One of Coastal Georgia’s most important yet little-known landmarks is located just outside Darien off Georgia Highway 99, on Tolomato Island near the historic community of Carneghan. Though surrounded by a quiet community of modern homes and vacation homes, the ruins are well-preserved and considered an important resource by the people of Tolomato Island. The area was originally known simply as “The Thicket”. Like most industrial and grand architectural sites on the coast, this location was only possible by the labor of enslaved people. Even in newer, official markings of these places, this fact is omitted.
Text of Historic Marker on nearby Georgia Highway 99:
“The Thicket”: Sugar Mill – Rum Distillery Ruins
On the banks of Carnochan Creek, a short distance East of here, are the ruins of a famous Sugar Mill and Rum Distillery operated early in the 19th century. These buildings, constructed of tabby by William Carnochan on his huge sugar plantation at “The Thicket,” followed closely plans laid out by Thomas Spalding of Sapelo. The sugar works and rum distillery were operated successfully on a commercial scale until 1824, when a hurricane tore off the roof and upper story of the mill and cane barn, and destroyed other buildings.
As evident in this photograph, the majority of the ruins are fairly well-preserved.
Note the thickness of the shells in this tabby construction, as opposed to the more “broken-up” look of later and modern tabby.
Repairs were apparently made in the 1920s, as graffiti on this stucco work would attest.
Vanishing Georgia: Photographs by Brian Brown 
Instead of referring to Mr. Carnochan as builder of sugar & rum distillery, why no mention of the many hundreds of slaves that actually built and produced products that enriched a few white families? Is this a deliberate, racist attempt to forget the true history of how wealth was accumulated?
You obviously don’t know me, nor have you spent enough time on this site to know that I do my best to document the African-American contribution to the Georgia coast as fully as anyone else. I will add a relevant tag to the post, as I did omit it, albeit not on purpose. I do all of this work myself and don’t have time to write full histories of every place I cover. This is also a live-edited and constantly updated space, so I’m always glad to make improvements. I can assure you that any omissions of this contribution are not done on purpose; if you knew me you would realize that your statement was quite uninformed and actually quite offensive.
Hi, thanks for all the great pictures and the article. But instead of getting defensive, I think you should just take Lance’s point. Too often, the (BIG) part about the slaves who built the places and generated the wealth is left out of the history. We should be working to change this!
I you read the response, you would realize that I AM working to change this. Just browse all my sites. There’s nothing defensive about that, as there’s nothing to be defensive about.
https://vanishingcoastalgeorgia.com/tag/slavery-in-georgia/
https://vanishingcoastalgeorgia.com/tag/african-american-culture-of-coastal-georgia/
Thank you for the photos of “The Thicket” where my grandmother, Elinor Mansfield, daughter of Joseph Mansfield was raised from 1880 to about 1900. I’ve heard stories about her living there, but have never seen it.
Mary Walter
Hi Mary,
I live in The Thicket and am the co-chair of our community’s Historic Preservation Committee. I’ve been doing some research on past owners and was certainly familiar with your great-grandfather’s name. Has anyone in your family done any research from that time period?
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thank you again for the photos, grover chester
On Mon, May 20, 2013 at 1:06 PM, Vanishing Coastal Georgia Photographs by
I had a distant Grandfather on my Maternal Grandmother’s side from McIntosh County (also the family name). I a book published about the family it says,” Alexander D. McIntosh served during the War Between The States in Company H5th Georgia Calvary as their 4th Sgt. His enlistment lasted the entire war and he later received pension for his service. Family lore has it he had a standing order for a keg of rum upon receipt of his pension money every month. ” I had wondered where he got it. Maybe here? Also from the book, Children of Straughlachlan Plantation about the same grandfather, “After his Father’s in 1886 Alexander took over care of Sapelo Bridge for a while. He was also known to be a carpenter and to work the polling place at South Newport during elections.” Our family cemetery is at South Newport on Hwy. 17 not far from the original location of the family home, Straughlachlan.
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