Cumberland Island, in the

southeastern United States The Southeastern United States, also known as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical List of regions in the United States, region of the United States located in the eastern portion of the Southern United States and t ...

, is the largest of the

Sea Islands The Sea Islands are a chain of over a hundred tidal and barrier islands on the Atlantic Ocean coast of the Southeastern United States, between the mouths of the Santee and St. Johns rivers along South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The la ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. The long-staple Sea Island cotton was first grown here by a local family, the Millers, who helped

Eli Whitney Eli Whitney Jr. (December 8, 1765January 8, 1825) was an American inventor, widely known for inventing the cotton gin in 1793, one of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution that shaped the economy of the Antebellum South. Whitney's ...

develop the cotton gin. With its unusual range of wildlife, the island has been declared a National Seashore. Little Cumberland Island is connected to the main island by a marsh.

Geography

Cumberland Island forms part of

Camden County, Georgia Camden County is a county located in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2020 census, its population was 54,768. Its county seat is Woodbine, and the largest city is Kingsland. It is one of the original ...

(30°51′N, 81°27′W). Cumberland Island constitutes the westernmost point of shoreline on the Atlantic Ocean in the United States. The island is long, with an area of 36,415 acres (147.37 km² or 56.90 square miles), including of

marsh In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p More in genera ...

mudflat Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal ...

s, and tidal creeks. There is no bridge to the island; it is reached by the Cumberland Ferry from St. Marys.

Ecology

The island has three major ecosystem regions. Along the western edge of the island there are large areas of

salt marsh A salt marsh, saltmarsh or salting, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. I ...

es. One will also see gnarled

live oak Live oak or evergreen oak is any of a number of oaks in several different sections of the genus ''Quercus'' that share the characteristic of evergreen foliage. These oaks are generally not more closely related to each other than they are to o ...

trees covered with

Spanish moss Spanish moss (''Tillandsia usneoides'') is an Epiphyte, epiphytic flowering plant that often grows upon large trees in tropical and subtropical climates. It is native to much of Mexico, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Central America, South America (as far ...

and the palmetto plants at the edge of Cumberland's dense maritime forest. Cumberland Island's most famous ecosystem is its beach, which stretches over . The island is home to many native animals, as well as non-native species. There are

white-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known Common name, commonly as the whitetail and the Virginia deer, is a medium-sized species of deer native to North America, North, Central America, Central and South America. It is the ...

squirrel Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae (), a family that includes small or medium-sized rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels (including chipmunks and prairie dogs, among others), and flying squirrel ...

raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the North American, northern or common raccoon (also spelled racoon) to distinguish it from Procyonina, other species of raccoon, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest ...

nine-banded armadillo The nine-banded armadillo (''Dasypus novemcinctus''), also called the nine-banded long-nosed armadillo or common long-nosed armadillo, is a species of armadillo native to North America, North, Central America, Central, and South America, making ...

wild boars The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a Suidae, suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The speci ...

, feral hogs, American alligators, as well as many marshland inhabitants. It is also famous for its feral horses, which roam free on the island.

History

Native American settlement

The first inhabitants were indigenous peoples who settled there as early as 4,000 years ago. Later inhabitants participated in the Savannah archaeological culture and spoke the

Timucua language Timucua is a language isolate formerly spoken in northern and central Florida and southern Georgia by the Timucua peoples. Timucua was the primary language used in the area at the time of Spanish colonization in Florida. Differences among the n ...

. Its inhabitants were part of the

Mocama The Mocama were a Native American people who lived in the coastal areas of what are now northern Florida and southeastern Georgia. A Timucua group, they spoke the dialect known as Mocama, the best-attested dialect of the Timucua language. Their ...

, a

Timucua The Timucua were a Native American people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, many leading thousands of people. The va ...

group who spoke the Mocama dialect. In the 17th century the island and the adjacent coast were controlled by the

Tacatacuru Tacatacuru was a Timucua chiefdom located on Cumberland Island in what is now the U.S. state of Georgia in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was one of two chiefdoms of the Timucua subgroup known as the Mocama, who spoke the Mocama dialect of Timu ...

chiefdom. The main village, known as Tacatacuru, was located towards the southern end of the island; during the time of European colonization, the Spanish recorded the names of at least six more villages on the island, and eleven more were located on the mainland.

Colonial settlement

During the 16th and 17th centuries, Cumberland Island was part of the

missionary province of

Spanish Florida Spanish Florida () was the first major European land-claim and attempted settlement-area in northern America during the European Age of Discovery. ''La Florida'' formed part of the Captaincy General of Cuba in the Viceroyalty of New Spain, and th ...

. When the Spanish arrived in the 1550s, they named the island San Pedro. They built a garrison and mission,

San Pedro de Mocama Mission San Pedro de Mocama was a Spanish colonial Franciscan mission on Cumberland Island, on the coast of the present-day U.S. state of Georgia, from the late 16th century through the mid-17th century. It was built to serve the Tacatacuru, a Moc ...

, in 1603. It was one of the main mission centers, situated at a major Mocama site. Another Spanish mission on Cumberland was Puturiba, which operated from 1595 to 1597. An additional mission, San Phelipe, was relocated from the North Newport River to the northern end of Cumberland from 1670 to 1684. Historical records indicate that until 1681, there were approximately 300 natives and several Spanish missionary priests living on Cumberland Island. In 1683, French pirates attacked Cumberland Island, looting and burning many of the buildings. Many of the natives and the Spanish missionaries fled the island. An attack in 1684 by a pirate known to the Spanish as Thomas Jingle led to the final abandonment of the island by the Spaniards. Survivors retreated to St. Augustine to the south. During the colonial years, many had died of exposure to European

infectious diseases infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable dise ...

, to which they had no natural immunity. The Tacatacuru relocated closer to St. Augustine, and Cumberland Island was thereafter occupied by the

Yamasee The Yamasees (also spelled Yamassees, Yemasees or Yemassees) were a multiethnic confederation of Native Americans who lived in the coastal region of present-day northern coastal Georgia near the Savannah River and later in northeastern Florida. ...

. By then most of the Mocama had converted to Roman Catholicism as taught to them by the Spanish priests before the island was abandoned. English General

James Oglethorpe Lieutenant-General James Edward Oglethorpe (22 December 1696 – 30 June 1785) was a British Army officer, Tory politician and colonial administrator best known for founding the Province of Georgia in British North America. As a social refo ...

arrived at the

coast in 1733. In 1735 he made a treaty with the Creek nation, who claimed historic ownership of the coastal islands between the

Savannah River The Savannah River is a major river in the Southeastern United States, forming most of the border between the states of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and South Carolina. The river flows from the Appalachian Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean, ...

and

St. Johns River The St. Johns River () is the longest river in the U.S. state of Florida and is the most significant one for commercial and recreational use. At long, it flows north and winds through or borders 12 counties. The drop in elevation from River s ...

. Under the treaty most of the islands, including Cumberland Island, were ceded to England, thus conflicting with the Spanish claim to the islands. The name of Cumberland Island was given by a young Yamacraw named ''Toonahowi'' (the nephew of Chief Tomochichi who visited England with Oglethorpe.) He suggested the island be named for William Augustus, the 13-year-old

Prince William, Duke of Cumberland Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (15 April 1721 Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Old Style and New Style dates">N.S./nowiki> – 31 October 1765) was the third and youngest son of Great Britain and Kingdom of Ire ...

, son of King George II. In 1736 Oglethorpe established a fort at what is now Terrapin Point in the north of the island, named Fort St. Andrews. For a decade the small village of Berrimacke existed near the fort. In 1740 he built a second fort at the southern point of the island called Fort William. The forts were built to defend English settlements to the north from the Spanish in Florida. After the English defeated the Spanish in the

Battle of Bloody Marsh The Battle of Bloody Marsh took place on July 18, 1742 (new style) between Spanish and British forces on St. Simons Island, part of the Province of Georgia, resulting in a victory for the British. Part of the War of Jenkins' Ear, the battle wa ...

in 1742, the need for the forts ended. They abandoned the forts and eventually the village disappeared. No trace remains today of Fort William, and most signs of Fort St. Andrews have been washed away. In the 1760s, the island was divided into royal grants but saw little activity. When naturalist

William Bartram William Bartram (April 20, 1739 – July 22, 1823) was an American naturalist, writer and explorer. Bartram was the author of an acclaimed book, now known by the shortened title Bartram's ''Travels'', which chronicled his explorations of the S ...

visited the island in 1774, the island was mostly uninhabited.

Plantation era

The Revolutionary War hero

Nathanael Greene Major general (United States), Major General Nathanael Greene (August 7, 1742 – June 19, 1786) was an American military officer and planter who served in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, Revolutionary War. He emerge ...

founded most of southern Cumberland Island as a result of a business deal used to finance the army. Greene died in 1786. His wife,

Catharine Littlefield Greene Catharine "Caty" Littlefield Greene (February 17, 1755 – September 2, 1814) was an American patriot who traveled to her husband, Continental Army General Nathanael Greene's, encampments during the American Revolutionary War. She entertained and ...

, remarried Phineas Miller ten years later; and they built a huge, four-story

tabby A tabby cat, or simply tabby, is any domestic cat (''Felis catus'') with a coat pattern distinguished by an M-shaped marking on its forehead, stripes by its eyes and across its cheeks, along its back, around its legs and tail, and characteris ...

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word ''manse'' originally defined a property l ...

on top of a Native American

shell mound A midden is an old dump for domestic waste. It may consist of animal bones, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofacts associated with past human occup ...

. She named it

Dungeness Dungeness (, ) is a headland on the coast of Kent, England, formed largely of a shingle beach in the form of a cuspate foreland. It shelters a large area of low-lying land, Romney Marsh. Dungeness spans Dungeness Nuclear Power Station, the ham ...

, after a nearby sandy spit at the southern end of the island, first recorded in a land grant petition in 1765 and almost certainly named after the

headland, on the south coast of England. The mansion featured thick walls at the base, four chimneys and 16 fireplaces, and was surrounded by of gardens. Dungeness was the site of many special social galas, where statesmen and military leaders enjoyed the Millers' hospitality. When the island was briefly occupied during the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...

, the British used Dungeness as their headquarters. They also freed the American slaves on the island. The Millers' Dungeness burned down in 1866. The Millers were the first major planters of Sea Island cotton on Cumberland. They held a total of 210

slaves Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

to work the

plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...

. Catharine and Phineas Miller helped

develop the

cotton gin A cotton gin—meaning "cotton engine"—is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation.. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 (); ...

, debuted in 1793. While Sea Island cotton was by far the largest and most valuable

commercial crop A cash crop, also called profit crop, is an agricultural crop which is grown to sell for profit. It is typically purchased by parties separate from a farm. The term is used to differentiate a marketed crop from a staple crop ("subsistence crop") ...

, other documented agricultural products such as

indigo InterGlobe Aviation Limited (d/b/a IndiGo), is an India, Indian airline headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. It is the largest List of airlines of India, airline in India by passengers carried and fleet size, with a 64.1% domestic market ...

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

, and food crops were also grown. Rice sloughs are still visible on the island through satellite imagery. According to national oral history,

wood from the island was used to build the

USS Constitution USS ''Constitution'', also known as ''Old Ironsides'', is a Full-rigged ship, three-masted wooden-hulled heavy frigate of the United States Navy. She is the world's List of oldest surviving ships, oldest commissioned naval warship still afloat ...

, "Old Ironsides", in the 1790s. In 1818, an ill General "Lighthorse" Harry Lee, a Revolutionary War hero and old friend of Catharine Greene, was returning from the West Indies when he asked to be taken to Dungeness. After a month of illness, he died on March 25 and was buried on the island. His son, Confederate General

Robert E. Lee Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a general officers in the Confederate States Army, Confederate general during the American Civil War, who was appointed the General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate ...

, had a tombstone placed over the grave and visited his father's final resting place several times. In 1913, the body of Harry Lee was reinterred at

Lexington, Virginia Lexington is an Independent city (United States)#Virginia, independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 7,320. It is the county seat of Rockbridge County, Virg ...

, to lie beside his famous son, but his gravestone was left on Cumberland Island. By the time of the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, Robert Stafford had become the major planter and landowner on Cumberland Island and one of the largest planters in Camden County. His grave is on the main road of the island.

Carnegie Family era

In the 1880s Thomas M. Carnegie, brother of steel magnate

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie ( , ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the History of the iron and steel industry in the United States, American steel industry in the late ...

, and his wife Lucy bought land on Cumberland for a winter retreat. In 1884, they began building a mansion on the site of Dungeness, though Carnegie never lived to see its completion. Lucy and their nine children continued to live on the island, naming their mansion Dungeness after that of Greene. Dungeness was designed as a 59-room castle. They also built pools, a golf course, and 40 smaller buildings to house the 200 servants who worked at the mansion. The last time Dungeness was used was for the 1929 wedding of a Carnegie daughter. After the crash and the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, the family left the island and kept the mansion vacant. It burned in a 1959 fire, believed to have been started by a poacher who had been shot in the leg by a caretaker weeks before. Today, the ruins of the mansion remain on the southern end of the island. The Carnegie family owned 90% of the island. Lucy Carnegie had additional estates built on the island for her children. These include: * Greyfield, built in 1900, now a private inn owned by the Carnegie family. * Plum Orchard, donated to the National Park Service in 1972, which maintains it and gives daily tours. * Stafford Plantation, privately owned by members of the Carnegie family. The caretaker of the estate (nearby homes and an air-strip) and his family live in the residence.

North end

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, small farmers settled on the north end of the island. Other island residents at this time worked as innkeepers and pilots for St. Andrews Sound. One of these pilots, James Clubb, directed the ''

Wanderer Wanderer, Wanderers, or The Wanderer may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film, television, and theater * The Wanderer (1913 film), ''The Wanderer'' (1913 film), a silent film * The Wanderer (1925 film), ''The Wanderer'' (1925 film), a silen ...

'' (the last ship to bring slaves from Africa to the United States) to nearby Jekyll Island in 1858. These north end families owned some slaves, and during the Civil War, most of these people moved to the mainland when Union forces occupied the island. Former slaves and their descendants continued to live on the island after the Civil War. According to historian Mary Bullard, one community existed in the Brick Hill area of the island between 1862 and 1891. Many of these freedmen were farmers. In the 1880s, another community formed at what is now called "The Settlement". It was a residential area for black workers, as Georgia had passed laws requiring racial segregation of housing and public facilities. The First African Baptist Church, established in The Settlement in 1893, was rebuilt in the 1930s. It is one of the few remaining structures of this community. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, innkeeping was the primary business on the north end. The most prosperous hotel was located in the High Point area and attracted guests who belonged to the rising middle class. Visitors arrived on steamboats and enjoyed activities such as fishing, hunting, and going to the beach. At the height of the innkeeping era in the 1890s, guests numbered around 750. Black residents of the north end staffed the hotel: they served as waiters, cooks, laundresses, and drivers of the horse-drawn trolleys that transported guests. Hotel Cumberland at High Point was sold in 1918 and became a private club. The Candler family of Atlanta, associated with Coca-Cola, owned part of the north end.

John F. Kennedy Jr. John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. (November 25, 1960 – July 16, 1999), often referred to as John-John or JFK Jr., was an American socialite, attorney, magazine publisher, and journalist. He was a son of 35th United States president John F. K ...

and

Carolyn Bessette Carolyn Jeanne Bessette-Kennedy (née Bessette; January 7, 1966 – July 16, 1999) was an American fashion publicist. She worked for Calvin Klein (fashion house), Calvin Klein until her 1996 marriage to attorney and publisher John F. Kennedy Jr ...

were married on Cumberland Island in 1996, in the First African Baptist Church with their reception taking place at the historic Greyfield Inn. While they filled the church's eight pews with friends and family, no media were permitted at the event.

Present-day conservation

In 1954, some of the members of the Carnegie family invited the National Park Service to the island to assess its suitability as a National Seashore. In 1955, the National Park Service named Cumberland Island as one of the most significant natural areas in the United States and plans got underway to secure it. Simultaneously, the State of Georgia was working on plans to secure the island as a state park. Plans to create a National Seashore were complicated when, in October 1968, Carnegie descendants sold three thousand acres of the island to real estate developer Charles Fraser, who had developed part of

Hilton Head Island, South Carolina Hilton Head Island, often referred to as simply Hilton Head, is a South Carolina Lowcountry, Lowcountry resort town and barrier island in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. It is northeast of Savannah, Georgia (as the crow flies), a ...

. Fraser met with conservationist and then Sierra Club executive director,

David Brower David Ross Brower ( ; July 1, 1912 – November 5, 2000) was a prominent environmentalist and the founder of many environmental organizations, including the John Muir Institute for Environmental Studies (1997), Friends of the Earth (1969), Ear ...

, on the island to discuss how to develop the area. This meeting and discussions between Fraser and Brower were documented in one part of the book ''

Encounters with the Archdruid ''Encounters with the Archdruid'' (1971) is a narrative nonfiction book by author John McPhee. ''Encounters'' is split into three parts, each covering environmentalist David Brower's confrontations with his ideological enemies. The book chronicle ...

'' by

John McPhee John Angus McPhee (born March 8, 1931) is an American author. He is considered one of the pioneers of creative nonfiction. He is a four-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the category General Nonfiction, and he won that award on the fourt ...

who traveled with Fraser and Brower as they toured Cumberland Island. Brower pushed for a 90/10 split, with 90% of the land to remain undeveloped. However, the thought of any additional development on the island beyond the structures already erected by the Carnegies and Sam Candler, who also owned part of the island, caused activists, politicians, members of the Carnegie and Candler families, and a number of organizations, including the Georgia Conservancy and the

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an American environmental organization with chapters in all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded in 1892, in San Francisco, by preservationist John Muir. A product of the Pro ...

, to band together and push Fraser to sell to the National Park Foundation. They, along with others, also helped push a bill through the US Congress that established Cumberland Island as a national seashore. The bill was signed by President Richard Nixon on October 23, 1972. The Carnegie family sold the island to the federal government. With donations from the Mellon Foundation, Cumberland Island became a unit of the National Park Service, designated

Cumberland Island National Seashore Cumberland Island National Seashore preserves most of Cumberland Island in Camden County, Georgia, the largest of Georgia's Golden Isles of Georgia, Golden Isles. The seashore features beaches and dunes, marshes, and freshwater lakes. The nati ...

Current land ownership

Cumberland Island is actually two islands—the island proper and Little Cumberland Island—connected by a marsh. Little Cumberland is a separate island and not a part of Cumberland Island. As are the private properties on Cumberland Island, Little Cumberland Island has been maintained with a nature and conservation mission for over 60 years. Historically, portions of Cumberland Island remain in private hands. Large areas were deeded to the National Parks Foundation by members or heirs of the Carnegie family in 1971. Other lands in private ownership were purchased with funds provided by the Mellon Foundation and Congress, and in 1972 Cumberland Island was designated a national seashore. A small number of property owners, principally ones who preserved the island and protected it from massive commercial development, still own their homes and other private property on the southern, western and northern regions of the island. Some, however, have sold their property to the National Park Service (NPS), with an agreement that retains their ownership and full property rights during their lifetime. Eventually, their property will be owned by the National Park Service.

Cumberland Island seashore

Since the national seashore was established, a Navy nuclear submarine base has been built on the mainland opposite, which requires frequent dredging to the river so that it will be deep enough. A project to construct a spaceport, known as Spaceport Camden, has proposed to launch rockets from a rural site on the mainland four miles west of Cumberland Island National Seashore. This area hosts endangered right whales as well as many other forms of sea life, including sea turtles and dolphins.

References

Relevant literature

* Ruckdeschel, Carol. 2017. ''A Natural History of Cumberland Island, Georgia''. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press.

External links

Cumberland Island site Carnegie Family/Cumberland Island photograph collection (1888-1919)
from the collection of th
Georgia ArchivesCumberland Island Hiking, Camping & Backpacking Guide
{{authority control Barrier islands of Georgia (U.S. state) Landforms of Camden County, Georgia St. Marys, Georgia Georgia (U.S. state) Sea Islands Islands of Georgia (U.S. state)