Category: For the Record

‘Tis the season! The Holly Jolly Jekyll season, that is! This year the whole season has been reimagined to ensure guests will remain safe and healthy while participating in activities the whole family will enjoy. From the return of the Holly Jolly Jekyll Parade to the addition of two nights of fireworks, this season promises to be better than ever!

The Holly Jolly Jekyll season kicks off November 27 and ends January 3. Returning all season long, guests can hop on a Holly Jolly Light Tours to sit back, relax, and enjoy the view of over half a million lights across the island, all from the comfort of Jekyll’s jolliest trolley. Then, guests can head over to Jekyll Island Mini Golf and play into the evening amongst the life-sized gumdrops, peppermint sticks, gingerbread men, and more at Peppermint Land. Guests can also hop on a Holidays in History trolley tour to learn all about how the millionaires decorated for the holidays, their traditions, and even step into their homes to see the decorations up close.

SANTA! With a total of 15 Santa sightings throughout the season, the Jekyll Island Convention Center kicks off visits with the big man with multiple opportunities to see him at both their Breakfast with Santa and Cookie Decorating with Santa events. From special viewing locations, guests can also spot him in the island-wide Holly Jolly Jekyll Parade. Kids can likewise wave to him at the Holiday Big Truck Roundup while exploring several emergency vehicles from Jekyll Island Fire/EMS and Georgia State Patrol. But the fun doesn’t stop there! Prior to the start of both Drive-in Movies, featuring the movie Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Santa will join his fire department friends for a ride around in his big red fire truck!

It’s the best time of the year! From fireworks to playing a round of mini golf under twinkling lights, every day of the Holly Jolly Jekyll season is filled with joy and merriment. So, whether you’re visiting Jekyll Island for the day or the month, there’s a holly jolly line-up for all!

By Dr. Tom Radzio

GSTC Research Ecologist

Female loggerhead sea turtles arrive each year on Jekyll Island to lay their precious eggs, typically more than 100 at a time. And when that happens, there is a good chance that a Georgia Sea Turtle Center (GSTC) AmeriCorps service member will be there to carefully document the event. “We are learning about these animals so we can better protect them,” says Katie Doherty, AmeriCorps service member. Every night during the nesting season, GSTC research teams can be seen patrolling the beaches seeking to locate and monitor every loggerhead sea turtle nest on the island, 136 this year! Collectively, nest monitoring throughout the Golden Isles suggest the possibility of a rebounding loggerhead population.

In addition to nest monitoring, the GSTC and its regional collaborators also seek to understand loggerhead turtle trends by studying the fates of individual nesting females. Take for example, “Dr. Shelly,” a majestic female loggerhead. First seen nesting here in 2008, she nested on Ossabaw Island in 2011 before returning to nest on Jekyll Island in 2013, 2016, 2018, and 2020, laying six nests this past season. Because very few hatchlings survive to adulthood, laying many eggs (over 2,500 in Dr. Shelly’s case!) is key to loggerhead population persistence.  Though spectacular, Dr. Shelly’s repeat visits to Jekyll Island aren’t uncommon. This past season, GSTC documented 55 different loggerheads nesting on the island, of which nearly half are known to have nested here in past years.

You might wonder how GSTC researchers keep track of all these individuals. Genetic samples, flipper tags, and passive integrated transponders, the same technology used to microchip the family pet, are used to uniquely identify nesting females. Because they nest all around the island, encountering turtles can be challenging. Thanks to generous past donations from the Jekyll Island Foundation donors, GSTC researchers use utility terrain vehicles to find most nesting females and can provide exciting educational program opportunities as a result.  We hope you’ll join us on the beach next season or anytime at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center where you might hear more about the incredible wanderings of Dr. Shelly and other turtles that visit our shores! 

Support the ongoing work of the Georgia Sea Turtle Center! Text GiveJekyll + $ amount to (844) 889-2692.

By Andrea Marroquin

JIA Historic Resources Curator

Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum celebrates the reopening of Mistletoe Cottage following extensive efforts to rehabilitate the sunroom to its Jekyll Island Club Era appearance.

Originally built for locomotive manufacturer Henry Kirke Porter in 1901, the luxurious retreat was sold in 1925 to John Claflin, the largest dry goods dealer in the country.

One of the most fascinating rooms in the cottage is the sunroom.  A beautiful ceiling treatment, covered with hand-painted images of birds and leaves in brilliant colors, graced the sunroom for many years.  However, the cumulative effects of light, water, and time eventually took its toll on the historic fabric and substantively damaged the original material.

Historic Resources preservation staff consulted with specialists from the Northeast Document and Conservation Center, to carefully remove, conserve, digitize, and reproduce the delicate bamboo, rice paper, and silk fabric ceiling covering. The original Chinese silk wallpaper was framed for display in the cottage. Meanwhile, the reproduction ceiling treatment, reinstalled and trimmed with its original bamboo border, is now more vivid and vibrant than ever.

Following an historic paint analysis, the walls of the sunroom were also returned to their original blue paint color.  The brilliant blue adds to the indoor-outdoor feel of the space and complements the bright hues of the birds in flight above.

We invite you to come see the finished product!  The original beauty of the cottage can be discovered through tours and special programs of the historic district.  Click HERE for information about upcoming experiences offered at Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum.

By Mallory Harmel
Conservation AmeriCorps Member and

Ben Carswell
JIA Director of Conservation

Turtles, dolphins, alligators, and deer are animals Jekyll Island visitors may expect to see, but very rarely do visitors happen across a top predator that has mastered avoiding people and blending in with their surroundings like the Eastern Diamondback rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus). Eastern Diamondback rattlesnake, or EDBs, have been a conservation priority to the JIA since 2011 and are the subject of ongoing long-term monitoring and research.

Historically found across much of the Southeast, this cryptic species has now largely retreated to strongholds in Northern Florida and Southern Georgia. Petitioned for federal protection under the Endangered Species Act in 2011, EDBs have unfortunately been feared and killed more than appreciated for their stabilizing ecological role as predators.

Because they are challenging to find and study, many questions about their biology and physiology call for research to support conservation planning and management. JIAs conservation and veterinary professionals have zeroed in on health and reproduction as one of the most important knowledge gaps. With the support of the Jekyll Island Foundation, blood samples were collected from a dozen EDBs and will be tested to provide baseline blood “reference values”. This study, and the results, is the first of its kind in the wild for the species and will be impactful beyond Jekyll Island by making it possible to recognize when EDB populations may be succumbing to poor health in response to circumstances such as habitat loss or climate change. Additionally, blood data can be used to predict if a female is in early stages of pregnancy or could become pregnant in the following breeding season.

The EDB research team is excited to report the findings when the study is complete! In the meantime, if you come across an Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake, please respect their space but know that they are not out to get you. They strike only as an option of last resort out of self-defense. Please never harm any snake and take time to appreciate their magnificent adaptations of form and function that allow them to survive and thrive in their wild domain.

Visit CONSERVATION ON JEKYLL ISLAND to learn more about projects, research, and education opportunities.

By Dion Davis

JIF Executive Director

As I write this, it is mid-August, and with the rain that made its way across the Golden Isles last week, the marshes of Glynn, normally beige and brown, are lush and green. They lie at the base of the Sidney Lanier Bridge as a portrait of beauty, teeming with nature and life. Continuing across the Jekyll Island causeway, multiple species of birds soar gently on the breeze. It’s a good day, and I am thankful.

Just as the colors of the marsh change with the seasons, so does the Jekyll Island Foundation. With wonderful leadership and a well-laid foundation comes growth—strong and steady. Some of our progress you can see publicly. But some is behind the scenes, quietly making your time on Jekyll, as a resident or as a seasonal guest, more relaxing and enjoyable.  

Increase comes in many forms: in nature, wildlife, and historic research projects; through relationship building with friends who become family; and in organizational upgrades. There are thousands of guests enjoying the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, our new Mosaic Museum, and Jekyll’s multiple viewing platforms and nature trails. Practical maintenance—on historic cottages, wildlife transport vans, or ATV’s—is happening all around.

For those who may have just tuned in, let’s take a quick journey back at what we’ve accomplished together and a glance at what’s to come.

Georgia Sea Turtle Center

• GSTC – preserved and repurposed power plant
• wildlife transport + utility terrain vehicles
• surgical + medical supplies
• laser, x-ray, endoscopy, ultrasound, + laparoscopic equipment
• rehabilitation tanks
• hospital pavilion upgrades
• Diamondback Terrapin – drone equipment + research projects
• UGA/GSTC graduate research assistantships
• GSTC education + veterinary staff interns
• gift store remodel

Conservation

• St. Andrews Beach + Guest Information wildlife viewing platforms
• Horton Pond basking + viewing platforms + nature trail
• Horton Pond-to-Horton House historic nature trail
• migratory nesting bird research
• bobcat reproduction study
• amphibians, alligator, + snake research

Historic Preservation

• Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum project
• cottage restoration + exhibits: Indian Mound Cottage, Villa Ospo + Hollybourne Cottage
• Skeet House relocation + revitalization project

What’s on the horizon for JIF?

Mosaic Museum Phase II—The Paddock Outdoor Education Space—will serve as a multi-purpose outdoor location for interactive and explorative learning on Jekyll.

Coming in the fall are a new corporate sponsor program, membership upgrades, new tribute gift options, and in time—a GSTC capital campaign.

Visit the Jekyll Island online store and support the GSTC, conservation, or historic preservation through online donations.  

On behalf of the Jekyll Island Foundation Board of Directors, thank you! We look forward to many years of continued partnerships, making new friends, and growing together.

Welcome back to one of Jekyll’s best places to learn the hidden lessons of nature and all about alligators.

By Ben Carswell

JIA Director of Conservation

For the wildlife denizens of Jekyll Island’s Horton Pond, the year 2020 has been… unremarkable. Despite the historic challenges that are taking place in the larger world, the relatively peaceful natural realm surrounding Horton Pond continues as though nothing is afoot. Visitors and residents can take comfort in knowing that this serene refuge has also continued to bring peace and healing relief through the improvements that the Jekyll Island Foundation funded in 2014.

In Spring, alligators awoke from their winter torpor and went about their usual grumbly mating rituals, occasionally scattering the turtle squad gathered on the basking platform with no care for social distance. Wood ducks moved back into the Pond’s nesting box. Now in Summer, the Kingfisher’s rattling call echoes from water’s edge to the tops of the tall pines. Night herons peer out from shadowy shrubs along the bank. The anhinga somehow achieves a comic beauty despite appearing to be a mashup of a turkey, a fish, and a snake. The dragon flies have arrived now. They are hunters of insects, but they are hunted themselves, from below by bass in the pond and from above by swallow-tailed kites whose unmatched regal grace in the skies inspires faith that the world shall overcome.

In this timeless theater of biodiversity, the show flows on, and the island is delighted to be able to share this encore with you again, through our Gatorology program. This Ranger led experience focuses on instilling appreciation, knowledge, and respect for the ancient American Alligator. Now an even more intimate educational experience, the maximum number of tickets per session has been lowered to six. We hope you’ll join us!

Gatorology is offered at the Horton Pond observation deck each Wednesday and Friday from 11:00 am – 12 noon through September.

To support CONSERVATION efforts on Jekyll Island, click HERE.

By Kaylee Johnson

JIA Mosaic Museum Assistant Manager

For the first time in 130 years, Hollybourne cottage will be open to the public for regular visitation! Tours of this cottage are no longer only held in the month of May but will be done twice daily beginning this month. Beginning July 1, 2020, Jekyll Island guests can explore this impressive building while on the Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum’s Bridgebuilder’s Cottage tour.

Hollybourne cottage, built in 1890, was the winter vacation home of Pennsylvanian Charles Stewart Maurice, his wife Charlotte, and their nine children. For fifty years the Maurice family wintered here on Jekyll Island in their spacious tabby house. Charles, a bridge builder, included several bridge building techniques in the construction of his holiday home, like the loadbearing trusses in the walls and attic and pier support system in the basement.

The Mosaic’s incredible interpretive staff invite island guests to join them on a basement-to-attic guided tour of Hollybourne. Tour-goers will get to dive into the history of the Maurice family’s stays on Jekyll Island and their involvement with the historic Jekyll Island Club, the fascinating construction methods employed in the building of this cottage, and current preservation projects that are still under way.

The preservation of Hollybourne has been a long, and still ongoing, journey. For well over twenty years dedicated volunteers and staff, and generous donors, have labored to return this cottage to its Gilded Age glory. We would like to thank all involved for making the reopening of Hollybourne to the public a possibility.

Click historic tours for more information. To reserve a seat on the Bridgebuilder’s Cottage tour click HERE or call the Mosaic Gift Shop at (912) 635-4036. To support, text JekyllMosaic + $ amount to (844) 899-2692 and follow the prompts.

By Rob Mahon, GSTC General Manager

& Michelle Kaylor, GSTC Rehabilitation Manager

The Georgia Sea Turtle Center (GSTC) has reopened its doors to the public! The past few months have been unexpected and unprecedented around the world. The Georgia Sea Turtle Center was closed for nearly 2 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but then reopened on May 15 under limited capacity with increased sanitation protocols. Please visit the GSTC website for details on these enhanced safety measures.

The staff at the GSTC are excited to welcome back visitors and have already educated a number of guests looking to learn about sea turtles, other turtle species, and the GSTC conservation mission of EDUCATION, REHABILITATION, & RESEARCH.  In addition to the daily programs that guests will still experience when visiting the Center, turtle walks are also still available to be scheduled. 

Diamondback Terrapin (DBT) nesting season is half-way complete and has already surpassed GSTC historical records. DBT team members have encountered 534 individual DBTs on the causeway thus far and are fast approaching the 2015 season record of 520 individuals.

In the hospital, 10 adult female terrapins are being cared for due to car incursion, and the incubators are at capacity, warming and growing 217 DBT eggs, some of which are beginning to hatch after their 45-day incubation period. One adult DBT female – named KIA – has been released so far this season.  She was hit by a car, brought into the hospital, rehabilitated, and was ready to go!

The 2020 Diamondback Terrapin Road Season could not have been successful without the support from the Jekyll Island Foundation and its donors.  To support the ongoing work of the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, text GiveJekyll + $ amount to (844) 889-2692 and follow the prompts, or visit the Jekyll Island E-commerce store. 

By Alexa Orndoff

Director, JIA Marketing & Communications

There’s no better feeling than passing through those historic gates, making your way down the causeway, and entering this special place. The feeling can’t be replicated and sometimes, it’s even hard to articulate. It’s unmatched by memories and photographs. A simple souvenir can’t replace the experience, but it often serves as a wonderful reminder. It might even inspire you to give back as a way to stay connected. With the redesign of our new Jekyll Island online retail store staying connected is now that much more accessible.

Launched in July, the Jekyll Island e-commerce shop offers an expansive collection of merchandise and memorabilia, some of which was only previously available in on-island gift shops. Visitors can find vintage-inspired t-shirts, highly sought-after island treasures, and even the heavily requested Georgia Sea Turtle Center (GSTC) front license plate. From symbolic sea turtle adoptions to annual memberships to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, the revamped online store is modern and clean, with a focus on intuitive navigation, allowing visitors to both find what their looking for and discover recommendations for popular items, including ways to give back.

And, speaking of giving back, if after your relaxing trip to Jekyll Island you feel inspired to get involved, the Jekyll Island Foundation is the answer. Visit their website to GIVE NOW, Become a Member, honor family or friends with a Tribute Gift, or support your favorite cause – CONSERVATION – HISTORIC PRESERVATION/MOSAIC MUSEUM – GSTC. Your partnership directly impacts the work of the Foundation and its efforts to keep the history, natural beauty and character of Jekyll Island alive.