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Lighthouse Trolley’s, with cooperation from the Coastal Historic Society, the King & Prince Hotel, and several other local businesses, now offers hop-n-go shuttle services to agreed upon stops on a routine schedule 11:00 am to 11:00 pm daily throughout the season.
The trolley service begins this weekend. Look for it at various places around St. Simons Island.
Are you a visitor? A local? What is there to do on St. Simons Island?
VirtualStSimons.com is a website that lets you see what might be of interest to you on the island. The site features several virtual tours of attractions on the island. The virtual tours give you a small glimpse of what is at an attraction so you can decide if you want to see more of it. It’s also a great tool to show your friends some of the sites that you saw on vacation or that you get to see on a day-to-day basis, enticing them to visit.
Jekyll Island Historic District, a National Historic Landmark administered by the state of Georgia, is situated on the southeast side of Jekyll Island. Occupied by the Guale Indians who called the area Ospo, the island was a popular hunting and fishing site. Gen. James Edward Oglethorpe, founder of Georgia, maintained an outpost on the island, and a plantation was established by one of his officers, Maj. William Horton. In 1794 a French family, the du Bignons, bought the island. They retained possession until 1886 when the island was sold to the newly formed “Jekyll Island Club.” Considered to be the most exclusive social club in the United States, the Jekyll Island Club had a limit of 100 members, among them the Astors, Vanderbilts, Pulitzers, Morgans and McCormicks and was laid out by prominent landscape architect H.W.S. Cleveland. A club house was built on the island and members constructed private “cottages”– enormous residences designed to house entire families with staff. The club was open for the post-Christmas season when many families came down from Newport and New York to relax and enjoy the “country life.” In 1942 the U.S. government ordered the area evacuated. The state of Georgia purchased the island from the club in 1947 and turned it into a state park. Most of the cottages have been preserved and are open to the public. Among them are San Souci, owned in part by J.P, Morgan and one of the first condominiums in the U.S.; Indian Mound, the twenty-five room home of the Rockefeller family; the Goodyear Cottage completed in 1906 from designs by the firm of Carrére and Hastings; Crane Cottage, circa 1917, the largest and most lavish of the cottages; the original Club House, a wood and brick Victorian structure with towers and manicured lawns; and Faith Chapel, built in 1904 in the Gothic style with copies of the Notre Dame de Paris gargoyles. The chapel also has a large signed Tiffany stained glass window.
The PGA TOUR and RSM McGladrey, one of the nation’s leading accounting, tax and business consulting firms, announced Tuesday a three-year title sponsorship agreement that will bring a new PGA TOUR event to renowned Sea Island Resort on the southern coast of Georgia beginning in 2010.
The McGladrey Classic will be held October 7-10 as part of the PGA TOUR Fall Series and will be played on the Seaside Course, which has been featured in Golf Digest’s list of Top 100 Courses in the United States. Longtime PGA TOUR member and Sea Island resident Davis Love III, whose foundation will be the tournament host organization, will serve as Tournament Chairman, and his brother Mark Love will be Executive Director of The McGladrey Classic. TOUR member Zach Johnson, also a Sea Island resident and a “Team McGladrey” member, will serve on the tournament board.
The purse will be $4 million and the tournament’s charitable beneficiaries will include Special Olympics, the official charity of RSM McGladrey’s golf platform, as well as local charities in the Sea Island-Brunswick area.
“We are delighted to announce the establishment of The McGladrey Classic and welcome RSM McGladrey to our family of title sponsors,” said PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem. “This represents a partnership between a dynamic new sponsor, a host organization founded by a prominent member of the PGA TOUR, and a world-class resort serving as the host venue. This unique collection of partners, combined with the direct involvement of Davis and Zach, brings distinction to the tournament that is unlike any other we have on TOUR.”
In addition to becoming a focal point of its charitable support of Special Olympics, the sponsorship expands RSM McGladrey’s existing presence in professional golf, which includes sponsorship of Team McGladrey comprising six-time PGA TOUR winner and Masters Champion Johnson, three-time PGA TOUR winner Chris DiMarco and LPGA TOUR professional Natalie Gulbis.
“This is a wonderful opportunity for RSM McGladrey to build greater awareness of our services and brand while expanding relationships with our clients and prospective clients,” said RSM McGladrey President C.E. Andrews.
“The real power of any relationship comes through understanding, which leads to trust and a partnership based on integrity. At RSM McGladrey, we know that our clients and prospects enjoy playing and watching golf. Partnering with the PGA TOUR enables us to connect with these individuals in a meaningful way, while also providing a new platform to strengthen our support of Special Olympics and other philanthropic organizations. We are honored to sponsor The McGladrey Classic.”
“As a longtime resident, I’m very excited to bring a PGA TOUR tournament to Sea Island, which undoubtedly will be a terrific host venue for The McGladrey Classic,” said Davis Love III. “I believe the players will really enjoy the Seaside Course, which is both beautiful and challenging and will be a great site for the tournament. I’m particularly pleased about the economic and charitable impact the tournament will have.”
The Seaside Course, which opened in 1929, was originally designed by noted architects Harry S. Colt and Charles Alison, and in 1999 was renovated by Tom Fazio. It measures 7,055 yards and plays to par 70. The resort also features the Plantation Course, designed by Walter Travis and renovated by Rees Jones in 1998.
The McGladrey Classic will feature a 132-player field. Love and Johnson, both major championship winners and past winners of Fall Series events, already have committed to play. The Fall Series features late-season drama as players vie to finish in the top 125 on the PGA TOUR Official Money List to earn their cards for 2011.
A Fall Series victory earns a trip to Maui for the season-opening SBS Championship, plus invitations to the following year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard, THE PLAYERS Championship, Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, the Memorial Tournament presented by Morgan Stanley, AT&T National and PGA.
Massengale is a popular and busy public park, where the smells of grilled hamburgers and hot-dogs mix with the happy shouts of playing children. Because of its extensive use, it has the worn look of a public park. Nevertheless, it provides access to the southern end of East Beach, and visitors who head north from here will experience the best beach the island has to offer. The sand is hard-packed and suitable for biking.
The park came about due to philanthropy by the Sea Island Company, which was in the process of limiting public access to its beaches and wanted to provide a public beach area for St. Simons residents, but not on Sea Island. The Sea Island Company bought the property in 1945 in an attempt to get the state to build a state park, but it was deemed too small, and the state instead purchased Jekyll Island. In 1955, the Sea Island Company donated the property to Glynn County for the park.
The woodlands of the park and East Beach, supporting Live Oaks and pines, are remnants of the maritime forest on the Holocene fragment of St. Simons. Because of the younger, poorer soil, this forest is much less diverse, compared with the mid-island forests that are growing on richer, Pleistocene soils found west of Bloody Marsh. 
- Directions: From Brunswick, cross F.J. Torras Causeway. Go left on Demere Road to East Beach Causeway. After crossing the causeway, go right on Ocean Boulevard. Massengale Park is on the left.
- Activities: Beachcombing, picnicking, biking, bird-watching, nature study.
- Dates: Open daily 7 a.m.–10 p.m.
- Facilities: Park, picnic tables, restrooms, showers.
- Fees: None.
- For more information: St. Simons Island Chamber of Commerce, Neptune Park, St. Simons Island, GA 31522. Phone (912) 638-9014.
St. Simons Island’s beaches are limited to the southern end of the island in a band stretching 4 miles from Gould’s Inlet on the eastern side to King Creek on the southwestern side. The beaches have experienced tremendous changes since the beginning of the island’s recorded history, and continue to erode and accrete as a response to the effects of wind, waves, tides, and storms. Taylor Schoettle’s study of the beaches in A Naturalist’s Guide to St. Simons Island is an excellent primer on the subject. Not many sea turtles nest on St. Simons Island for reasons not entirely understood but probably due to the island’s mix of currents, sand quality, width of beach, rock seawalls, beach orientation, and development. From 1994–1998, an average of only one sea turtle has nested on St. Simons a year, compared with 74 on Sea Island, which has roughly the same length of beach.
St. Simons Beach, the area between the King and Prince Beach Resort and fishing pier, through the years has been assaulted by currents, tides, and storms and has eroded significantly. If not for the placement of the Johnson Rocks in 1964, naturalist Taylor Schoettle believes the beach would have retreated all the way to the brick county buildings behind Neptune Park. In the 1920s, the beach extended out to the wings of the present pier, and the old pier extended the length of the new pier from that spot. In the 1920s, people could drive their cars on the beach from the pier to the King and Prince, something that would be unthinkable today. At low tide, beachcombers can walk to the King and Prince, but at high tide, much of the beach is submerged as waves crash on the seawall known as the Johnson Rocks.
This small park provides a panorama of the eastern marshes of St. Simons Island, while it informs the visitor of the Battle of Bloody Marsh. Though it was a relatively small engagement, the outcome had a tremendous influence on the future course of Georgia. An exhibit explains the engagement and a plaque honors Oglethorpe’s resolve to keep the Georgia territory in the hands of the British empire.
Geologically, the high ground of the park is the Pleistocene (35,000 years ago) shoreline of St. Simons Island, which existed before Sea Island and East Beach were formed to the east 5,000 years ago. The “Bloody Marshes” filled the lagoon created by the younger, sandy barriers. Marsh species display zonation, with Live Oaks on the highest, driest ground, cedar at the woodland edge, and marsh elder and groundsel trees by the edge of the marsh, going down to saltwort, glasswort, bunch grass (Spartina bakeri), salt meadow cordgrass (Spartina patens), and needlerush. Wading birds, such as herons and egrets, are observed fishing the shallower open waters of the marsh, which drain into Postell Creek and enter the ocean at Gould’s Inlet.
In 1739, Britain declared war on the Spanish, called the War of Jenkins’ Ear. Jenkins was an English smuggler who had his ship boarded by the Spanish off the Florida coast. When the Spanish couldn’t find any contraband, Jenkins testified to the English House of Commons, one of the officers grew angry and sliced off his ear. This outraged England, which had been spoiling for a fight with Spain for years. In the vulnerable southern colonies of America, Oglethorpe decided to act first, and laid siege to Spanish-held St. Augustine in 1740, but he was unsuccessful. Two years later, the Spanish sailed past the guns of Fort St. Simons and landed near Gascoigne’s Bluff with approximately 2,000 men supported by 50 ships. Flanked and outmanned, Oglethorpe abandoned Fort St. Simons and withdrew his 900 troops along Military Road toward Fort Frederica.
The first action of the day occurred within sight of Fort Frederica at Gully Hole Creek, where a force of Scottish Highlanders, English Rangers, and Indians led by Oglethorpe repulsed an advancing regiment of 200 Spaniards, causing them to retreat. Back in camp, the Spanish commander and governor of Florida, Manuel de Montiano, learning of the defeat, sent several hundred troops up the military road to cover the retreat. Meanwhile, Oglethorpe’s men waited in ambush near the road, and at the last possible moment, the Scots and English rangers opened fire on the unprepared Spanish troops, causing anywhere from 100 to 500 casualties, depending on whose account one believes. The marshes reportedly “ran red with blood.” The Spanish returned to the south end, and after contemplating the situation for a week, destroyed Fort St. Simons, boarded their ships, and left the Georgia coast for good, ensuring that Georgia and the territories to the north would be of British heritage and speak the English language. The military clash passed into the history books as the Battle of Bloody Marsh.
- Directions: From Brunswick, cross F.J. Torras Causeway. Go left on Demere Road. Bloody Marsh Monument is located on the left after the Demere/Frederica intersection.
- Activities: Historic touring, bird-watching, nature study.
- Dates: Visitor center is open 7 days a week from 8–4.
- Facilities: Park, exhibit shelter, audiotape.
- Fees: None.
One-half mile south of Clam Creek Road on the eastern side of North Riverview Drive are the remains of the Horton House. The two-story tabby structure, one of the oldest in the state, was built in 1742 after Horton’s original structure was destroyed by retreating Spanish, who had just been defeated by Oglethorpe in the Battle of Bloody Marsh. An exceptionally large red bay occupies the northwest corner of the house. Across the street in a peaceful setting of cedars, oaks and pines is the du Bignon family cemetery. The du Bignons owned the island for nearly a century before selling it to the Jekyll Island Club millionaires. Major Horton Road, on the north side of the property, connects with Beachview Drive on the eastern side of the island. This road becomes a trail that passes freshwater sloughs and a pond open to freshwater fishing.
Maj. William Horton served as forward lookout on Jekyll Island for Gen. James Oglethorpe during the British colonial period. Horton, who commanded English forces after Oglethorpe returned to England, is best known for having the first brewery in Georgia, the ruins of which are seen south of this site on the western side of Riverview Drive.
- Trail: 1-mile.
- Directions: From Brunswick, travel south on US 17, cross Sidney Lanier Bridge. At causeway, turn left toward Jekyll Island. Continue across Ben Fortson Parkway to dead end. Go left. Horton House Ruins and trailhead are on left past Clam Creek Picnic Area.
by Katie Brown
There is nothing more relaxing and beautiful than boating in the Golden Isle of Georgia. The views from the water are breathtaking, and the excitement of the catch will keep you coming back for more!
Fishing has always been a part of life for me growing up in the Golden Isles. From a young age I would go with my father early Saturday morning and rig up for a day of fishing! My first big catch was a Jack Crevalle that I landed off of G Reef. I thought that fish was going to pull me into the water with it, but I was determined to get it to the boat and I did. My father has a rule that you have to land any fish you catch by yourself, or you won’t be going fishing with him again.
Now, I’m a member of the Pink Mullets, an all female angling team based out of St. Simons Island. The Pink Mullets are best know for the 2008 Golden Isles Kingfish Classic in which we sank our boat…..however, we did so after landing a beautiful Sailfish and a nice Kingfish. If you are ever on a sinking boat send out a distress call and mention that you are a boat of women….you will be amazed at the number of boats that come to your rescue!
Today I’m taking you to F Reef, and don’t worry…..we won’t be sinking any boats! The water is calm like a lake, that glorious smell of salt water surrounds you, and there is a chill in the early morning air! As we are leaving the Channel the sun is coming up on the horizon, and we make our run to F Reef (about 9 miles off the St.SimonsCoast) for a morning of bottom fishing. As we arrive to our marker we are greeted by a beautiful Sea Turtle. We then rig up with squid, drop the lines, and instantly start bringing up Sea Bass. We are hoping for Snapper or Grouper, but Sea Bass are tasty too! After 2 hours of ok fishing I think I’ve snagged the bottom, or have I??? The line starts racing, and I know I’ve got more than a Sea Bass on the line…..After a good fight I land my first Giant Redfish!!!! I’ve caught several Redfish inshore, but I’ve never caught a Giant before!! So here’s to another great day of fishing in Coastal Georgia.
by Katie Brown
I’d like you to go with me to the Swamp. Yes, you heard right…the swamp!!! Just a short drive from the Golden Isles of Georgia lies the “Land of the Trembling Earth,” or what most of the locals refer to as Okefenokee…..bet you can’t say that 3 times!!!
Okefenokee Swamp Park is the headwaters of the Suwanee and St. Mary’s Rivers. This National Wildlife Refuge covers a half million acres, and is also part of the National Wilderness System! This is the largest swamp in North America.
The Seminole Indians named Okefenokee the “Land of the Trembling Earth.” The Seminoles had miles and miles of canoe trails leading all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico. Today visitors to the park can board the Lady Suwanee, rent canoes, enjoy nature shows, and take a guided bout tour into the swamp. I highly recommend all of these!!!
While visiting the Okefenokee I saw several American Alligators. In this park the Alligators are free range, so be careful where you park! We saw 2 alligators sun bathing in the parking lot! These are photos of some of the American Alligators in one of the nature exhibits. The park is also home to deer, bears, otters, snakes, butterflies, turtles, frogs, fish, and birds. You couldn’t pay me to cross that bridge!
My next adventure in the swamp was to boarded the Lady Suwanee for a 1.5 mile train ride through the swamp and tour of Pioneer Island. The Lady Suwanee is a 36 gauge replica steam engine. The train ride was fun, and enjoyable for all ages!! 
After the tour on the Lady Suwanee I took in one of the interactive nature shows, and was able to pet a baby alligator. They also had several snakes on hand, but I declined on petting those….
My next adventure was my favorite while at the swamp. We went on a 1 hour guided boat ride through the swamp, and it was BEAUTIFUL!!!!
Okefenokee Swamp Park is located 8 miles south of Waycross, Georgia off U.S. 1 South on Highway 177. Look for our billboards in Waycross, GA.
From I-95: (Exit 29) In Brunswick, GA take Highway 82 West Exit 6 (Mile Marker 29) Go approx. 45 miles and take Hwy 177
