on the beach in 1898: "After lunch, we danced a Virginia Reel in which all, old and young, took part, one of the gentlemen being 89 years old, others of them children only 8. It was very jolly."

Previous spread: 1923 Christmas dinner.

Opposite page: Beach party opening the 1901 Club season.

Above: 1903 dinner for Andrew Carnegie.

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ccording to Andrea Marroquin, curator of Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum, other amusements on the beach included races, games, and athletic tournaments called gymkhanas.

In the 1920s, open-air dune buggies known as redbugs arrived. Members used them to bounce around the island, and races on the hard-packed sand beaches became a favorite activity.

The club register recorded the many comings and goings of guests, who arrived to visit and also became part of the festivities, many of which took place at the private cottages. Fine rugs and wicker furniture were dragged out to the lawn for tea, games, and sunshine. Frances Baker held an inaugural tea for the 1893 season that was attended by the whole island at her gracious Solterra, which a New York Times story declared "was handsomely decorated with azaleas, hyacinths, ferns, and palms."

A member’s daughter, Bettie Huidekoper, recalled a party in the 1930s celebrating the club’s founding.

After a "glorious dinner celebration under a vast tent, with several long tables set with a solid line of pink and white camellias down the center," the teenagers strolled and biked down the shell road in evening dress dancing under the moonlight to music from a "new-fangled battery-operated radio." Huidekoper called them the "happy kids of the Big Band era," and reminisced dancing the two-step to the likes of Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, and Glenn Miller. "We danced until the battery died," she says.

Beach party opening the 1901 Club season

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ther occasions to throw a party (though it didn’t take much to prompt a celebration) included Washington's and Lincoln’s birthdays. These called for formal dinners where chefs rolled out the likes of Uncle Sam pudding sauce, braised sweetbreads à l'independence, and Martha Washington pie.

Parties for staff, too, an English tradition, became customary during the early years (at least for the white staff on the still-segregated island). One St. Patrick’s Day in 1889, the same year Mrs. T.W. Pearsall gifted a yacht as a party favor, she hosted an elegant ball at the clubhouse for club staff members. After an opening dance between club members and employees, the members retired and the employees danced until an elaborate supper at midnight.

And of course, there were holiday parties. Many families came down for the season before Christmas, even as early as Thanksgiving. Christmas on the island was recorded by Munsey's Magazine in 1904: "Each winter the club opens for a Christmas Dinner, and the members come and go until warm weather drives them away toward the end of April." Other holiday festivities

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were more understated. Cornelia Maurice of Hollybourne Cottage recounted the Christmas of 1898 in a letter to her grandmother. Their custom was to include the club’s superintendent, head housekeeper, and boat captain at Christmas dinner. That year, Maurice wrote: "We arranged a small tree in the centre of the table and around it a present for each one with a ribbon attached to it, and the pile in the centre about the tree covered with holly. When dinner was over, each one pulled the ribbon nearest them and out came their presents from their hiding places.

It caused a good deal of surprise and fun." In 1901, the Maurice family, who entertained almost daily, threw a Christmas party for the 17 children of the club staff, from six months to 11 years old, who consumed "large quantities of ice cream and cake."

The annual holiday costume balls thrown in the Roaring Twenties by the Jennings family of Standard Oil were legendary. Themes were often inspired by garments they picked up on their travels abroad, from Chinese silks to Marie Antoinette–style garb.

"Reflecting their ability to travel, costumes often celebrated other cultures or nationalities," says Marroquin.

"Partygoers also frequently dressed as famous historical figures. For one party, Constance Jennings wore a lovely ball gown designed by a New York costumier. It was a lavender brocade and gold lace dress from the time of Louis XVI with the appropriate towering white wig.

"Then, as now, partygoers also dressed up as popular celebrities or personal heroes. Jeannette and Constance Jennings dressed as the Gish sisters—two silent screen starlets," Marroquin adds.

"Then Jeannette changed clothes to dress up as another hero—her father Walter Jennings, who was a Standard Oil Company executive."

Some of these costumes, including the Louis XVI dress, can be viewed today at Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum. (The donor of that costume wrote: "I enclose the dress. The wig 'died' as we kids played with it until extinction.") They are among the vestiges of a time when some of the world's richest people celebrated their wealth on an otherwise quiet Georgia island.

Opposite: Mistletoe lawn party.

Top left: Jeanette Jennings Taylor dressed as her father, Walter Jennings at a holiday party. Below: beach party in 1901. Above: Louis XVI costume on display at Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum

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a thread in

TIME PRIZED FOR ITS LONG, SILKY FIBERS, SEA ISLAND COTTON DOMINATED JEKYLL, S ECONOMY FOR SEVEN DECADES

BY REBECCA BURNS

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I

n the spring of 1862, Union Army forces made their way along the coast of the Carolinas and into Georgia, moving from Skidaway to St. Simons to Jekyll. They seized plantations from their owners, who drove their enslaved workers inland to "protect" their property. In doing so, a major economic driver of the region was disrupted: Sea Island cotton.

A rarified strain of an ancient species that thrived in the muggy, muddy flatlands of the barrier islands, Sea Island cotton fueled great wealth for a small group of growers, provided trade for hundreds of merchants, created brutally inhumane work conditions for thousands of enslaved men, women, and children, and was a linchpin in the global economy for millions.

"The sea island planters are rich and proud, very aristocratic, and fiercely traitorous," reported The New York Times on April 3, 1862. "In their expulsion and by

the confiscation of their slaves, the original and worst element of secession is humiliated, if not ruined."

Indeed, the Civil War brought an end to seven decades of an industry in the coastal Southeast that thrived due to two main factors: the region's unique geography and its rigid reliance on slavery.

A Revolutionary Product

While the Civil War halted cotton planting on Jekyll and other coastal islands, the industry's beginnings were forged in another pivotal conflict. "The history of Sea Island cotton on Jekyll is revolutionary—literally," says Andrea Marroquin, curator of Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum. "The Revolutionary War brought it about."

Before that war, Jekyll Island was owned by Clement Martin, a Brit who was said to have brought the first enslaved people to the island. After his death, the property went to his son John Martin, a Royal-

ABOVE: GEORGIA COTTON FIELD (COURTESY LIBRARY OF CONGRESS). LEFT: SEA ISLAND COTTON SEEDS, REMOVED BY HAND FOR FUTURE PLANTING (PHOTO, BRIAN AUSTIN LEE). PREVIOUS SPREAD: SEA ISLAND COTTON (SHUTTERSTOCK).

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LEFT: SEA ISLAND COTTON BLOOM (PHOTO, BRIAN AUSTIN LEE).

ABOVE: PICKING COTTON IN GEORGIA (COURTESY LIBRARY OF CONGRESS).

RIGHT: AL TATE (AT LEFT) AND JIM MCKENNA WITH THEIR CROP (PHOTO, BRIAN AUSTIN LEE).

ist, who in 1776 was listed as being "at large and a danger to liberty." He eventually was charged with treason and banished from the United States. The government seized his Jekyll property and Martin fled, eventually relocating to the Bahamas.

When the government put the confiscated property up for auction, it was purchased by Martin's brother-in-law, Richard Leake, who owned and operated Jekyll from 1784-1791. A few years into his tenure, Leake began growing Sea Island cotton, "presumably using seeds sent by John Martin from the Bahamas," Marroquin notes.

Sea Island cotton met American demand for fabric when the supply from British textiles dried up during the war. Then in the post-war boom in British industrialization, demand soared for the cotton, known for its silky, lengthy fibers. As Sven Beckert notes in his acclaimed book Empire of Cotton, exports from South Carolina surged to 6.4 million pounds in 1800 from just 10,000 pounds a decade earlier.

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On Jekyll, the cotton's saga shifted thanks to another conflict. Fleeing his native France after the French Revolution, aristocratic sea captain Christophe Poulain DuBignon came to Georgia, eventually buying all of Jekyll Island and embracing life as a cotton plantation owner. In 1799, DuBignon earned $30,000 selling cotton—almost $750,000 today.

After a peak in the early 1800s, the cotton remained a viable revenue source for Jekyll and the DuBignon family, but its profitability declined.

Eventually DuBignon's son, Henry, sold the island to a group of wealthy businessmen and industrialists, and the historic Jekyll Island Club was created.

Bloody History

The economics of Sea Island cotton—like its inland counterpart throughout the South—were dependent on the work of enslaved people who grew, harvested, and processed the plants. On coastal plantations,

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the work often fell to women and children, who were believed to have a delicate touch that the long-fibered cotton required. Sea Island cotton is harvested the instant a pod opens, and as the plants produced bolls over a months-long growing period, enslaved workers were forced to make up to 10 passes through a field during each season.

Sometimes the enslaved worked by moonlight to complete a harvest cycle. Processing the cotton, including tedious ginning—removing seeds by hand—also was done by enslaved women, who often worked in the gin houses while pregnant or just days after giving birth.

"The whole process, from the picking to the packing of the cotton created a certain tenseness which everyone experienced," writes Margaret Washington Creel in the research journal Negro History Bulletin.

"A constant, driving momentum was kept up while quality work was also insisted upon to make the crop as profitable as possible."

During the Civil War, formerly enslaved men from the coastal islands were among the first to join the Union Army, leaving even more of the cotton production work to women, who continued their efforts

after the war, when the U.S. military and government took over plantation oversight.

"There was progress represented by the cotton, but we need perspective," Marroquin says. "There is blood behind that history."

A New Perspective

Today, a small garden at Jekyll Island's Horton House—where the DuBignon family lived for generations—contains Sea Island cotton plants along with other historic crops such as indigo, hops, and barley.

The project was conceived of and is managed by Jim McKenna, who retired to Jekyll after 35 years as a crop scientist at Virginia Tech.

"Most people wouldn't recognize long-staple cotton if they fell into a field of it," McKenna observes.

"And indigo is, for most, a mystery wrapped in an enigma." The demonstration garden offers visitors a chance to see and learn about the crops that played a significant role in Jekyll's history. Hops and barley provided the ingredients for the beer brewed by William Horton, the home's original occupant. Indigo was exported throughout the colonial period. And Sea Island cotton was a valuable crop that drove much of the economy on Jekyll and throughout the region.

"Long-staple cotton thrived on the Georgia and South Carolina islands, thanks to the salt in the air and the 300-plus day growing season," explains McKenna. The fields were enriched with marsh mud, an ideal compost for the cotton plants, which grew as perennials on the sea islands.

McKenna, assisted in the garden by his next door neighbor, retired biologist Al Tate, says that growing these plants now offers a way of understanding the agrarian history of both Georgia and the United States as a whole. And it provides a new perspective for visitors to Jekyll, who have long enjoyed the preserved artifacts and historic structures on the island. Now, through these plants, they can partake in a living history lesson as well.

JEKYLL ISLAND WEAVER TRICIA BOWMAN, WITH COTTON PLANTED IN AND HARVESTED FROM THE HORTON HOUSE GARDEN (PHOTO, BRIAN AUSTIN LEE).

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An Ancient Taxonomy The genomic background of G. barbadense ILLUSTRATION BY DEBBIE CHOI Exactly how cotton seeds got to the coastal Southeast remains a matter of conjecture, but thanks to the science of systematics, researchers now know more about Gossipyium barbadense L., the species that includes all long-staple cottons. According to The Story of Sea Island Cotton, researchers traced and confirmed that G. barbadense originated more than a million years ago in Ecuador and Peru.

It then made its way to the Caribbean and eventually to Georgia.

With the cotton industry failing after the Civil War, Sea Island seeds were sent to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Pee Dee Experimental Station in the early 1900s.

From there, they were distributed in South Carolina and Georgia in 1934 in an effort to bring back the industry. The attempt failed and the seeds were not saved. "The last seeds having been lost, Sea Island cotton as grown on the Carolina sea islands is gone forever," writes botanist Richard Dwight Porcher in The Story of Sea Island Cotton.

Today, only one percent of the cotton seeds in the world are long-staple cotton, says Jim McKenna, the retired crop scientist who coordinates the demonstration garden at Horton House.

Jekyll's cotton plants have been grown from seeds ordered online, and cultivated using techniques that mirror historic growing methods. In 2022, seeds were saved from the Jekyll crop and planted for the 2023 season. "We could become a Sea Island cotton seed source here on Jekyll," McKenna notes.

"The last seeds having been lost, Sea Island cotton as grown on the Carolina sea islands is gone forever."

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30

ONCE PART OF JEKYLL'S WILD LANDSCAPE, FERAL PIGS ARE NOW NOWHERE TO BE FOUND. IT'S UP TO THE ISLAND'S CRACKERJACK CREW OF CONSERVATIONISTS TO KEEP IT THAT WAY.

By TONY REHAGEN Illustrations by JOE WILSON

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he Jekyll Island Authority conservation crew is an elite force. These plant and wildlife biologists and land management experts are guardians of the island's fauna and flora, ensuring that everything flourishes in balance with the island's human inhabitants. They are the protectors of plovers, dunes, and sea turtles, champions of the wetlands and live oak forests and all the animals therein. Mother Nature may take its own course. But make

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no mistake: These trained and educated professionals do their part, too.

Often, these men and women are Jekyll's first and last defense against invasive species, the vegetation and beasts that would disturb that delicate peace. One example: Visitors might take note of the absence of feral pigs that plague other parts of Georgia, including nearby Brunswick just across the Brunswick River.

Jekyll's ground isn't uprooted and disheveled by the swine's desperate search for food. No muddy wallows or trees are

rubbed bare of bark by the furry pests.

So, what's the secret? How is it that Jekyll's conservationists have cracked the code and solved the problem that has perplexed their peers all over the region?

"That's a complex question," says Joseph Colbert, the Jekyll Island Authority's first wildlife biologist, as he leans confidently back in his office chair at JIA headquarters. "We haven't done anything about it."

A pause. Then Colbert laughs.

"We haven't had to," he says, throwing up his arms.

THEY'RE NOT WILD ...

THEY'VE BEEN INTRODUCED.

THAT'S WHY THEY'RE

A PROBLEM. While Colbert and his conservation colleagues have waged war on every invader from Chinese tallow to Cuban tree frogs, they have not faced off with the feral hog. As far as the JIA biologists can tell, there is no biological or ecological reason that the hog has yet to dip a tusk in Jekyll soil in the modern era. Instead, they can only speculate and stay alert in case the fuzzy foragers decide to mount a sudden assault across the causeway.

Or should we say "mount a sudden return?" After all, the reason we know there isn't some natural or supernatural shield that keeps feral pigs off Jekyll Island is because they've been here before. Sepia-toned photographs from the height of the Jekyll Island Club era, which began in the late 1800s, depict wealthy hunters proudly posing beside the carcasses of their trophy hogs.

In the late 1800s, King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy wanted to express his grat-

itude to Lloyd C. Griscom, an American diplomat, so his highness sent Griscom a shipment of wild boar. Not knowing what to do with the beasts, Griscom pawned them off on J.P. Morgan, who "found sanctuary" for them on Jekyll, where they could be released as sport for the

OPPOSITE: THE TAXIDERMIST HOUSE ON JEKYLL ISLAND. (PHOTO, MOSAIC, JEKYLL ISLAND MUSEUM)

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A STUFFED BOAR HEAD AT THE JEKYLL ISLAND CLUB. (PHOTO, MOSAIC, JEKYLL ISLAND MUSEUM)

well-heeled gamesmen. Records suggest that there was already a population of feral pigs, with which the so-called Royal Boar of Jekyll Island bred. But even those "native" hogs that dwelled in the northern swamps almost certainly were not indigenous. "It's important that we call them feral pigs and not ‘wild pigs,'" says Colbert.

"They're not wild in North America; they've been introduced.

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That's why they're a problem."

Jekyll residents soon discovered why their imported quarry was a problem, especially as hunting waned in the early part of the 20th century. First of all, when they go unchecked and colonize, feral hogs tend to reproduce rapidly. A female can give birth to as many as three litters (each consisting of four to six piglets) in a single year. That's probably why sightings of these animals and

their descendants were reported on the island well into the early part of the State era (which began when the state of Georgia purchased the island in 1947).

And once they multiply, the animals make real pigs of themselves, and in so doing can ravage an entire ecosystem in no time. By digging in the ground for food, they uproot native species of plant, leaving only weeds. Wallowing in the shallow

ETCHING, TWO BOARS IN A WOOD, ROSA BONHEUR, 1876. (PHOTO, MOSAIC, JEKYLL ISLAND MUSEUM)

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A WILD BOAR IN ITS NATURAL HABITAT. (PHOTO, SHUTTERSTOCK)

wetlands, they defecate in the water, turning the place into a cesspool of nasty diseases and bacteria. All of this devastates habitat for native species of plant and animal.

Feral swine are not exactly discerning diners, either. They'll eat anything from smaller animals to eggs. "Any grounddwelling species would be at risk," says Colbert. "They could even go after sea turtle and shorebird nests."

Of course, human infrastructure also would be impacted. Pets would be harassed and attacked.

Gardens, crops, golf courses, and yards would be dug up. The pigs might even spread diseases like Swine Flu and bacteria like E coli to livestock and other animals.

Local archives contain no record of what finally spurred

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Jekyll residents to revolt against their porcine oppressors and drive them from Jekyll. But whatever they did, it worked. Today, no trace of feral hogs remains anywhere on the island (knock on live oak). "Whatever discussion took place, it was a good one," says Colbert. "And it was the right choice."

The members of the Jekyll conservation crew may not know exactly how islanders exorcized their hog demons, but that doesn't mean they're just sitting back and waiting for the beasts to stick their snouts in again where they don't belong. "With any invasive species, there's an old idiom: An ounce of prevention is equal to a pound of cure," says Daniel Quinn, the JIA's natural resources manager.

To keep the hogs away these

days, the JIA conservationists have established a sort of defense for the island. Jekyll is different from other nearby barrier islands in that it stands apart. There aren't four or five other islands from which the pigs can invade, as they have on Cumberland and Sapelo Islands.

Jekyll's only real entry point is the causeway that links it to the mainland. According to Colbert, surveillance cameras have picked up nighttime footage of swine encroaching at the far end of that narrow gateway. But as deceptively smart and sneaky as they may be, the good guys are confident the hogs have not yet crossed into Jekyll territory.

"They create a disturbance that is unique to them," says Yank Moore, JIA Director of Conservation. "They may be stealthy and sneak around for a while, but you'll soon notice the disturbance."

The team of Colbert, Quinn, Moore, and Land Management Technician Morgan Pierce relies on the community to report signs of any disturbances; extensive rooting or digging, muddy wallows, tree rubbing, tunnels and trails through thick vegetation, droppings, and actual sightings of the pigs, dead or alive.

For now, the signs are good.

For now, Jekyll remains free of the scourge of the feral swine.

But the conservation crew is watching. They're ready. Just in case.

A TRIO OF

INTERLOPERS

While they monitor the threat of feral pigs, the JIA conservationists have been fighting invasive species of plants and animals that already have a foothold on the island. Here are three of the biggest offenders

CUBAN TREE FROGS It's no surprise that humans are often responsible for introducing an invasive species to an area.

Sometimes, though, the little buggers get in on their own. The multi-colored Cuban tree frog probably stowed away on ships and cargo planes, spread rapidly across Florida, and hopped its way up here, often hitching rides on the frames of vacationer's vehicles.

About the size of a common adult southern toad with big toe pads, they'll actually eat adult native

tree frogs that are smaller than they are. They can also carry diseases that spread to other wildlife, particularly reptiles. "It has a unique call that helps us key into their location," says Pierce.

"We want to remove them so our native frogs, which have no natural defense, can remain dominant."

CHEROKEE ROSE Yes, it's the Georgia state flower.

But there's nothing Southern or particularly hospitable about this invasive Chinese native, also

an ornamental brought by Club Era residents. At one time, the lovely white blossoms with the yellow centers lined the entire fence around the island's Historic District. But they quickly climbed all over, slowly strangling trees and other plants. The rose also is a dangerous "fire ladder" that can enable flames to quickly burn up tree trunks and into the canopy.

"It's very hard to kill," says Moore.

"It grows so big so quickly that by the time you notice it, it's 20 feet in the air."

CHINESE TALLOW This Asian ornamental tree was brought here during the Club Era (1879-1947) for its exotic look and berries, used to make candles and soap. It spread quickly from homeowners' lawns into the wild, where its falling leaves wreaked havoc on the pH levels in the soil and choked out other native plants. Extremely resistant to herbicides, the tallow has been all but eradicated by the JIA team through a decade-long hack-andspray effort.

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I N T RO D U C I N G T H E O F F I C I A L L I F E S T Y L E BRAND OF JEKYLL ISLAND.

Coming soon • shop.jekyllisland.com Jekyll Island lies at 31 degrees north latitude and 81 degrees west longitude.