Cumberland Island

Cumberland Island is the largest Georgia Barrier Island and it is the most Southern.
90% of the island is a National Seashore, but it has only been a national park for about 40 years.

To get to the island you can go by private boat or take the ferry from St. Marys, GA. The ferry is people only and everything you carry in you carry out. There are campsites so we traveled over with a boy scout troop and lots of other people (ages ranged from about 10 to mid 70’s)

The island is a mixture of historical sites and nature. Much of the island has been allowed to return to nature.
We stayed at the southern end of Cumberland. We, and more than half of our fellow passengers, went on the ranger led hike. Our tour took us from the boat landing to the ruins of Dungeness. There were two estates- 100 years apart,- at the same place and both named Dungeness. The ruins we saw are the ruins of Thomas and Lucy Carnegie’s home. There are still parts of the estate around the island – some owned by the park system, some privately owned. The ranger explained about the dirt road we were on, the trees and bushes we saw and how they were used over time by the different people who lived on the island, and the animals we might see.
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There are, and we saw, wild horses on Cumberland. Lucy Carnegie wanted her 60 some horses allowed to go free with the wild horses on the island at her death. The ranger explained to us that because the Park System is still fairly new to the area they don’t have policies about many of the issues that they are and will be facing. Two issues she discussed were the horses and the buildings. Anytime they start to discuss a policy the newspapers hear and then all sides of the issue get very vocal. First the horses-there are 150-200 horses on the island and currently the park system does nothing to help manage the herd or herds (she said there’s a small herd in the northern part of the island that appear to be part Arabian) so they really don’t know if these horses are special to the island (like the ponies on Oracoke), they believe that all the horses were left to be wild like Lucy Carnegies. We saw several horses and they seem to be pretty use to people- as long as we didn’t get to close they let us watch them graze.

Our park ranger also talked with us about the issue of preservation. She said there are some people who believe the island should be allowed to revert back to nature and no attempts to preserve the structures should be made. She feels, and I have to agree, that part of history is in the buildings and they should be preserved. It will be interesting to see what Cumberland Island National Seashore Park is like 10 years from now. Our guide did tell us that within the next two years the park service will be offering trips to the northern part of the island and that they’ve discovered where forts were located.

After our tour the ranger told us how to get to various parts of the island and she made sure everyone was clear on the directions, and how and when to be back at the dock. We had to be back at the dock because the ferry leaves at 4:45 PM and if you are not there you will be spending the night!

We headed for the beach with a side trip to a cemetery where we had the added benefit of our closet uninterrupted view of a horse. It was a 15 minute walk from the cemetery to the beach – lots of different areas- wild and beautiful. The beach was almost empty when we got there. We found a place to sit and had our lunch then looked for shells and watched the clouds get closer. We found some great shells (those are the only things you may take off the island) We decided to walk back the way we came because I wanted to see more of the Dungeness Ruins (without kids and soccer balls in the picture). We made it back to the tree covered road way before it started to rain. I chose to stay under cover rather than in the pouring rain for some other pictures- so we only have a couple of the entry to the estate to add to the pictures of the ruins we already had.(next trip I’ll try for some of the grounds and views).

On our walk from the ruins back to the covered boat dock we saw armadillos and deer.

It was a great day and I’m already anxious to return. And in a couple years Grandma and BobBob will watch the kids so Anna and Dave can relive some of their past and go wilderness camping on Cumberland Island (there was a couple on the boat ride home who made us think of you two).