May 26, 2018. Saint Simons Island on a Trolley.

May 26, 2018.  Saint Simons Island on a Trolley.  Saint Simons Island was inhabited by indigenous people 2000 years before the birth of Jesus.  In the 1730s, Anglican minister, John Wesley, was a minister in Savannah.  He came to Saint Simons to convert the inhabitants to Christianity.  He met with little success and retreated to England where he founded the movement known as Methodism.  His brother, Charles, delivered a sermon under a live oak tree near Christ Church in 1836.  The tree is depicted above.  It has survived for 400 years despite being topped by a lightning strike.

Later in the 18th Century, the ownership of the island was contested by the English and Spanish.  In 1842 the English drove off the Spanish in the Battle of Bloody Marsh when the Spanish troops were ambushed and defeated by a much smaller army of Brits, primarily Scottish soldiers.  The English army was under the overall command of General James Oglethrope.  Following the defeat, the Spanish relinquished their claims to Georgia. 

Saint Simons became a plantation island.  Sea Island Cotton and rice were the primary products grown on the plantations.  Of course, the plantations were farmed by slaves prior to the Civil War.  The cotton grown here was considered to compare favorably to Egyptian Cotton.  The Civil War ended slavery and doomed the big plantations.  There was an economic revival caused by the lumber industry.  The live oaks on the island are an extremely hard wood.  Live oaks harvested here went into the construction of the USS Constitution, now in the Baltimore Harbor.  The USS Constitution is also known as "Old Ironsides" because cannonballs bounced off the live oak planking of its sides.

Today, the main economic driver on the island is tourism.  More than 25% of the residences here are rental properties.  The draw for visitors are the climate, beaches and the history of the island, all of which we have enjoyed.

The pictures above include Kevin, our tour guide, one of the many Spirit Trees on the island which feature faces carved in trees, one of the few slave graveyards (most were buried in the woods with no headstone), an African church founded in 1859, the Wesley Tree, the entry to Wesley Gardens, Christ Church originally constructed in 1810, the trolley, Musgrove Plantation (venue of President George H. W. Bush's first cabinet meeting), a slave cabin constructed in 1810, a private jet landing at the airport and Avenue of the Oaks on Retreat Plantation planted in 1850.

That's all for tonight.  Goodnight.