WELCOME TO GEORGIA - CUMBERLAND ISLAND

Trip Day:         16        Latitude:            30°46.02' N                        Locks Today:    0

Miles Today:       5        Longitude:     081°28.33' W                      Locks Total:     6

Total Miles:    502        Location:          Cumberland Island, GA

We only traveled five miles today and anchored off the National Parks System's docks of Cumberland Island.  Continue at your own risk as we tour the island and relate the history .  .  .

For thousands of years people have lived on Cumberland Island which is a 17 mile island bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on one side and Cumberland Sound on the other.  Today dense palmettos and live oaks dripping with Spanish moss cover the island.

Some of the live oaks are more than 400 years old.

Thomas Carnegie, partner and brother of the steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, began building Dungeness Mansion in 1884.  He died a year later but his wife, Lucy, remained to raise their nine children on Cumberland Island. 

After Lucy’s death the children failed to maintain Dungeness Mansion, then in 1959 a fire    destroyed the mansion. These are the ruins of the Dungeness.

As each child married, Lucy built a home as a wedding gift. Plum Orchard was built in 1898 for her son George and his wife Margaret Thaw. It is a 22,000 square foot mansion with 11 bathrooms, a pool, and an indoor squash court.

(Interior photos in the slideshow.)

In the 1890s, The Settlement was established for freed slaves and the First African Baptist Church was established in 1893. 

  Horses were brought to the island to work the plantations, pull the buggies and as Polo mounts for the Carnegie boys. In the end, the horses were set free and today their descendents still roam free to find food, birth their foals and survive on their own without outside help or interference.

We had a wonderful day on Cumberland Island and leave with a greater appreciation of its history and beauty.

As we boarded our dinghy to return to the boat, we noticed this sub leaving King’s Bay Submarine Base.

If you are not totally bored .  .  . want more .  .  . click on the slide show.