Jekyll Island is the place to be this weekend for fun, music and great eats. This year’s event has the added plus of a barbeque competition along with the expected enjoyment of some of the best shag dancing in the Southeast! 

Friday, 8/21, from 6-8 pm, reserve your spot at Morgan’s Bar & Grill where you can enjoy pre-concert entertainment complete with sample BBQ from Southern Soul Restaurant and wine tasting provided by The Still and Winery both of St. Simons Island. The concert begins at 8:30 pm at the convention center and the ever popular Swingin’ Medallions will of course be entertaining with such favorites as “Double Shot of my Baby’s Love” and more. 

Hope you can come and get some sand in your shoes!

If you’ve never seen the Holiday light display that Jekyll does each year, you’ve missed out on a treat. The holiday festivities kick off on Saturday, November 29^th, in the historic district. The annual Christmas Tree Lighting festivities begin at 4:30 with a line up of local talent including dancers, musical ensembles and The Fred McKinnon Band. At dark, the massive evergreen will be lit and bring your children to put in their order to Santa and Mrs. Claus at Crane Cottage. They convey Santa and the Mrs. in on a fire truck, so bring the children and grandchildren and then take a ride and admire the handiwork of the crew’s light transformation (complete with Santa in a sleigh pulled by a team of dolphins!!) .  

On November 25^th at 4:30 pm, the public is invited to a ceremony at St. Andrews Picnic Area on Jekyll Island in remembrance of the survivors of the slave ship, The Wanderer, that landed on Jekyll 150 years ago. One of the speakers at the ceremony will be author Erik Calonius, whose book “The Wanderer” The Last American Slave Ship and the Conspiracy That Set Its Sails.” Mr. Calonius, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, became interested in the Wanderer about 7 years ago during a visit to a museum on Jekyll Island. A painting of the ship set in motion his quest to find out as much as he could about this vessel. The ship began as an extremely luxurious racing yacht built in 1856, but was refitted with an enlarged cargo capacity and was sent out to the Congo and filled with 480 slaves. The Wanderer returned to the U.S. and landed the 400 surviving slaves on Jekyll on November 28, 1858. This was in violation of federal laws banning importation of slaves. The federal case that ensued from this event was heard in Savannah’s U.S. Customs House. As the Wanderer case played out in Savannah, another slavery related situation happened that made national news---John Brown’s seizure of the armory at Harpers Ferry, VA. Mr. Calonius’ view is that these two happenings were integral in the timing of the Civil War conflict. 

I have never received as much response from a blog article than my June 18^th post and then my response posted June 20^th on the topic of the revitalization project on Jekyll Island. Just last week, the Jekyll Island Authority Executive Director, Jones Hooks, sent an email update on information that was shared at their 9/15/08 board meeting. They had contracted an independent research firm, Bleakly and Associates, to do a study analysis on the visitation numbers. According to this report, the island visitation peaked in the 1988-89 time period with approximately 2.1 million guests visiting Jekyll. Regrettably since that time, there has been a steady decline in visitation. Last year only 1.49 million visitors came to Jekyll which is down roughly 23% from the 1988-89 figures. 

This lovely photo shows pelicans on the pilings and in the distance on the right you'll see the Sidney Lanier Bridge (a cable stayed bridge) which spans the South Brunswick River in Brunswick, GA.  The current bridge was built to replace the original lift bridge which was struck by ships two times.  Currently it is the longest spnning bridge in GA and named for poet, Sidney Lanier.