Ever since coming across a small colony of these in a swamp when I was a boy, I have always loved Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis). Their tall scarlet spikes make them one of our most beautiful wildflowers. They grow all over Georgia, in moist, mostly shaded environments.
Though it’s most recently been in the news for the nearby discovery of human remains, Portal Hunting Club won’t be becoming a macabre tourist attraction anytime soon. In fact, it’s not easily located and the members like it that way. On the edge of the thick and foreboding Bulltown Swamp, where Long, McIntosh, and Liberty counties meet, this cinderblock clubhouse has been home to the Portal Hunting Club since 1956, but the club has much earlier origins. [The clubhouse itself is just inside Long County]. It was established by men from Portal, a little town west of Statesboro. According to a great article about the club by Angus McCleod in Georgia Outdoor News, it’s the oldest hunting club in Georgia.
He writes: …The club was established back in the late 1800s. There were few or no deer in Bulloch County back then, so a group of hunters from Portal learned they could lease land in the corner of McIntosh, Liberty and Long counties to deer hunt.
Twice a year the men would load up their wagons, saddle their horses and bring their hounds and bird dogs for the two-day trip to Bull Town Swamp. The hunters would camp one night en route. The bird dogs would hunt along the way, and if one pointed to a covey of quail, the hunters would shoot. If a hound jumped a rabbit and someone shot it, they would have quail and rabbit for supper.
The members of Portal have hunted the property for about 110 years. They are believed to be the oldest, still-functioning hunting club in Georgia. However, there were two years during World War II when the club was closed. The Army was using the woods in and around Bull Town Swamp as training grounds. Of course they were using much of Long and McIntosh counties to train our troops. During those two years, the Army blew up the old barn that used to house the hunters.
After World War II, the Portal Hunting Club members leased an old home off Sandy Run Road in Liberty County. It was an old farm house with newspaper on the wall for insulation. A potbelly stove provided the only heat. It was a proud day in 1956 when the hunters moved into the existing clubhouse.
Besides the large country kitchen and the comfortable main rooms, Portal has two bathrooms and four sleeping rooms — very much like an old Army barracks where everyone sleeps in an open room with bunk beds...
Make sure to read Angus’s article. He details a fascinating custom of the club you’ll find interesting, I believe.
One of the first things the late Cornelia Walker Bailey told me in 2012 when I met her on my first of many trips to Sapelo Island was that she had seen plans dating back to the late 1960s to build a causeway from mainland McIntosh County to the island her people had inhabited for nearly 200 years. She told me she was glad I could see her island but I could tell she was on the fence about tourism to the island. On one hand, it was a source of income for her family, but it wasn’t that simple, she said. Cornelia was the resident griot, or storyteller, of Sapelo and she was very protective of this magical place. Her book God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man was my guide to understanding a little about the place I was lucky enough to visit, thanks to the generosity of my late friend Sonny DeSoto. Very few people have been to this isolated enclave of Geechee culture and if you are lucky enough to have been, you have an immediate appreciation and understanding of the need to keep it as it has always been. It’s magical in its isolation, its lack of modern convenience, and most of all, in the spirit of the people.
I don’t know about any causeway plans as of this moment, but what I do know is that the McIntosh County Commission has been raising property taxes for at least the last 8 years, creating a hardship for the community of Hogg Hummock [aka Hog Hammock] and while people on and off the island have been protesting this, it’s fallen on deaf ears. The exorbitant property valuations have coincided with the building of large modern vacation homes, interspersed among the small vernacular cottages that have defined the community over time. The desire now, and what the commission just approved by a vote of 3-2, is for many more of these unwelcome homes to be built by the wealthy few who can afford them. With values of the majority of these properties sure to be north of a million dollars, the taxes for people on the island will only get higher and therefore untenable. A real concern is that the county will eventually condemn properties for those longtime residents who can’t meet the growing tax burden and flip those properties to eager developers who care nothing about the history of this place. Only time will tell.
The people of Sapelo are very independent and very resourceful, but this is a problem that those skills may not be able to solve. I understand that part of this is due to the fact that descendants and heirs are willingly selling their property here, so that has to be considered, but to those who wish to remain here, not in the shadow of some short-term-rental McMansion, there should be a covenant that allows them to pay the rates of taxes they’ve always paid. Ultimately, no development would be the ideal scenario, but short of stopping that, which seems impossible now, there must be a compromise. Please share your thoughts with the McIntosh County Commission, or even the Governor’s Office, if you’re so inclined. Apparently, the governor spends time on the island, so I’m sure he’s aware of these issues.
I’ve always called these pedestrian sections on the sides of bridges along the coast “fishing bridges” but I know there must be a better name. On a list of McIntosh County fishing piers, this is identified as the Champney River Bridge Catwalk, and catwalk seems a good description. It’s probably the safest, accessibility wise, of all of these public piers in the Altamaha Delta, because there’s a nice parking lot. The others generally have little more than a pull-over spot and US 17 is a very busy road most of the time. Tourists may use these from time to time, but locals, who know the tides and and the runs of numerous species, use them frequently.
If you’re not an angler and just want to take in the coastal scenery, or a birdwatcher checking out the diverse avifauna, they’re a good starting point.
The challenges facing African-Americans in tracing their ancestry have been widely publicized in recent years and among them is the absence of marked graves in cemeteries dating from the days of slavery well into the Jim Crow era. Groups like the Black Cemetery Network are working against time to research and document these important resources.
Dunwoody Cemetery, in a patch of palmetto and oak beside Interstate 95 near Darien, is a perfect example of such a place. The beautiful vernacular headstone of Rena P. Wilson, who was born just after slavery’s end, is the only memorial I could locate here. Most of the earlier markers were made of wood and are long lost to the elements.
The land where Dunwoody is located was originally part of a grant from King George II to Sir Patrick Houston dating to 1757. When the land was purchased by James Smith upon Houston’s death in 1798, it was named Sidon and became part of Smith’s network of profitable rice operations along Cathead Creek. A tabby plantation house, slave dwellings, and this slave cemetery made up the main part of the plantation, which was operated by Smith’s daughter, Elizabeth Dunwoody. All traces of the plantation are now gone, except this cemetery.
Grace Baptist Church is an important vernacular Gothic Revival church and has been a landmark of Darien’s Gullah-Geechee community since its construction circa 1910-1915. Though segregated, the community was well-established in Darien and several architecturally significant historic churches from the first generations after Emancipation can still be found throughout the historic district, including First African Baptist, St. Cyprian’s, and St. John Baptist. A petition to to save the church can be accessed and signed here. According to Missy Brandt Wilson, notable names associated with the church include the Bleach and Stewart families, who found their way back to relatives in Darien after being sold during the Weeping Time, and W. H. Rogers, the only African-American member of the Georgia General Assembly in 1907.
In recent years, it was home to Emmanuel House of Prayer in Historic Grace, but the congregation has apparently been inactive for a long time. A tree fall impacted the rear section of the building a few years ago and lack of repair has led to encroachment of wildlife and vegetation. The collapsed section of roof is evident and has begun “pushing out” the left side of the cruciform. As a result, the city of Darien has designated the property dangerous and unfit, and will likely condemn it in the near future. Their concern is understandable, but hopefully, they will work with advocates who want to see it saved.
The stained glass windows are thought to have been placed during the 1930s.
They are perhaps the most endearing feature of the design.
Though they look damaged, most are in good condition. The blur effect is from plastic placed on the windows to protect from moisture. Note the collapsing roof at the right in this photo.
I think the loss of this resource would be a tragedy, not just for its aesthetic value but for its historic connections.
Since I don’t know what is being planned, I can only hope that signing a petition will help in a small way. Saving the church should at least be something the city will consider. It’s definitely worth saving.
Vernon Square-Columbus Square Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This gable-front bungalow was built by Theodor “Teddy” Atkinson (1923-2016) in 1947. It’s typical of a style very common locally in the first half of the 20th century. If you like vernacular architecture, Darien has some nice examples in its historic district.
With plantings of emblematic Southern shrubs such as camellia and azalea, cabbage palms and canna lilies, I would say this yard is of a Southern style once nearly ubiquitous but not much encountered anymore. The burning barrel was ever-present in yards of another time, as well, and many still use them. But it made me think of the old days.
If you drive through Darien you won’t be able to miss this big old wooden boat sitting in the middle of town. It’s permanently “docked” beside the old McIntosh County Jail, which serves today as the arts center. After years away from Georgia, it was at the end of its service and was soon to be scrapped. Friends of the Kit Jones, in collaboration with local government and encouraged by the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, wanted to save it and return it to Georgia, and that’s just what they did. The following history is abridged from their website which is really worth a read. The level of research they’ve done is impressive.
The Kit Jones was built to order for R. J. Reynolds, Jr., of pine and live oak milled on Sapelo Island, which Reynolds owned at the time. Blueprints for the vessel were drawn by prominent naval architects Sparkman & Stephens of New York and construction was overseen between 1938-1939 by Axel Sparre, a Danish shipwright who was living in nearby Brunswick. Gullah-Geechee residents of Sapelo provided much of the labor.
She is 60 feet long, 17 feet wide, 18 feet tall, and weighs 60,000 pounds. Her namesake is Katharine Talbott Jones (Kit), wife of Sea Island developer Alfred W. Jones. They traveled in the same circles as Reynolds and Jones had spent time on Sapelo with then-owner Howard Coffin the the 1920s.
The Kit Jones has served as a tugboat, a ferry for the people of Sapelo, a freight hauler, and, a fire boat during World War II.
She began an association as a research vessel with the University of Georgia marine sciences program in 1953 that ended with her acquisition by the University of Mississippi in 1985. She served for many more years and was capsized by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. She came back for a few more years but was finally retired in 2013.
Restoration work was done from 2019-2023 and everything looks ship shape. Ultimately, this is an amazing “save” and my hats are off to this community and especially the Friends of the Kit Jones.
I’ve been collecting Georgia postcards since I was a teenager and have several thousand now. Besides my hometown, my favorite area to collect is the coast, Jekyll Island especially. This is just a small sampling of my Jekyll Island collection. Besides interesting glimpses into an earlier time, the cards are important primary historical sources. All of these images are in the public domain.
Having spent countless vacations with my parents on Jekyll, it’s a part of my history. Hand-colored Albertypes are my favorite cards and are among the most sought-after of the Jekyll Island cards.
The island was a haven for millionaires and some of the most famous American families during the late Victorian and early Edwardian eras, and the postcards produced for members of the Jekyll Island Club were quite special. You’ll note that on some of the cards, Jekyll is spelled “Jekyl”. I’m not sure why the distinction, since the island’s namesake, Sir Joseph Jekyll, spelled his name with two “l”s.
Many of the Albertypes focus on the natural and undeveloped aspects of the island, which luckily, can still be seen today.
Bicycling was all the rage in the early 1900s. The card pictured below shows one of several bicycle paths maintained for the enjoyment of club members.
The beach buildings in the card below were for use by members of the Jekyll Island Club. They look quite primitive by today’s standards.
Golf was first brought to Jekyll by members of the Jekyll Island Club and remains a popular pastime today.
Women were as involved in golf on Jekyll as men, as this view suggests.
Golf was probably more popular than sunbathing in the Club Era, at least with adults.
Mistletoe, as the house was known, is virtually unchanged today.
This multi-view card was published by Brunswick booksellers Fleming & Bryant. Along with H. O. Lederer, they were the primary publishers of early Jekyll Island cards. Featured are Solterra, which burned in 1914, Goodyear Cottage, and Mistletoe.
Like H. O. Lederer, Fleming & Bryant focused on the club grounds, as well as natural scenes like the one below.
On of my favorite cards is this moonlight view of the Jekyll River.
Several commercial publishers besides the Albertype Company were also distributing nice views of the island.
The Clubhouse features prominently in many of them. The view below, showing Solterra Cottage and its dovecote* on the left and Faith Chapel on the right, is a nice perspective, possibly made from the turret on the clubhouse. *-The dovecote survived the fire and is still standing.
This store has a Pembroke address but is really out in the country and closer to the Lanier community. This photo dates to circa 2012 and the front has recently been sided with a stucco-like material. It doesn’t look the same.
Marcia O. McCoy writes: Shuman’s Lumber Supply (Shuman-Owens Supply Company) was sold to J. Harry Owens in 1989. The business was relocated to 769 East Bacon Street in Pembroke, Ga. and is still owned and operated by Harry’s daughter (Marcia Owens McCoy) and her daughters (Tiffany Zeigler , Hannah Deloach). This business will be celebrating their 60 year anniversary on April 1, 2023!! Jack Shuman did own the gas station across the street from the building supply.