Crooked River State Park, St. Mary's GA

11, 12 March 2013

A brief drive from Amelia Island, we came to stay at this terrific state park in Georgia. The grounds are beautifully kept and it is more manicured that the state parks we saw in Florida. Reservations are not for specific sites, and you choose the one you want upon arrival. We loved the wide open campground here, where the sites are scattered among pine trees, and there are not pads as such, but just sandy soil and grass.

Hoping to see a gopher tortoise, we took a walk near their nesting area, but didn’t encounter any. But we saw a man fishing from the shore who had a string of speckled sea trout, and had a chat with the very colorful campground host, who told us to be careful walking the Palmetto Trail because “the rattlesnakes are crawlin’.”

While planning this trip we made reservations to go to Cumberland Island (near St. Mary’s) and take the Lands and Legacies Tour there. Cumberland Island is now the Cumberland National Seashore, operated by the National Park Service. We also made advance reservations on the ferry, which is pretty much the only way to get to and from the island. There are only a few remaining privately owned properties on the island, and almost the whole island is being returned to wilderness. Only 300 visitors are allowed to the island each day, so it is important to plan ahead. I believe that only 20 spots are available on the Lands and Legacies Tour per day.

On the ferry trip, we met Ray and Carol from the Atlanta area, and enjoyed getting to know them. As it turned out, Ray and Carol were camping directly across the road from us at Crooked River Campground. Hi to Ray and Carol if they read this blog!

Now back to the tour. It was about six hours long, with ten of us in a passenger van, plus the NPS ranger who narrated and answered questions, and who provided us with earphones so we could hear her over the jolting of the van. The trip covered nearly the entire length of the island, on the bumpiest road I have ever known. If you can tolerate the bumps without carsickness, the only other warning I’d make is that waiting for the first bathroom stop can be a challenge. You also need to be able to climb in and out of the van at four separate stops. Before you think that the trip sounds horrific, I’ll insert here that we had a great time!

We saw The Settlement, where former slaves built houses after the Civil War, because they continued to work at hotel jobs, etc., on the island. The best stop was at a house built by Lucy Carnegie (sister-in-law to Andrew) as a wedding gift for one of her nine children. The Carnegies owned essentially the whole island at one time and built many mansions there, including this one which is called Plum Orchard. After lunch on the grounds, we had a great tour of the original house and additions, which cost $65,000 when completed in 1907. Plum Orchard was used as a winter home. Descendants of the Carnegies turned their land holdings and this house over to the National Park Service in the 1960s (I believe) when they couldn’t keep up with the maintenance of the house any longer. The NPS put $5 million into the house in structural repairs, fire sprinkler system, and paint. A good deal more money would be necessary to really bring the house back to top shape.

Compared to other old houses we have toured, I was impressed with how bright this one is inside due to the beautiful big windows. Besides numerous bedrooms and eleven bathrooms, the house has a “squash tennis” court to play a game which is now “extinct”, according to our guide. It also has a 9-foot deep swimming pool, which was filled from an artesian well. The pool was unheated and reportedly smelled like sulphur.

Cumberland Island is home to wild horses, which have been there for centuries. By law, the horses are left to fend for themselves, and they are a scrawny, very unhealthy looking bunch. The island also has wild pigs, which are considered a pest, and which are hunted and trapped to reduce their numbers.  Somehow coyotes also ended up on the island, and they already threaten the nests of shorebirds. The NPS is concerned that the coyotes will also threaten the nests of sea turtles, once they become aware of those nests.

On the return trip on the ferry, we had our best dolphin sighting yet—a dolphin close enough to see his whole face and body!

Our site at Crooked River State Park

Hiking on the Palmetto Trail

One of the few remaining houses at The Settlement

This is another house in The Settlement.
Jimmy Carter slept here. I kid you not.

Plum Orchard.
Great Husband and I ate here on the porch. I kid you not.

Inside Plum Orchard
I like the wallpaper here--it's original.

One of eleven bathrooms in Plum Orchard.
The tub has a feature that sucks the shampoo out of the bottle.

Dressing rooms and pool.
For children, they added just a little bit of water, and the kids
walked down all of these stairs to swim.

We obeyed the bottom sign in this city park in St. Mary's.