The Gilded Age: Jekyll Island GA

We have spent two days at the Jekyll Harbor Marina on the picturesque Jekyll Island. 


There is much to see here, and the marina provides bicycles for touring this flat “low country.”  

We are tied alongside the dock, not in a slip, so we are feeling the effects of a westerly wind of 15-25 knots. It should subside tonight and we will depart fairly early tomorrow. And we witnessed how low it is after torrential rain and thunderstorms our first night and morning here!



 There was local flooding and we found the marina staff pumping water out of the parking lot, but we could navigate bikes without getting drenched. 

We visited the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, which is active in conservation, rehabilitation and education about sea turtles and their habitats. It operates entirely on private funding and we viewed several “patients” undergoing treatment in open tanks.

We then biked to Faith Chapel, the second church built on the island in 1903. The stained glass windows by Alexander and Louis Tiffany are illuminated by natural light and they are breathtaking. Pictures really do not convey the depths of color and impact they have, but you may be able to enlarge them for better viewing.




Dinner was at the waterfront Wharf restaurant, part of the Jekyll Island Club property (the hotel is pictured below). It was excellent, with live music and a clear sunset.

Jekyll Island Club Hotel

Friday began with a buffet breakfast at the Jekyll Island Club Grand Dining Room. Talk about restored splendor! As Beryl has said to me before, I should have lived in this era. 

A bit of historical perspective: The club began in 1886 as a winter hunting and fishing destination for America’s leading industrialists such as Marshall Field, JP Morgan, Joseph Pulitzer, William Rockefeller and Cornelius and William Vanderbilt. The Club House was built in 1888 and expanded over time. It has been noted that when the the members were on the island for the winter months, 1/6 of the country’s wealth was represented there. It was also the location of a secret meeting in 1910 of top financiers who crafted the modern day Federal Reserve.





And then we biked to the famous Driftwood Beach. The ocean is overtaking the coastline here at a rate of about 5’ per year, partly due to rising ocean levels but also changes made locally for commercial transit into Brunswick GA.



These are full-size trees, as far as you can see. It’s quite spectacular.

More to come tomorrow!



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