Cumberland Island, GA

A few miles from our Thanksgiving spot, Cumberland Island National Seashore is known for its nature and wealth of history.

Once a mansion named Dungeness during the Revolutionary War period, it was owned and restored by the Carnegie family and became a popular a social elite retreat in the 1930s.  The mansion was gutted by fire and in the 1970s it was donated to the NPS.

Only the ruins remain.  Other buildings and mansions are scattered throughout, including the work areas and homes of the over 300 people it took to run this estate.  It is said the wife of Thomas Carnegie, Lucy, wanted her 9 children raised away from the stresses of industry.  They spent most of their lives here and had their own houses throughout.  There are still some private homes here.

The cars were parked in a neat row and have not moved.

Still only reachable by boat, Cumberland Island is well-known for its plethora of landscapes: forests, marsh, beaches, etc.

We walked the boardwalk along the marsh, watching crabs run into their holes and large oyster beds surfaced at low tide.

We hiked through the dunes covered with brush and trees, like a desert of driftwood.

On the beach, there were some really interesting shells and wildlife everywhere.  We found a striped puffer fish and type of clam with a fan-like shell.

We also came across a huge horseshoe crab.  Amelia got pretty excited, because she thinks they are really cute.  The shell was at least a foot wide!

We would have loved to stay longer in this beautiful place.  But we plan to find many more beaches to spend the day walking very soon.  On to Florida!