10 Things to Know about St. Simons Island:
St. Simons Island is the largest of Georgia’s Golden Isles. It’s also midway between Savannah, Georgia and Jacksonville, Florida and approximately 12 miles east of Brunswick, Georgia.
St. Simons Island…
- Is around the same size as Manhattan.
- Has a humid, subtropical climate.
- Originally inhabited by tribes of the Creek Nation. Later contested by the Spaniards, English and French.
- Called Guadalquini in the Timucua language. The Spanish called it Isla de Ballenas (Isle of Whales).
- Produced rice and cotton for the Georgia colony, worked by large numbers of enslaved Africans.
- Helped construct the U.S.S. Constitution. In 1794, two thousand of its live oak trees were used to construct six warships. The live oaks were so sturdy that cannonballs were known to bounce right off the sides of ships made with them!
- Contains vast, open salt marshes and wetlands that purify immense amounts of water. In 1875, they reportedly inspired poet Sidney Lanier to compose his famous poem, “Marshes of Glynn.”
- Served as a location for a number of films, including Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013), The TV Mini Series Roots (1977), and the film Conrack (1974).
- Has wonderful sunsets, but like the other southeastern sea islands, its most dramatic displays are not on the ocean side to the east, but over the marshes to the west.
And the area surrounding the Altamaha River Delta is extremely biodiverse.
It’s also an important stopover for migrating shorebirds, who are traveling all the way from South America to their spawning grounds in the Canadian Arctic!
Article: Dani Ray