Day 4
Monday, February 6, 2023
Walking across the dunes to the beach for sunrise...
The same gaggle of photogs greeted me underneath the pier.
Most days, I'm happy with the results of my phone's camera. But, it was having trouble dealing with the darker piles and the bright sun. It was also one of those mornings where my Canon 6D was being equally as ornery. Still worth coming out for sunrise through the pier.
Today's excursion needs a little backstory. When James Oglethorpe petitioned King George II for a grant to settle the Georgia Territory, he envisioned it as a place for debtors and the down and out to get a second chance. King George had other ideas. He wanted a buffer zone between the South Carolina Colony and Spain's Florida. His other concern were the Creek. Any new colony would need to be able to protect itself.
With the charter signed, Oglethorpe set sail for Georgia with 114 men and their families, landing in what would become Savannah in February, 1732. One of those men was a carpenter by ther name of Noble Jones.
Jones hadn't planned to stay in Georgia, just to help set things up. He was even assigned the task to survey and plot out Oglethorpe's plan for the colony. The longer he stayed, the more it grew on him.
In 1736 he was granted five hundred acres of land on which to settle. There was one condition. And large structures had to be defendable against both Spain and the Creek. Brick and stone building called for a certain type of craftsman unavailable in the colony. Instead, his home was built of tabby, a combination of shells, lime, sand and water. It created a sort of concrete that was easier to work with and would repel small arms fire.
Jones named the plantation Wormslow, after his home region in England. It's now a state historic site. The entranceway to the plantation.
Just inside, you're steered to the parking area on the right. After paying your $10 fee, they give you a site map with some background and trail information. Then you drive the mile long, oak lined driveway.
There's a note on the flyer about more trails. In the visitor center they'll give you a printout to what they call the Battery Trail, a rather nice 2.3 mile wooded trail.
Eventually, you do arrive at the trail's namesake, the site of Fort Wimberly. It's a two hundred yard series of earthworks built for the defense of Savannah. Built in 1861, the fort never had more than a few dozen men and a handful of canon. These days it just looks like any other hill in the woods.
Eventually, the trail does lead to the remains of Noble's home...
I was thinking lunch when I left Wormslow Plantation. There are quite a few breweries in Savannah, about half have food. On a previous trip, I stopped at a place called Hop Atomica. The food was good and the beer selection varied. So, I went back. I only mention this because of something on the menu.
For sunset, I chose the boatramp on the back side of the island. It's popular place with the locals for good reason. It's a quiet, out of the way place.
