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| Tybee Island Light Station |
Fifteen miles East of Savannah is Tybee Island, once known
as Savannah Beach. This 3-mile long barrier
island has a wide sand beach, many yummy
restaurants (featuring local shrimp), a lighthouse, a civil war fort, hotels,
vacation homes and one campground. We
called the campground a few days in advance hoping to reserve a spot for 5 nights but were told that they only had a campsite for us for the first two nights. They
were booked up for the weekend because of the St. Patrick’s Day parade in
Savannah AND they had closed the waiting list at 30 names. As luck would have it, we arrived just after they
had received a cancellation, and had exhausted their waiting list. So, we were able to stay for five nights
after all. Kismet!
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| The Shriners meeting hall built atop a battery |
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| Standing atop another battery |
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| The ocean view from on top of the battery |
The campground is located on the North end of the island, just
a few blocks walk from the ocean beach in one direction, and a few blocks walk in another
direction to the beach along the Savannah River at the end of the island. This strategic entrance to the Port of
Savannah was fortified by massive concrete batteries on both the river and the
ocean sides, built starting in the 1890’s.
Some of the batteries have homes built on the top of them. The Shriners meet in a building perched atop
one as well. The Tybee Island Historical
Society has a museum inside another one.
You pass between two of these batteries to walk through to the beach. There is no missing them.
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| The light station compound |
Near the batteries is
the Tybee Light Station, which at one time employed 3 lightkeepers and provided
housing for them and their families. Initially,
you could only access the island by boat, then by train and finally by
car. It must have been a fairly isolated
existence, but oral histories with surviving lightkeepers children tell of going
crabbing every day. Care of the lighthouse
passed to the army and then the coast guard, so the lightkeepers homes were
kept intact. They have been lovingly
restored and are open to the public.
Sadly, we were unable to climb to the top of the lighthouse, it was
closed for restoration work while we were there.
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| Quirky and fun |
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| Yum |
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| Shrimp and BBQ food truck |
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| Sunset from Coco's |
There is no shortage
of places to eat on Tybee. At Leslie’s recommendation, we started at The Crab
Shack. This quirky seafood joint has holes
in the center of the tables with trash cans beneath for your refuse. While we were there a crazy, festive Junkanoo
band from the Bahama’s paraded through with their homemade drums, tubas, trumpets, whistles and cowbells. So much fun!
Another spot was a glorified shrimp and barbecue food truck with the sign, “Friends don’t
let friends eat imported shrimp.” Coco’s,
on the western side of the island, has delicious shrimp and lovely sunsets over
the salt marsh separating Tybee and other islands from the mainland. The shrimp boats that supply all of this
delectable shrimp to the island dock next to Coco’s. The restaurant has a sign on that dock that
says, “We get our shrimp from here.”
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| Fort Pulaski |
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| Surrounded by a moat and salt marsh |
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| Yes, they have cannon |
Between Tybee and Savannah is Fort Pulaski (happy 102nd
birthday NPS) on marshy Cockspur Island.
This masonry fort was built after the war of 1812 as part of a system of
forts created for coastal defense. Pilings
were driven into the mud, and soil was brought in to provide a firm foundation
for the huge brick fort. In 1861 at the
beginning the Civil War, it was seized by the Confederacy. In the winter of 1862, Union forces set up
batteries on Tybee Island, less than a mile away. Using experimental rifled cannons, they were
able to tear through the Fort’s brick walls.
This was the first time that cannons could be used with such accuracy
and force from so far away, and the last time these masonry forts were considered impregnable.
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| The patched southeast corner and dents from cannon balls |
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| A cannon ball remains, it is at the top left part of the "7" shaped dent in the picture above |
Since the Union
forces knew how the fort was constructed, they targeted the southeast angle of
the fort, boring a hole that would give them a clear shot to the powder
magazine across the interior of the fort.
After 30 hours of bombardment, the Confederate militia inside the fort
surrendered. Within a week, Union forces
had repaired the hole (with a different color brick). As you walk around the outside of the fort,
you can see the patch, as well as big dents left in the fort walls, one with a cannonball still resting inside it. As time progressed, the fort fell into disrepair
and then was later restored by the CCC.
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| The demi-lune |
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| Crossing the moat on to the demi-lune |
The
huge earthen work demi-lune area at the front of the fort (inside the moat and
outside the walls) was originally used for underground storage of supplies and
munitions. During a recent tornado, Park
Rangers and visitors sheltered inside the passageways while the roof was blown
off the more recently built Visitors Center next door.
Tybee Island is a wonderful
vacation spot. The only thing that keeps
it from being perfect is that dogs are not allowed on the beach - ever. Regardless, we enjoyed what it had to
offer. On our last beach walk, we saw dolphins
swimming just off shore. Perfect!
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| Russ' yacht berthed at the Crab Shack |
We returned home to a rare snow storm and an even rarer family reunion of many of Dana's cousins. A good reason to leave paradise.
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| Sunrise on Tybee Island |
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