The ShoreXplorers: Hiking a Former Carnegie Island Paradise – Cumberland Island National Seashore GA [November 14, 2018]

The ruins of Dungeness, as seen from the driveway

In the 1880’s, Thomas Carnegie (brother and business partner of Andrew Carnegie) and his wife Lucy purchased Cumberland Island, off the coast of Georgia, to make a summer home. Shortly after they completed building a house there, Thomas died (at age 43) and Lucy remained on the island and raised their 10 children there. She expanded their newly built mansion, Dungeness, to be 37,000 sq feet and 50 rooms huge. The island became self-sufficient with vegetable gardens, greenhouses and a power plant, and was maintained by an enormous staff of hundreds of workers. When the children grew up and married, she built other mansions around the island for them. As time progressed, Dungeness was abandoned and eventually burned. The island and the other homes, some intact and some in ruins, were given to the National Park Service to protect its ecosystems, wildlife and unique history. Cumberland Island has the most loggerhead turtle nests in the nation. There is so much to do there, hiking, camping, beaching, bird watching, and history tours.

You arrive on Cumberland Island by passenger ferry. The vehicles on the island belong to the National Park Service, to a licensed tour group who will drive you around the island, to research groups studying turtles, or to the few individuals who maintain a couple of private homes on the island. If you believe Wikipedia, these individuals are Carnegies. All other transportation is by foot or fat wheeled bicycles that you can rent on the island. The ferry ride is about 45 minutes long and winds through the salt marsh between the mainland and the island. You have a little over 6 hours on the island before taking the ferry home late in the afternoon. Our ferry had a large group of girls on a college sponsored camping trip. We saw several camping families (with their wagons full of gear) get back on the ferry for its return trip.

Arriving by ferry

Dense Maritime Forest - live oaks, spanish moss and palmetto

We chose to hike the 4.3 mile “Southern Loop Walk” (though we ended up walking much further) that takes you through the three major ecosystems (Maritime Forest, Salt Marsh and Beach) and past several historic buildings including the impressive Dungeness ruins. The Maritime Forest consists of stands of huge, twisted live oak trees draped with spanish moss, a few cedar and pine trees, and dense sawtooth palm and palmetto undergrowth. The expansive Salt Marshes run between the island and the mainland, and occasionally extend into the island’s interior with low lying, bay-like areas of water and saw-tooth grass. The beach is long, wide and impressive.

Beautiful dunes

Ferocious waves

By the time we reached the beach in our loop walk, the predicted gale strength winds had arrived, blasting sand in our faces (dermabrasion anyone?). After spending a few minutes being whipped by the wind and appreciating the ferocity of the waves, we retreated inland and continued the “loop” along the hard-packed sand of the Main Road that runs through the Maritime Forest along the center of the island.

The "Tabby House" that remains from the time of the Greenes

Tabby construction material revealed in a ruined wall

We visited a restored Ice House, where the Carnegie’s had ice delivered by boat after having been cut from northern lakes. Inside the thick-walled building are exhibits about the inhabitants of the island. The earliest inhabitants were Timucuan Indians. Middens provide some material remnants of their life on the island. Spanish explorers established missions and left behind written accounts of their stay, though no physical traces remain. The British fortified the island in the 1700’s, again we have accounts, but no other evidence of their stay. After the Revolutionary War, war hero Nathaniel Greene acquired part the island. He and other settlers, stripped the valuable live oak trees off the land, selling them for shipbuilding. His widow built the first house (called Dungeness) on the site, and the family turned the cleared land to agriculture, particularly Sea Island Cotton. A house built with walls of oyster shells, sand and lime (a construction material called tabby) remains from this time period.

Dungeness greenhouses

After the Civil War, a group of freed slaves established a community on the northern end of the island. The only surviving structure from that community is a Baptist church. Descendants of these freedmen became some of the many workers hired by Lucy Carnegie to run the estate. Lucy Carnegie allowed the Maritime Forest to regrow along the island, making it a natural escape for her family and their friends from city life.

Dungeness from across part of the gardens

Lucy Carnegie built her house, also called Dungeness, on the site of the ruins of the Greene’s Dungeness. Striking ruins remain of the house, and of many of the out buildings that supported this self-sufficient community. The lawns between the house and the Salt Marsh were terraced and used for both ornamental and vegetable gardens. The ruins of a Recreation House remain that housed a heated swimming pool, squash court and gym. A greenhouse and other out buildings survive in various forms of decay. Intact buildings are used by the NPS today. Several of the mansions built for Lucy’s children remain, with one, Plum Orchard, open to the public. Plum Orchard is on the northern end of the island, and can visited as part of the van tour.

The locals call these horses "Marsh Ponies"

Feral farm animals, cows, horses and hogs from the days of agricultural use of the island joined the native animals in this unique island ecology. We had been told that we “might” see “some” horses. They were everywhere! And although still wild animals, they are used to being around humans (many people visit here each year), and the horses were content to munch on the grass near us as we took pictures and admired other scenery. We saw places where feral hogs have rooted up land areas on the side of the road. The feral cattle have been removed from the island.

And then there were turkeys ...

... and armadillos ...

... and vultures!

The “native” animals were equally comfortable showing themselves to us. We saw many groups of turkeys. At one point, they were running after us down the road – the very definition of a Turkey Trot (sorry, a little Thanksgiving humor). We passed several armadillos, one industriously plowing a furrow of ground just a few feet from us as it dug up insects for lunch. A surprised deer burst out of the palmetto bushes in front of us when we took a side trip to see the campgrounds. Several vultures tried to keep their balance on dead tree limbs in the heavy winds, and glared at us as we crossed the dunes to the beach. This really is a unique and lively place.

Along the forest trail

Cumberland Island is an interesting mixture of history and nature. In more clement weather, the beach would have been a huge draw for us. Had we the time, fat-wheeled bicycles, (and stronger legs) there is so much more we could have explored. This is truly an interesting treat of a National Park.