St. Catherine's Island

St. Catherine's Island is one of Georgia's barrier islands that sits between the mainland and the open ocean.  It has an enthralling history as it was inhabited by Native Americans for thousands of years before it was colonized.  In fact, shell circles facing the sea are still visible.  The location of the shell circles has a distinctively soothing atmosphere.  Perhaps this is a relic of the people past or maybe it's the reason they selected this space for their ceremonies.  Additionally, St. Catherine's Island is the site of the first Christian church in the United States.

The island is about 50 miles south of Savannah- the drive takes about an hour.  However, the island is only accessible by boat.  Although it's a private island, I was able to tour the entire thing with a salt marsh ecology class.  Staff from the island picked us up and ferried us across before turning us loose on the island with some antiquated trucks.  If you're not lucky enough to get invited on a tour, don't fret.  Although the island is private, its beaches are public.  You may not be able to check out the interior of the island, but you can still enjoy the beaches if you can find a boat to take you to them.  Any one you can get to it, St. Catherine's hosts possibly the most beautiful beach in Georgia.

Possession of the island changed handy many times, especially in the colonial era.  At one point it was a plantation.  It's rumored that student interns are housed in the old slave quarters.  I found the plantation history of the island especially interested because of my interest in both historical and modern methods for producing food.  Remnants of relics like hog ditches reveal time-tested strategies for maintaining crops.

This photograph shows me looking across the marsh with binoculars.  The beaches at St. Catherine's are surrounded by salt marsh dominated by smooth cordgrass.  Wildlife is abundant in the marsh, and contains a number of unique species like diamondback terrapins.  Salt marshes are characterized by vertical zonation which means that species are found in bands of distribution according to the vertical distance from the water.

St. Catherine's has live oak forests beyond the salt marsh.  Within a very close proximity, you can see 3 distinct ecosystems: the marine environment, the salt marsh habitat, and the hardwood forest.

This is a piece of driftwood that I found on the beach.  I thought it had an exceptionally beautiful pattern.  Because the beaches can only be accessed by boat, they are virtually untouched.