Pre-European contact Cannon's Point, on the north end of St.Simons Island, is an archaeological site that includes a
Late Archaic shell ring. The Cannon's Point site has yielded evidence of occupation by Native Americans since at least as early as the appearance of
ceramics in the southeastern United States. Milanich lists the succession of periods at Cannon's Point as: Sapelo Period (2500–1000BC); ceramics related to those of the
Stallings culture of the
Savannah River valley and
Orange period of northern Florida; Refuge Period (1000–500BC);
Deptford Periods (500BC to AD700); Wilmington Period (700–1000); St.Catherine's Period (1000–1250); Savannah Periods (1250–1540); Pine Harbor Period (1540–1625), where European artifacts appear in the archaeological record in this period; and Sutherland Bluff Period (1625–1680), where Native American occupation of Cannon's Point seems to have ended during this period. Many scholars in the early 20th century identified the people of St.Simons Island as
Guale. Hann cites evidence that the people of St.Simons, at least as early as 1580, were part of the
Mocama people. Ashley etal. suggest that St.Simons may have been occupied by the Guale people when Europeans arrived in southeastern Georgia in the 16thcentury and that the original Guale population on St.Simons was displaced from at least the southern part of the island after the
Guale rebellion of 1597, and replaced by Timucua speaking
Mocama people.
Spanish mission of San Buenaventura de Guadalquini The mission of
San Buenaventura de Guadalquini was established on the southern end of St.Simons sometime between 1597 and 1609 (probably near the present-day
St.Simons Island Light) and was the northernmost mission in the Mocama area. The
Timucua language name for St.Simons Island was
Guadalquini. The Spanish called it
Isla de Ballenas (Isle of Whales). Some Spanish documents called the island . Raiders from the Chichimecos (the Spanish name for
Westos), Uchise (the Spanish name for
Muscogee), and Chiluque (a name the Spanish used for a faction of the Mocamo and for
Yamassee) and possibly other nations, aided and supported by the English in the
Province of Carolina, attacked Colon (also called San Simon) a village of un-Christianized Yamasee to the north of San Buenaventura on St.Simons Island in 1680. A force of Spanish soldiers and Native Americans from San Buenaventura went to the aid of Colon, forcing the raiders to withdraw. In 1683, St.Augustine was attacked by a pirate fleet, and in 1684 missions along what is now the Georgia coast were attacked by Native American allies of the English. The mission of San Buenaventura was ordered to move south and merge with the mission of
San Juan del Puerto on the
St.Johns River. Before the mission could be moved, pirates returned to the area in the second half of 1684. On hearing of the presence of the pirates, Lorenzo de Santiago, chief of San Buenaventura, moved the people of his village, along with most of their property and stored maize, to the mainland. When the pirates landed at San Buenaventura, they found only ten men under a sub-chief who had been left to guard the village. The San Buenaventura men withdrew to the woods, and the pirates burned the village and mission. After the pirates burned the mission, the people of Guadalquini moved to a site about one league west of San Juan del Puerto on the St.Johns River, where a new mission named Santa Cruz de Guadalquini was established.
Fort Frederica Fort Frederica, now
Fort Frederica National Monument, was built beginning in 1736 as the military headquarters of the
Province of Georgia during the early English
colonial period. It served as a buffer against
Spanish incursion from
Florida. Nearby is the site of the
Battle of Gully Hole Creek and
Battle of Bloody Marsh, where on July7, 1742, the
British ambushed Spanish troops marching single file through the marsh and routed them from the island. This marked the end of the Spanish efforts to invade Georgia during the
War of Jenkins' Ear. It was preserved in the 20thcentury and identified as a national historic site largely by the efforts of Margaret Davis Cates, a resident who contributed much to historic preservation. She helped raise more than $100,000 (~$ in ) in 1941 to buy the site of the fort and conduct stabilization and some preservation. It was designated as a
National Monument in 1947.
Wesley brothers In the 1730s, St.Simons served as a sometime home to
John Wesley, the young minister of the colony at Savannah. He later returned to England, where in 1738, he founded the evangelical movement of
Methodism within the Anglican Church. Wesley performed
missionary work at St.Simons but was despondent about failing to bring about conversions. (He wrote that the local inhabitants had more tortures from their environment than he could describe for
Hell). In the 1730s, John Wesley's brother
Charles Wesley also did missionary work on St.Simons. In the late eighteenth century, Methodist preachers traveled throughout Georgia as part of the
Great Awakening, a religious revival movement led by Methodists and Baptists. A significant impact of the revival was to convert
enslaved African-Americans in Georgia (as well as those in the rest of the
Thirteen Colonies) to Christianity. On April5, 1987, fifty-five St.Simons United Methodist Church members were commissioned, with Bishop Frank Robertson as the first pastor, to begin a new church on the north end of St.Simons Island. This was where John and Charles Wesley had preached and ministered to the people at
Fort Frederica. The new church was named Wesley United Methodist Church at Frederica.
American Revolution In 1778 Colonel
Samuel Elbert commanded Georgia's Continental Army and Navy. On April15, he learned that four British vessels (the naval vessels and HMS
Hinchinbrook, and the hired vessels
Rebecca and
Hatter) from
East Florida were sailing in St.Simons Sound. Elbert commanded about 360troops from the Georgia Continental Battalions at Fort Howe to march to
Darien, Georgia. There they boarded three Georgia Navy galleys:
Washington, commanded by Captain John Hardy;
Lee, commanded by Captain John Cutler Braddock; and
Bulloch, commanded by Captain Archibald Hatcher. On April18, they entered Frederica River and anchored about from
Fort Frederica. The next day the galleys attacked the British vessels. The Colonial ships were armed with heavier cannons than the British, and the galleys also had a shallow
draft and could be rowed. When the wind died down, the British ships had difficulty maneuvering in the restricted waters of the river and sound. Two British ships ran aground, and the crews escaped to their other ships. The battle showed the effectiveness of the galleys in restricted waters over ships designed for the open sea. The victory in the
Frederica naval action boosted the morale of the colonials in Georgia.
Cotton production During the
plantation era, St.Simons became a center of
cotton production, known for its long-fiber
Sea Island Cotton. Nearly the entire island was cleared of trees to make way for several large cotton plantations worked by enslaved
Geechee people and their descendants. The plantations of this and other Sea Islands were large, and often the owners stayed on the mainland in Darien and other towns, especially during the summers, because the island was considered swampland. Still, enslaved Geechee people lived on the island and were not allowed to come to the mainland unless accompanied by an enslaver. This season was considered bad for diseases in the lowlands. These enslaved people were held in smaller groups and interacted more with whites. They were also confused with the
Gullah tribe from South Carolina. An original slave cabin still stands at the intersection of Demere Road and Frederica Road at the roundabout.
American Civil War and its aftermath During the early stages of the war, Confederate troops occupied St.Simons Island to protect its strategic location at the entrance to Brunswick harbor. However, in 1862,
Robert E. Lee ordered an evacuation of the island to relocate the soldiers for the defense of
Savannah, Georgia. Before departing, they destroyed the lighthouse to prevent its use as a navigation aid by
U.S. Navy forces. Most property owners then retreated inland with the people they enslaved, and the
U.S. Army occupied the island for the remainder of the war. Postwar, the island plantations were in ruins, and landowners found it financially unfeasible to cultivate cotton or rice. Most moved inland to pursue other occupations, and the island's economy remained dormant for several years. Formerly enslaved people established a community in the center of the island known as Harrington.
Since Reconstruction St.Simons' first exports of
lumber occurred after the
Naval Act of 1794 when timber harvested from two thousand Southern live oak trees from Gascoigne Bluff was used to build the
USSConstitution and five other
frigates (see
six original United States frigates). The USS
Constitution is known as "Old Ironsides", as cannonballs bounced off its hard live oak planking. The second phase of lumber production on the island began in the late 1870s when mills were constructed in the area surrounding Gascoigne Bluff. The mills supported a vibrant community that lasted until just after the turn of the twentieth century. During this time, lumber from St.Simons was shipped to New York City for use in the construction of the
Brooklyn Bridge. In contrast to the post-Civil War era, the decline of lumber did not open a new period of economic hardship; for a new industry was taking hold on St.Simons Island. As early as the 1870s, summer cottages were being constructed on the island's south end, and a small village was forming to serve them. Construction of the pier in 1887 brought visitors by boat from Brunswick and south Georgia. The Hotel St. Simons, on the present site of Massengale Park, opened in 1888. About a decade later, two hotels were built near the pier. The arrival of the automobile and the opening of the Torras Causeway in 1924 ensured the continued growth of tourism on St.Simons, the only one of the
Golden Isles not privately held. New hotels were built, roads were constructed, and tourism became the dominant force in the island's economy. On April8, 1942,
World War II became a reality to residents of St.Simons Island when a German
U-boat sank two
oil tankers in the middle of the night. The blasts shattered windows as far away as Brunswick, and unsubstantiated rumors spread about German soldiers landing on the beaches. Security measures were tightened after the sinkings, and anti-submarine patrols from Glynco Naval Air Station in Brunswick ultimately ended the U-boat threat. During the war,
McKinnon Airport became Naval Air Station St.Simons, home to the Navy Radar Training School. The
King and Prince Hotel, built in 1941, was used as a training facility and radar station. It was listed on the U.S.
National Register of Historic Places in 2005. President
Jimmy Carter visited the island with his brother
Billy Carter in 1977, arriving by
Marine One. During the postwar years, as resort and vacation travel increased, permanent residential development began to take place on St.Simons Island and surrounding mainland communities. The island's population grew from 1,706 in 1950 to 13,381 by 2000. ==Geography==