Georgia’s Mysterious Island Where Wild Horses Roam Among Carnegie Mansion Ruins

Cumberland Island National Seashore, Georgia

Most people never heard of the island where JFK Jr. got married. Cumberland Island hides off Georgia’s coast, home to feral horses, empty mansions, and beaches you can walk for miles without seeing another soul. Here’s a bit about America’s largest wild island.

The Timucuan People

Native Americans lived on Cumberland Island for over 4,000 years. The Timucuan tribe were the first people we know about who lived here full-time.

Their oldest pottery goes back to 2,000 BCE. The Tacatacuru were a specific Timucua-speaking group who lived on the island during the 1500s and 1600s. They were part of what we call the Savannah culture, known for special pottery designs found along the southeastern coast.

Spanish and English Colonial Powers Contested the Island

Spanish priests built two missions here in 1587. San Pedro de Mocama was the bigger one and lasted about 100 years. San Pedro y San Pablo de Porturiba was the smaller mission.

French and English raiders attacked in 1684, forcing the Timucua people and Spanish settlers to run away to Florida. British General James Oglethorpe then grabbed the island for England in 1736. He named it after the Duke of Cumberland and built two forts to protect it.

Plantations and Sea Island Cotton Transformed the Landscape

Thirteen men from Georgia got the first land grants here in the 1760s. The Miller family started growing Sea Island cotton, a special long-fiber type that made fine cloth.

The Millers helped Eli Whitney create his cotton gin machine. Revolutionary War hero Nathanael Greene bought most of southern Cumberland after the war. When Greene died, his widow Catharine married Phineas Miller.

They built a huge four-story mansion called Dungeness on top of an old Native American shell pile. British soldiers used it as their base during the War of 1812.

The Carnegie Family Created a Gilded Age Retreat

Thomas Carnegie, brother of steel king Andrew Carnegie, bought two old plantations in 1881-82. He started building a fancy 59-room mansion where the old Dungeness had stood in 1884.

Thomas died before his mansion was done. His wife Lucy and their nine children finished it and turned the island into their private playground. They built swimming pools, a golf course, and 40 smaller buildings for their 200 servants.

The mansion burned down in 1959, leaving the ruins you can see today.

Preservationists Saved the Island from Development

The Carnegie family asked the National Park Service to look at Cumberland in 1954. The next year, park officials said it was one of America’s most important wild places.

Problems started in 1968 when Carnegie heirs sold 3,000 acres to Charles Fraser, who had developed Hilton Head Island. Fraser started cutting down trees in 1970 to build an airstrip and roads.

The Georgia Conservancy told newspapers about the damage, which got people mad. President Nixon signed the law making Cumberland a National Seashore on October 23, 1972.

The Island Preserves Three Major Ecosystems

Cumberland has three different types of places where plants and animals live: beaches with sand dunes, forests, and salt marshes. These different areas support 30 types of mammals, 55 reptiles and amphibians, and over 300 bird species.

The island has 18 miles of wild beaches. More than 300 types of birds stop here during migration, including fast peregrine falcons and colorful warblers. Over 500 different plants grow here, making Cumberland the most diverse of all Georgia’s barrier islands.

Maritime Forests Harbor Diverse Plant Communities

Thick groves of live oak trees covered in Spanish moss fill Cumberland’s middle section. These tough oaks hold the shoreline together and protect the salt marshes from ocean waves.

Resurrection ferns and mushrooms grow all over the oak branches. Underneath the big trees, shade-loving plants like sparkleberry bushes, holly trees, and saw palmetto create thick cover.

Alligators live in the many small ponds and swamps, hunting rabbits, fish, and other small animals.

Loggerhead Turtles Find Safe Nesting Grounds

Cumberland Island has more sea turtle nests than any other Georgia beach. Scientists counted a record 1,018 nests in 2019. Most were loggerhead turtle nests, but 11 came from green sea turtles.

Mother turtles come back to the same beaches every spring and summer to lay their eggs. Baby turtles hatch in August and September, then crawl to the ocean at night. The northern parts of Cumberland give these threatened turtles eight miles of safe beach for nesting.

Feral Horses Roam Free Since the 1700s

About 150-200 wild horses run free on Cumberland Island today. Most people think Spanish explorers brought them, but they actually came from English settlers in the 1700s.

More horses arrived from Arizona in 1921 after running wild out west. The Carnegie family added four Arabian horses in the early 1990s to mix up the bloodlines. A disease outbreak in 1991 killed 40 horses, about 18% of the whole herd. Park rangers have watched the horses and studied how they affect the island since 1981.

African American History Lives at The Settlement

After the Civil War ended, the government set aside Cumberland as part of the Sherman Reservation, land meant to give formerly enslaved people a place to live and farm.

A small community of freed slaves grew up on the island’s north end. These people spoke Gullah, mixing English with West African words and customs. They built the First African Baptist Church in 1937, and it still stands today.

A small cemetery nearby holds the graves of Gullah-speaking families. The church became famous in 1996 when John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette got married there.

Visiting Cumberland Island National Seashore

Cumberland Island can only be reached by boat, with no bridge linking it to the mainland. The Cumberland Queen ferry leaves regularly from St. Marys, Georgia, taking visitors to the island.

From March through September, the ferry makes three daily trips to Cumberland. During winter months, service drops to two daily departures. The National Park Service limits visits to 300 people on the island at once to protect its fragile ecosystems.

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