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Cumberland Island is the
southernmost and largest barrier island on the Georgia coast, with a
history that predates the arrival of Western civilization in the
Americas. Currently, it has few full- time residents, but its beauty
brings thousands of visitors each year from around the world. Day
hikers and overnight campers bask in Cumberland's tranquility and
marvel at its natural treasures, walking beneath canopies of live
oak trees draped in Spanish moss.
Comprising three major ecosystem regions, Cumberland is home to
large areas of salt marshes and a dense maritime forest, but its
most famous ecosystem is its beach, which stretches over seventeen
miles. The island is also home to many native and nonnative species,
such as white-tailed deer, turkey, feral hogs and horses, wild boar,
nine-banded armadillos, and American alligators, as well as many
species of birds.
Aside from wild horses and the remains of Thomas M. Carnegie's
estate, most visitors are unaware of the details of the island's
varied history. Cumberland's past tells a rich and complex story,
one of conquest by indigenous tribes, French and Spanish explorers,
English settlers, cotton planters, and occupation by British and
Union naval forces.
Cumberland Island: Footsteps in Time is the first book about
the island that offers readers a complete history of the island
combined with stunning photography and historical images. Richly
illustrated with more than 250 color and black-and-white
photographs, it is a comprehensive history, from native occupation
to the present. Author Stephen Doster takes the reader on a
chronological journey, outlining the key events and influential
inhabitants that have left their mark on this stretch of Georgia's
coast.
Each chapter focuses on a specific era: indigenous occupation;
Spanish occupation; English occupation; the colonial period and War
of 1812; the planter era and Civil War; the Gilded Age; north-end
settlements and hotels; and the creation of a protected national
seashore. |
