Jekyll Island is another interesting place to visit in our coastal region. Originally developed by a group of Yankee millionaires as a place to escape those cold northern winters, they had funds enough to enjoy a privileged lifestyle that most folks never see. But they did provide long-term job opportunities to local residents.
After a number of years, the number of members of the Jekyll Island Club shrank to the point that it was no longer economically feasible to keep it going, so the State of Georgia stepped in and bought the island. The intent was to provide a place for ordinary Georgians to take their families and enjoy reasonably- priced vacations.
I would say the state certainly succeeded in that effort!
The island is several miles long, from north to south, with beaches facing the Atlantic Ocean. There are a wide variety of hotels and motels there, along with golf courses, a water park and Putt-Putt course for kids, and many good restaurants.
The Jekyll Island Convention Center sits in the middle of Beachview Drive, next door to a Westin Hotel and a small collection of shops and restaurants. Dolphin- watching boat rides are available, along with bicycle, kayak and canoe rentals, so there are a lot of opportunities for recreation.
Of particular interest, in the old “Millionaires’ Village,” on the back side of the island, are the Jekyll Island Club Hotel, and the Georgia Sea Turtle Center. The latter is an amazing place to visit! We have made it a point to take visitors there, from time to time.
The Sea Turtle Center is located in the building that once housed the power plant for the island.
It is a hospital and rehabilitation facility for injured sea turtles.
An enormous replica of a prehistoric sea turtle skeleton hangs from the ceiling in the gift shop, the first room one enters. I did not see it the first time we were there, simply because I did not think to look up! But when I did notice it, I was amazed.
Sea turtles can grown up to several hundred pounds in weight, and some live several hundred years. They also swim thousands of miles north and back, and return to lay their eggs on the same beaches where they themselves were hatched. They really do have an incredible life journey.
The second room in that center has displays showing the different kinds of sea turtles, and how they live. It is adjacent to the hospital & rehab center, which has large vats with turtles in various stages of treatment and recovery. It is amazing to see these creatures up close!
Across the street from the sea turtle center is the building that once housed the island’s stables. It has been renovated into the Mosaic Museum, with displays that tell the story of the island over hundreds of years.
One notable display tells the story of the first trans-Atlantic telephone call, in January of 1915. An article by Larry Hobbs in the August 31, 2019, edition of the Brunswick News described what happened: “It was the usual gang hanging around the parlor at the Jekyll Island Club that afternoon in January of 1915 — William Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan Jr., Theodore Newton Vail and a couple other titans of American industry.
“Also joining the conversation were none other than Alexander Graham Bell, his telecommunications protégé Thomas Watson, and Woodrow Wilson, president of the United States of America. Still, not highly unusual company to keep for the power brokers who basked away their winters in the balmy southern breezes of Jekyll Island.
“What was extraordinary about this discourse, unprecedented in fact, was that Watson was all the way across the continent in San Francisco; Bell was way up in New York City and President Wilson was in the nation’s capital.
“And so, with much fanfare, the first transcontinental telephone conversation occurred. The small talk dragged on for several hours, a series of mundane quips about the weather, chit chat about health and an overabundant sharing of mutual admiration.
But it was a spoken conversation, all of it occurring in real time over a span of thousands of miles.
“ ‘It was not a very memorable exchange,’ according to William Barton McCash and June Hall McCash’s book, The Jekyll Island Club: Southern Haven for America’s Millionaires. ‘But its real value, as company officials repeatedly mentioned throughout the day, was that the multiple voices on the line traveled farther than had any other voices in history.’ ” And that amazing piece of history happened right here in our own backyard!
Not many people know that. Now you do too.
Rafe Semmes is a proud graduate of (“the original”) Savannah High School and the University of Georgia. He and his wife are both longtime Rotarians, and live in eastern Liberty County with their changing passel of orphaned rescue cats. He may be reached at rafe_semmes@yahoo. com.