January 5-9, 2021: Cumberland Island. Wild Horses Couldn't Keep us Away.

 

The ruins of Dungeness Mansion and one of the 140 wild horses of Cumberland Island.

"On a Georgia Island, a lot of good food and plenty of nothing."

                                                     ----The New York Times

Are you ready for a few days of relaxation and not much else? (And I am talking no email, phone calls, TV, etc.) Then pack your bags and head to Cumberland Island, about 2 hours south of Savannah, and beyond St Simon's and Jekyll.  

According to the National Park service which operates most of the northern portion of the island, "Cumberland Island is a barrier island off Georgia’s southeast coast, with protected beaches and maritime forest. The Dungeness Ruins are the remains of a mansion built by Thomas Carnegie, brother and partner of steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie. Georgian Revival–style Plum Orchard is another Carnegie estate. The simple, 1-room First African Baptist Church lies north. Wildlife includes loggerhead turtles and feral horses."  

Now that we have spent some quality time there, we can attest that the National Park Service ain't lying!

There are basically two ways to get onto the island:

1.  Ferry from St. Mary's, Georgia which runs several times a day but limits service to Thursday through Sunday at present (so be sure to check the schedule). This will land you at Sea Camp, the official national park office. There isn't much in the way of a visitor's center, but the rangers do run several historical and nature programs for guests of the island. They also rent bikes and campsites. If you know my husband at all, you know we didn't camp and took the other option---

2. Stay at the Greyfield Inn and they will arrange transportation (at no additional charge)  for you aboard their boat, the Lucy B. Ferguson, from Fernandina Beach, Florida.  That sounds a lot more like Paul :) .

Once you get to the island, you have two choices for lodging:

1. The campground. It looked nice and secluded, had real bathrooms and even a phone charging station (which was totally full of phones when we got there, even though the cell signal was often nonexistent.)

2. The Greyfield Inn. This is where we stayed and we loved it. The good news is: It is all inclusive (except alcohol). And the food is amazing Michelin star eats. The naturalist tours are all included.  The rooms were comfortable and it was QUIET. And I mean quiet! The bicycles are free to use whenever you want. Miles and miles and miles of hiking trails. There is a long list of GOOD things about staying at Greyfield. The bad news is GET OUT YOUR WALLET! It is not cheap. It borders on Blackberry Farms prices (where, incidentally, we have NEVER stayed even one night!)  But overall, for a 9th anniversary, it was justified.  We couldn't really say enough good things about the inn, the service, the food or their adherence to stop the spread of COVID 19. Breakfast and lunch were served at a very good social distance and masks were required by all except when shovelling awesome food in your mouth. Lunch was in a paper bag, but the quality of the food never suffered. We often took ours as a picnic.  If you can find any way to afford this, please go. You won't regret it. 

We had our room in the Large Cottage across the lawn from the main hotel. We had a private bath and a sitting area outdoors as well as a shared living room. The bed was very comfortable.

Greyfield Inn. Ten rooms and many porches.  the 19th century retreat of Thomas and Lucy Carnegie who built Greyfield in 1900 for their daughter, Margaret Ricketson. The home was converted to an inn in 1962 by Margaret’s daughter, Lucy R. Ferguson, and her family. The Carnegie family still oversees the Inn, which exudes the romance and luxury of a grand hotel with the hospitality and charm of a family home.

Greyfield has a social hour in the parlor nightly (with everyone wearing a mask and sitting six feet apart to their credit.) Our first night we discovered we were sharing the inn with a 50th anniversary couple from Paul's hometown of Clinton, Tn. and a 30th anniversary couple who were from Virginia. They used to have an "honor bar" but due to COVID, your favorite cocktail or soda pop is served by a bartender.

The portrait on the wall above is of Lucy Carnegie. Her daughter Lucy Ferguson started the Inn and the family still oversees it. Lucy Ferguson seemed like someone I would have liked. She loved nature, spent a lot of time outdoors and wasn't overly enamored of dressing up much. One guest who actually met her years ago when she was in her seventh decade said she road up the house on a horse with a vulture on her arm. 

This is the cottage where we stayed. 

The island is eighteen miles long and has many attractions. On the north end is the church where JFK, Jr. and Carolyn Bessette were married. They wanted it quiet and free of the press. I don't think they could have chosen a more remote and hard to get to locale. We saw the church they were married in and it was very, very small. I doubt it would have comfortably seated more than 25 people. 

This is an old African Baptist Church which has had numerous iterations, but is tiny. It served as the location for JFK, Jr. nuptials.

This tiny, simple altar with a wooden cross is the centerpiece.

Back in September of 1996, Cumberland Island had a secret. They were playing host to a top-secret wedding and no one was going to be caught spilling the beans.

A week later, the story broke—John F. Kennedy Jr. had married Carolyn Bessette in a private ceremony in the island's tiny First African Baptist Church, filling the church's eight pews with family and friends and no media. They held the reception at the historic inn. Despite the fact that the Bessette-Kennedy wedding was the hottest news of its time, the paparazzi never found out about the ceremony until after the fact, thanks in part to the zipped lips of the island's residents and the inn's workers. JFK, Jr also did a great job of zipping his lip. He and Carolyn didn't tell the press about their engagement until two days after the wedding!

Beautiful bride and groom. This give a perspective on how tiny the church is.

We enjoyed many of the historical aspects of the island both modern day and further back. The Carnegies built all their children (except bachelors!) a home on Cumberland as a wedding gift. The Dungeness, seen in our first photo, burned by the first half of the 20th century and was never rebuilt. 

The other imposing and lovely structure (now in disrepair, but being slowly restored by the park service) is the mansion at Plum Orchard. Paul totally fell in love with his place and played peeping Tom in all the windows where he saw an indoor swimming pool and a squash court. 

Definitely a winner in the "none-too-shabby" category, Plum Orchard was finished in 1898 and had some additions as late as 1906. Walking along, visitors are greeted by Plum Orchard’s expansive grounds, dotted with ancient, stately oak trees draped in Spanish moss. 

Much of the historic building on the island was the work of General Nathaniel Greene of Revolutionary War fame. He received the Island as repayment for his services and moved there and built with his wife Caty.  The Greene's eventually succumbed to diseases of their era (lockjaw/ I don't know what the general succumbed to but he was only 44 years old.). Born on the island in 1790, Robert Stafford’s story picks up as the Greene saga fades. Having worked for Caty’s daughter, Louisa Shaw, Stafford learned the prosperity of plantation life, cultivating crops of citrus, rice and olives, with his most productive being Sea Island cotton. By the early 1800s, he owned most of the island, as well as 348 slaves at the height of his empire. Never married, Stafford took a mulatto common law slave wife, Zabette, who bore him six children. As the Civil War edged toward the island, the people fled North, including Zabette and the children, but not Stafford. Although the well-educated and accomplished children never returned, Zabette did, finding aging Stafford with another mulatto slave and two daughters. The stalwart, brazen Stafford died at age 87 in 1877, leaving nothing to Zabette or his six children. Tough times indeed!

Stafford Plantation. For those who want to guarantee they see a wild horse, many of them occupy the grounds across the park service road.

You could really indulge in plenty of history on this island. There is a road there that you can ride a bike all the way or take a tour.

We spent much of our time just walking about either on the island roads, hiking trails or the beaches and enjoying the wildlife and scenery...and trying to walk off some of the many calories we consumed!

The island roads are well marked and the sand is packed well enough for bicycling on the single speed cruiser bikes on the island. It's flat, too, so walking is easy peasy.

Paul amongst the outbuilding at Dungeness. 

Wild turkeys!

Beach birds 

Beach bum :)

The hiking trails were also pretty flat and like much of this area were palmetto forests, pine and live oak.

We saw several armadillos. This one refused to have a full frontal photo.

Our last hiking day along the beach was overcast, windy and very beautiful. 

Overall, I would rate a trip to coastal Georgia as worthwhile and Cumberland very highly--- and encourage anyone with the means to go there. It was relaxing, pastoral, historical, delicious and many other superlatives. We definitely plan to return. 

We live in a state with a wonderful climate and plenty of natural beauty, from the shores of Cumberland Island to the Chattahoochee River to the Blue Ridge Mountains. - Author: Roy Barnes

Paul's Ponderings:   Wow, what a great find Cumberland Island was.....not for everyone perhaps, but great for us.    This is a very rural, pastoral experience and there's no internet/TV/etc, but it's a great place to relax and enjoy some peace and quiet.   It can't get too crowded due to the lack of accommodations and what's not to like about sitting at the Carnegie dining table in a house they built?   We are already plotting a return!