Last weekend, my sister and I went to Cumberland Island. I told her to brace herself for a magnificent scenery of palmetto thickets, a windswept beach, gnarling massive oaks draped with spanish moss, wildlife, and crumblings ruins. What a peaceful setting and natural wonder that we will remember, forever.
It was no cool day as we docked on the island. In fact, it was 100 degrees on Friday, so we were quite warmed up even before our scenic hike.
No tour guide for us, we took the off beaten path direct to The Cottage and their it lay. I thought a daily jog got my heart pumping. Well, seeing this view below for the first time was worth every penny of any oxygen debt that I had. This concrete ruin was the duck pond at the site of The Cottage.
My sister looked at me kinda crazy when I got to giggling over this small concrete ruin. The first stop and she was stuck. Thank God that horses arrived to occupy her for a while. If that "turtle lady" on the island had had her way, their would have been no horses and she'd would have probably been going crazy!
Below is a link to an old photo of the duck pond at The Cottage Site.
Below is a link for The Cottage which burned down in the 1950's.
The views of the two photos are from the Georgia Archives Collection - Vanishing Georgia Series. They are actually copies taken from a Carnegie photo album now located online at the Georgia's Virtual Vault - Carnegie Family Collection website.
The Tour Begins!
I'm not gonna bore people with the typical photos of the Dungeness ruins and pergola. You'll find plenty on the web.
The Cottage Site
Dungeness Estate Support Structures
Another Oxygen Debt Moment
While we were checking out the west side of the kitchen building, I noticed a construction dumpster next to the woods. I knew in an instant why it was placed there. My sister and I were about to be going into the woods to a site that almost every tourist knows not a thing about, notta, no clue what so ever. At the edge, as we peered into the sunlight filtered and diffused forest, I was excited to see that the NPS had started clearing out a former site that I wanted to show her. See Below!!!
Rikart House and Play House Sites
Check Page 3, lower right, for a photo of an early view of the Rikart House:
Check Pages 16,17, & 18 for photos of the Play House:
Miles of undisturbed sand dunes,
a quiet white beach,
and a lot of dead horseshoe crabs?
Wildlife
I guess on this sweltering day, all other wildlife were smart
and napped in the shade. All we saw were wild horses that ignored us and not to smart turkeys.
