George III of England granted 2,000 acres along the south bank of the Altamaha River to William Hopeton in 1763 and Hopeton soon set about creating the rice plantation which bore his name. So began the long modern history of this property, first known as Hopeton and now more widely known as Altama. In 1805, the property was sold to two Scottish immigrants, John Couper and James Hamilton, who grew Sea Island cotton with hundreds of slave laborers. Couper’s son, James Hamilton Couper, vastly improved the property after he acquired it in 1827. He built the original Altama plantation house [pictured above] in the Georgian style circa 1858. Its ruins may remain, per the Glynn County Historic Resources Survey [2009].
After visiting Holland he introduced a system of dikes, canals and rails to move his rice and sugar efficiently to the river for transport into nearby Darien.
Couper was perhaps Georgia’s greatest “Renaissance Man” and it’s unfortunate that he isn’t better known today outside a small group of historians.
He led the survey party which mapped the Georgia-Florida border, built Christ Church in Savannah and was the first to describe the Indigo Snake to science. He is honored eternally in its Latin name, Drymarchon couperi.
The Civil War was the death knell for Hopeton-Altama as a working plantation.
In 1898 a small colony of Shakers attempted to tame the property, which was long neglected and dotted with ruins of its former glory. Their efforts to grow rice and raise cattle were unsuccessful and they abandoned the project in 1902.
William Dupont bought the adjacent Hopeton and Altama properties in 1914 and renamed the expanse Altama.
Dupont wintered and trained racehorses here and built the main house [pictured above] based on the original plantation house.
Atlanta entrepreneur Cator Woolford bought the plantation in 1930.
He built a swimming pool on the property which remains to this day.
He also built a large “play house” adjacent to the pool to entertain his guests.
In 1944, Alfred W. Jones scion of the Sea Island Company, acquired Altama, primarily for use as a hunting reserve.
Cabins and structures supporting the sporting life were constructed in the ensuing years.
The cabins were used for hunters, as well as for general visitors.
With the Sea Island bankruptcy in 2010, Altama was bought by a private equity firm who planned to develop the property as homes and shops.
With the help of the Nature Conservancy, the Marine Corps and private donors, the property was acquired by the state of Georgia in 2015 for future protection and management and will now serve as a publicly accessible Wildlife Management Area, part of a 120-mile corridor of protected lands stretching from Florida through the Okefenokee Swamp to Fort Stewart. It’s a real conservation success story and the cooperation of state and private entities is commendable.
Though not particularly historic in terms of age, most of the outbuildings have a cultural value as part of a grand 20th-century hunting plantation.
Vanishing Georgia: Photographs by Brian Brown 
I had the pleasure of working here one summer. Beautiful, beautiful property.
My son ,James Maxwell Couper lV is living in Miami as is his 82 year old father, the lil ! You are cousins many times removed.
Carol Millas.. you son JMC? I suppose this must be a type as his mother passed in Atlanta in the early 50’s. None the less, Jim Couper is my 2nd cousin. He also has a son, JMC (Max) but that may be the end of the Couper line. I calculated James/John Coupers in a direct line just this morning; I believe I came up with 410 yrs, give or take.
Carol, so sorry, I misread your IV in Max’s description! I’m Ann’s daughter!
James Hamilton Couper was my Great, great grandfather. Some years ago, after the property was purchased by the Texas real estate firm, we were able to visit. It is a truly amazing place and we were honored to be able to visit.
Wow, wouldn’t that be something if the Michael Robinson I knew from Athens, was you! Which son/daughter did you descend from? I come from John/Rebecca – JHC – James M to James M and Sara Little (Atl) Look forward to hearing from you.
i play here and my family stay with my family here brian,they was the mchan and bennetts,long long time ago,tom and Robert Bennett is some of my kin people
unel mchan is my 3 great aunt and they had a fish camp up there,john mchan rasied my grandmother,marry cloer, james ,hasting and davis because her,dad,sister and mother died
my mother said the martin lived there too,robert and rosa martin,rosa was a mchan,robert and tom was the ones killed on st simon,drown or sharks,anyway was much left of them
thank you for sharing ,they took care of my greatmother mary cloer
I was raised up on this plantation and its sad that it is no longer a part of
my life. I think of this supernatural place often.
Tena, might you be a sister or relative of my great grandmother, Ruby Madris Phillips? She was the oldest of 10 children and I don’t know the names of her 9 siblings.
Hi, Tena. I worked with your dad, Floyd, the summer of ’84. He was a great guy.
Those barns are amazing! Can you go inside the houses, Brian?
The houses are for now, unfortunately, off limits.
I just love this kind of thing so much and it is great when you can also include the history behind it!