In the early morning hour, the ferry chugs across the calm, sun-dappled waters of Doboy Sound and the Intracoastal Waterway. As the pilot expertly steers through the slimmest of waterways, Sapelo Island, just minutes earlier a flat silhouette of green hovering just above sea level, begins to take shape and then rises slightly from an ethereal mist drifting in from the Atlantic. Then in a few more moments, the wholeness of Sapelo is before you, beckoning with its quiet salty breezes like an ancient incantation.

Sapelo Island Reserve

There is something about Sapelo Island, one of the myriad of barrier islands that scallops Georgia’s coastline, that cannot be completely defined. Perhaps it’s because the island, just eleven miles long and three miles wide, looks much the same as it did a thousand years ago: pristine, undeveloped, unspoiled, and certainly uncrowded.

Or perhaps it’s because of its sheer isolation. After all, there is only one way on the island and one way off: by water. You can take either private watercraft or public ferry – there are no in-betweens. No bridges or airstrips link it to the mainland, which leaves you completely at its mercy once you’re there.

"Sapelo’s pure seduction is in its remoteness, its solitude, its wildness, and most notably its well-preserved history."

But that’s part of the paradoxical mystique of Sapelo Island. In a sense, it is a remote and haunting paradise that is a fusion of sky, earth, and water, but don’t bother conjuring up images of a garden-speckled Shangri-La or Eden. Instead, Sapelo’s beauty is uncomplicated and stark, so much so that it must be gradually peeled away in layers to be completely appreciated.

At the top tier is a landscape undeniably chiseled by nature. The island is cut out of an estuary of fresh water and the sea – here the ocean is colored an intense blue-grey – and with its deeply green forested canopy of gnarled oaks and venerable pines, Sapelo palette of color is an ecological and biological oasis.

Sapelo’s long, isolated stretches of beach, scattered with marine creatures including the threatened loggerhead sea turtle and scores of crabs, have been carved to softness by time, wind, and water. The island’s emerald-hued marshlands, curled with scores of creeks and tributaries, teem with critters and birds of every sort, including otters, and even the rare endangered wood stork.

And all of this extraordinary beauty is safeguarded for future generations and from any development by a number of state and federal laws. As a matter of fact, the marsh is very highly protected under the Federal Marshland Act, so much so that you can’t even take a shovel-full of its loam or you could end up in jail.

Sapelo Island Marsh

The next layer is its unusually rich history. The first known residents of Sapelo Island were the Guale Indians (pronounced “wally”), whose presence dates back to 4,500 years. Then in the 16th century, Spanish missions and settlements sprang up around the island. The British and French came next, and their presence was dominant until the 1800s when most of Sapelo was purchased by Thomas Spalding, a wealthy banker, politician, and agriculturist, who began the plantation era of the island.

In 1912, Howard Coffin, one of the founders of the Hudson Motorcar Company, bought most of the island except for a few African-American communities scattered here and there. Tobacco magnate R.J. Reynolds purchased Sapelo in 1934, and it remained in his family until 1969, when the entire island – with the exception of a chunk of land known as Hog Hammock – was sold to the State of Georgia.

The best thing about Sapelo is that it melds its layers of natural resources and history into a place like no other, yet it can still partition itself into several distinct components:

• Nanny Goat Beach, known for having the most extensive undisturbed natural beach dunes along the Georgia coast.
• Sapelo Island Lighthouse, its candy-cane striped structure standing as a sentinel over the island.
• Chocolate Plantation, extensive ruins of a manor home and land where Sea Island cotton and sugarcane were grown.
• Long Tabby, plantation headquarters of Thomas Spalding.
• Shell Ring, a six-foot high ring mainly comprised of oyster shells left by the Indians from centuries ago.
• The University of Georgia Marine Institute, a world-renowned program launched by Reynolds that highlights the vast ecological resources of the island for scientific research.
• The Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve, whose main purpose is to provide education and public outreach about the island.
• The R.J. Reynolds Mansion, a massive home partially constructed of tabby and containing a series of eclectic murals by artist Athos Menaboni.
• The African-American communities of Raccoon Bluff, Shell Hammock, Behavior, and Hog Hammock.

Reynold's Plantation Library ry

Hog Hammock, a veritable wealth of African-American symbolism, history, and culture, is the only of the three communities that still exists. Named for Spalding slave Sampson Hog, the community’s 434 acres – the only part of Sapelo that doesn’t belong to the state – are now home to the island’s 75 or so permanent residents, all of whom descended from the slaves of the 19th century farms and plantations.

Deeply rooted in African traditions, religion, and song, Hog Hammock is one of the few remaining Gullah – sometimes called Geechee – communities along the Atlantic coast. Even the lyrical and colorful Gullah language, a Creole-like mélange of English and West African dialects, is still spoken here.

Sapelo’s pure seduction is in its remoteness, its solitude, its wildness, and most notably its well-preserved history. If you go, be realistic and know that it is not for everyone. But for the brave, the hearty, the romantic, or those simply seeking a uniquely different experience, then you’ve found the right place.

If You Go ...

Helpful Information: Lodging on Sapelo Island is almost non-existent. There is no Holiday Inn, no Hilton, no Howard Johnson’s. There is, however, the Wallow, a guest house in Hog Hammock that is run by Cornelia Walker Bailey, one of the last generation of slave descendants to be born and reared on Sapelo Island. Cabretta Island Camping offers campsites, and the entire Reynolds Mansion is available for rent for groups of fifteen or more. Access to Sapelo Island is controlled and is open to the public by reservation only. For more information, contact Sapelo Island Visitors’ Center or call (912) 437-3224