Category: About

Wanderer Memory Trail Opening

EVENTS

By Jessica Scott, JIA Marketing Communications Manager

On November 28, 1858, more than 400 men, women, and children were brought to shore on Jekyll Island. Illegally smuggled into the United States aboard the Wanderer, a luxury yacht turned slave ship, these captives were among the last groups of enslaved Africans sold into slavery in America.

On November 17, 2018, Jekyll Island Authority will officially open the new Wanderer Memory Trail at St. Andrews Beach Park. The trail follows the story of Umwalla, a young African boy captured by slave traders and smuggled into America on one of the last known slave ships. From capture in his central African village to being sold in auction to a new master, Umwalla’s story will touch the hearts of all who experience it.

This interactive learning experience moves beyond a dark time in history and brings to light the legacy and influence of the survivors of slavery on the Georgia coast. Through Umwalla’s story, a message of hope and freedom shines.

Visitors will be invited to walk through Umwalla’s journey from Central Africa to Jekyll Island and beyond through this new trail experience. The opening ceremony will include guest speakers, trail interpretation, special music, and a moment of remembrance.

The Wanderer Memory Trail Opening

3:30 to 5 p.m., Saturday, November 17, 2018

St. Andrews Beach Park

Holly Jolly Jekyll is Here

EVENTS 

November 17 – January 6, see calendar for hours

By Jessica Scott, JIA Marketing Communications Manager

It’s the most wonderful time of the year on Jekyll Island. We have “snow” and “ice” skating and plenty of holiday cheer. The Holly Jolly Jekyll season is full of fun for the whole family. Here are a few highlights of the season. Check out the full season of activities.

Jekyll Island Skating Village

Opening November 17, Jekyll Island “ice” skating is back and in a new riverfront location for the 2018-19 season. Located in the picturesque Historic District, the Jekyll Island Skating Village features a synthetic ice rink and real ice skates. This unique surface takes the pain and cold out of ice skating and is easy for kids and adults of all ages. Skate on Jekyll Island among history, under ancient oaks, and with a spectacular view of the Jekyll River. No reservations required, but there is a cost of $5 per person.

Pier Road Pajama Party

Friday, November 23, 8-11 a.m.

Kick-off the holiday shopping season in your jammies! Shoppers donning their family-friendly pajamas will receive discounts from the Pier Road shops, and prizes for the best pajamas. Enjoy visits with Santa and holiday music as you stroll through the historic cottage shops filled with gifts perfect for holiday shopping. Prizes will be awarded for the best individual and family pajamas.

Movie on the Green

Friday, November 23, 5:30 p.m.

Join us for a special holiday edition of the Jekyll Island Movie on the Green series with “The Santa Clause.” Bring your lawn chairs and blankets and enjoy this new holiday classic on Jekyll Island. This event is free and open to the public. All are welcome.

Jekyll Island Tree Lighting Festival

Saturday, November 24, 2-8 p.m.

Ring in the holidays with the lighting of the great tree in Jekyll Island’s Historic District. Celebrate this holly jolly event with the whole family.

This one-day festival is full of holiday magic and is sure to put even the grinchiest Grinch in the holiday spirit. Festivities begin with a Candy Cane Hunt and continue with Story Time with Santa throughout the day. Be sure to write your letter and mail it directly through the North Pole Express.

Cross off your holiday shopping list with unique gifts at the Holiday Market. Dance and sing along to your favorite holiday tunes, with live music by the area’s favorite bands.

As the sun begins to set, grab a cup of cocoa and settle on the Main Lawn for the big show. The tree will be lit and skies will sparkle with fireworks as the holiday season officially begins on Jekyll Island.

Holidays in History

December 1-31

Once a year, the cottages of the historic district get dressed in their finest holiday decorations just for you. Enjoy a 90-minute tram tour when Jekyll Island’s National Historic Landmark District is wrapped in seasonal splendor. This guided tour of the 240-acre historic district includes entry into two cottages, decorated for the holiday season, as well as Faith Chapel. Reservations recommended.

Christmas Twilight Tours

Saturdays, December 1-29, 4 p.m.

Explore a magical time of year in Jekyll Island’s historic district. This special evening tram tour highlights heart-warming holiday tales and the lights and decorations of the season on Jekyll Island. The 90-minute Christmas celebration includes a unique tour of Faith Chapel and concludes with light refreshments and sunset views from Indian Mound Cottage. Reservations required.

Santa at the Skeet House

Saturdays, December 1-22, 1-4 p.m.

Christmas is coming, so get your visit with the big man in before the big day is here. Visit with Santa on the porch of historic Skeet House, located in Jekyll Island’s beautiful National Historic Landmark District every Saturday in December, from 1 to 4 p.m. Visits are free, but don’t forget your camera to capture this special moment. This event is free.

Victorian Christmas Craft

Saturdays, December 1-22, 2-4 p.m.

Get in the holiday spirit with a holiday-themed craft set among the stunning winter cottages that once belonged to Gilded Age millionaires. Join historical figures from Jekyll Island’s Christmas past to create a charming handmade holiday treasure, just like members of the Jekyll Island Club once made. These period-inspired handicrafts offer a fun and festive activity to delight kids and adults of all ages. No reservations required, but there is a cost of $5 per person.

Holly Jolly Jekyll Parade

Saturday, December 15, 5:30-7 p.m.

Santa has his sleigh and Jekyll Island has golf carts! Join in the fun of the festive Holly Jolly Jekyll Parade, where golf carts don their Christmas best and jingle all the way to Beach Village.

Island guests and residents are encouraged to watch the parade along the route, and afterwards meet in Beach Village to view all of the participants. While you’re there, enjoy holiday music, compete in holiday trivia and an ugly sweater contest, and work on your Christmas shopping lists at the Pier Road and Beach Village shops. Everyone is encouraged to bring new, unwrapped toys for the Georgia State Patrol’s Toys for Tots drive. Learn more about awards and entry here.

Holiday Light Displays

November 17 – January 6, sunset to midnight

Holiday magic abounds on Jekyll Island this holiday season. Enjoy twinkling light-wrapped oaks and traditional holiday décor in the Historic District. Beginning November 24, the Great Tree will light up the main lawn. Delight in whimsical holiday scenes depicted in colorful light displays in Beach Village and along Great Dunes Beach Park. Bring the family and see if you can count all the lights.

Mailbox on Main

November – December 21

The North Pole Express mail box will be available at the corner of Main Street and Ocean Avenue in the Beach Village. All the good boys and girls are invited send their letters to Santa Claus.

It’s February and the month of love. After running our #LOVEJekyllIsland photo contest in the fall, we heard and saw how many of you LOVE Jekyll Island. How exciting! And here are the results…

Each photo shared, each heartfelt testimony penned, were so special. Thank you for opening your hearts, your legacies, your family times, and your contining desire for ambassadorship of this special place. We feel the same way, which is why we work so hard to accomplish our mission.

JIF MEMBERS

We heard your desire to get involved in our efforts to Conserve, Preserve, and Educate, and we’ve answered with our new member’s program. Check it out!

With memberships starting as low ae $35, everyone can join!

MOSAIC moving full-steam ahead

The Trolley Tours and Museum Gift Shop have been relocated to the Infirmary (previously the bookstore), selective demolition begins this month, construction is set to launch in March, with an open date of first quarter 2019! Keep an eye out for our next newsletter – more ways to get involved!

CURRENT INITIATIVESGive Now

Horton House to Horton Pond Trail Extension

Due to its popularity, we’re extending the Horton Pond Tupelo Trail! The proposed route, a historic road dating back presumably to the period when the Horton House was an occupied plantation, will physically connect two of Jekyll’s historical and natural points of interest.

Hollybourne Cottage Lintel Repair

Hollybourne Cottage lintels (support structures) over the door and window openings have rusted, expanded, and then cracked the tabby walls, causing the exterior walls to become structurally unstable.  Your gift will assist with repair and preservation.

DIAMONDBACK TERRAPIN CONSERVATION

Assist the Georgia Sea Turtles Center in their efforts to help protect Jekyll terrapins.

Newly Wrapped Vans an Integral Part of 2017 Terrapin Patrol

CONSERVATION – Diamondback Terrapin Research

By Jen Terry, GSTC/AmeriCorps Diamondback Terrapin Husbandry Member

The 2017 diamondback terrapin nesting season officially came to a close on August 1^st!  From the first terrapin found on April 19^th to the last on July 30^th, 296 adult female diamondback terrapins were encountered on the Jekyll Island Causeway attempting to nest.  Of those 296, 218 individuals were safely worked up and moved off of the road– that’s a save rate of about 74 percent!  A total of 155 eggs were collected from females who were unfortunately hit by cars during their attempt to cross the road and placed in our incubators.  We are happy to say that over 75 eggs have already successfully hatched!

The 2017 Diamondback Terrapin Road Season could not have run so smoothly without the support from the Jekyll Island Foundation and its donors.  The use of a van positively influences Diamondback Terrapin road patrols in two ways: 1) the spacious area allows for efficient work up of animals as well as functions as a holding area for maintenance supplies and 2) the size, flashing lights, and eye-catching wrap on the van alerts drivers of our efforts.  The addition of a second van ensured that our patrols on the causeway and the needs of the rest of the rehabilitation team at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center could be accomplished simultaneously and efficiently.

Flying Drones for Conservation

CONSERVATION – Disney Conservation Fund

By Terry M. Norton, DVM, DACZM, Director and Veterinarian

Jekyll Island Authority’s Georgia Sea Turtle Center

Jekyll Island Authority’s Georgia Sea Turtle Center was recently involved in a drone building workshop with four of our partner conservation organizations in Costa Rica. Participating organizations included Minae, Osa Ecology, Reserva Playa Tortuga, and Parque Marino del Pacifico. The Disney Conservation Fund financially supported a significant portion of the workshop including paying for two drones, travel for two instructors and one participant, and food for the four day course – thank you Disney!  The Kashmir World Foundation taught the course and provided financial support for a drone and travel expenses for their staff. David Smith from Ceiling And Visibility Unlimited (CAVU) and St. Catherines Island Foundation provided financial support for drone parts for one of the teams. Jaynie Gaskin from Georgia Southern University’s St. Catherines Island Sea Turtle Project helped organize the workshop and instruct participants. The Reserva Playa Tortuga generously provided housing, facilities and the infrastructure to host the workshop. It was a GREAT collaborative effort. 

Two days were spent building the drones, which provided conservationists an understanding of the working parts of their drone and how to fix the drone if there are malfunctions or how to add additional technology in the future. All four drones were successfully flown, initially on a soccer field and then on a sea turtle nesting beach as the participants flying expertise advanced. Osa Ecology, a newly formed NGO will monitor sea turtle nesting on remote beaches and in-water, survey dolphins and whales, and likely many other activities. Minae is a governmental agency tasked with a variety of conservation management activities with which drone monitoring will be very beneficial. Reserva Playa Tortuga staff is engaged in a variety of wildlife conservation activities that will benefit from drone technology including monitoring sea turtles, crocodilians, birds and mammals of the area. The Parque Marino del Pacifico is an aquarium in Puntarenas Costa Rica. They have a similar mission to the GSTC, integrating research, education and rehabilitation of marine turtles and other wildlife. They are working with researchers involved with mangrove conservation where drone monitoring will be of great benefit. This was a very special workshop for me because it brought together partners that we have nurtured since the start of our programs in Costa Rica in 2011, and the workshop was a phenomenal success.

Wilson’s Plover End of Season Report 2017

CONSERVATION – Disney Conservation Fund

By Yank Moore, JIA Conservation Land Manager

With the 2017 nesting season behind us, Jekyll Island’s Wilson’s Plovers have migrated away from our beautiful beaches. We send with them our hope that they will return next year in late spring to nest again. This season the JIA Conservation Staff identified a Jekyll-record 17 Wilson’s Plover nests with another record of 4 Willet nests. Eleven plover nests survived predators and other challenges to make it to hatching, as did a single Willet nest – the first documented willet hatch since we began this study a few years ago. This year the adult pairs seemed to take advantage of the more expansive open-dune habitat that resulted from the high tides around Hurricane Matthew last Fall. Low rolling dunes with sparse vegetation are the ideal habitat for nesting Wilson’s Plovers, providing shelter and cover to hide from predators but plenty of space to see them coming, and close proximity to the water’s edge where plovers feed. Only four plover nests fell victim to predators this year, with one predation by a raccoon, surprisingly the first we’ve documented. Two nests were abandoned after being buried in rapidly growing sand dunes, a sign of shoreline recovery following Hurricane Matthew.

Out of all the nests, we were able to band 15 chicks. The bands provide a unique color combination that allows us to specifically identify each individual chick. At least five chicks made it to fledgling size (when they are able to fly for the first time) and will hopefully make it to adulthood and return to the area to nest in the coming years. With enduring help from the Jekyll Island Foundation, we will continue to monitor our small nesting population again next year, hoping for another record breaking year on Jekyll. Always remember, if you enjoy Jekyll’s beach with your dog (or cat!), never allow them to chase birds, keep them on a leash, and respect the “no pets” area on the south end of the island. These rules are in place to keep Jekyll’s beach a haven for birds like the Wilson’s Plovers that may one day be lost if not for our careful stewardship.

Girls of Summer

CONSERVATION/EDUCATION – Utility Task Vehicle

By Breanna Ondich, Jekyll Island Authority’s GSTC Research Specialist 

Wintertime for the research team means we are reminiscing over the girls of summer (sea turtles that is). Our sand shores successfully produced over 7,800 hatchling sea turtles! The patrol team encountered 40 different sea turtle moms in 2017 depositing their precious eggs beneath the earth. Jekyll Island’s grand total was 130 nests, roughly 6% of Georgia’s 2,189 total nests. All of the nests on our beaches were deposited by loggerhead sea turtles, while a few other islands had some visiting green sea turtles, kemps ridleys, and at least one leatherback. 

It was as long ago as 1958 that the very first loggerhead sea turtle was tagged on Jekyll Island. Of the 40 sea turtles we were able to catch on the beach in 2017, we know that 20 of those were returning to Jekyll Island from a previous summer, 16 new moms came to us untagged, and the last 4 were first tagged during a previous summer somewhere else in the state of Georgia. If you include knowledge gained by partnering with the Northern Recovery Unit Loggerhead DNA Project (University of Georgia), loggerhead sea turtles lay an average of 4 nests each summer that they nest. This past summer, four different turtles – “Pudge,” “Pooky,” “Mosquito,” and “Eloise” – tied for having the most nests on Jekyll Island in 2017 with 6 nests each! 

Tagging sea turtles and managing their nests is important, but so are our education efforts. Thanks to the generous support of the Jekyll Island Foundation and its donors, we were able to continue our very popular Ride with Patrol program in our new Kawasaki Mule Pro, which allows up to 4 guests at a time to ride along with us in the utility task vehicles and get a first-hand look of what it’s like to be a sea turtle biologist. At least 273 people participated in the program in 2017, and we spoke to 1,193 additional people on the beach during our Turtle Walk and Sunrise Walk eco-tour programs. Thirty-nine of our nests were sponsored by 61 parents in our Nest Trackers program, a new record for one season! Beyond our regularly scheduled programs, our patrol team educated over 3,341 additional people incidentally on the beach about sea turtles. The team also intercepted 1,101 people with white lights to hand out red cellophane to turn those lights into red turtle-friendly lights instead. 

As the oldest and largest research project on Jekyll Island, none of this would be possible without the support of all of our collaborators: The Jekyll Island Authority – Georgia Sea Turtle Center, AmeriCorps, The Jekyll Island Foundation, The University of Georgia, and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Thank you for another successful nesting season here on Jekyll Island!

The following are resources for further information:
Georgia DNR Sea Turtle Conservation Program
A History of Sea Turtle Tagging and Monitoring on Jekyll Island, Georgia, USA
rnAbout Loggerhead Turtles
About Green Turtles
About Kemp Ridley Turtles
About Leatherback Turtles
Ride with Patrol Information
Turtle Walk Information
Nest Walk Information
Beach Lighting Information

Guess What???

This is an exciting week for the Jekyll Island Foundation as we introduce our fresh, new brand identity and website, paving the way for GROWTH!

You’ll notice new elements including a new logo, brighter colors, and vibrant photos that remind you why you fell in love with Jekyll Island, and what keeps you coming back again and again.

With the launch of our new website you’ll see simplified content, streamlined navigation, expanded opportunities to Get Involved, and our new Membership Program.  

Speaking of Memberships, here’s what to look for:

• Member-Only Communications and Special Offers
• Member Reward Card
• Member Decal
• Island Parking Passes

… and much, much more!

What about our Partners? These folks – corporations – have faithfully invested behind the scenes, never asking for much in return. We are grateful for their partnership. Let’s Show ‘Em Some Love. 

And, while you’re at it, check out our Friends page for in-the-moment, social media exchange. Share your own pictures. See what other Island lovers are saying. Become part of the conversation by adding #JekyllIslandFoundation to your posts!

Along with the new brand and website, our newsletter also received a sprucing up. It’s easy to open on any mobile device, tablet or desktop, easy to read highlights with links to full articles, and easy to share with your family and friends. Share away!

With all of these changes, some things remain the same – our commitment to our donors to continuously seek projects that preserve and protect Jekyll’s natural and historical assets and educational opportunities that build ambassadors for the future sustainability of the Island.

We hope you take a few moments to ‘ride with us’ through the new trails, and will consider joining us as we pursue our mission to CONSERVE. PRESERVE. EDUCATE. We hope to see you soon!

Wilson’s Plover Mid-Season Update 2017 

CONSERVATION: Plover Patrol

By Yank Moore, JIA Conservation Coordinator 

Wilson’s Plover nesting season is in full swing here on Jekyll Island and the Jekyll Island Authority (JIA) Conservation Department has been busy continuing the advancement of shorebird monitoring efforts with the help of the Jekyll Island Foundation. We have continued our robust nest monitoring program to better understand the importance of Jekyll Island’s beaches and dunes for Wilson’s Plovers, a shore bird listed as “Threatened” by the State of Georgia. This has been a productive season already with 13 nests and counting, six of those have made it to hatching and one is still incubating. 

The pairs of adults are taking advantage of the dunes at the southern tip of the island that were hit hard during Hurricane Matthew. This area is now recovering well, leaving plentiful expanses of young vegetation and low rolling dunes that are ideal nesting habitat for the Wilson’s Plover. We have also documented the nests of at least four Willets, which is a larger shorebird that can be seen on our beaches year-round. These birds nest further back in the dunes in dense vegetation clumps making them a lot harder to find. At least one of these nests hatched a couple of chicks, which is a first since the Conservation Department started monitoring nests two and a half years ago. 

As far as the chicks go, we have color banded a total of 11 Wilson’s Plovers so far and hope to band a few more. The color bands allow us to specifically identify each individual chick making it easier to monitor their success up to fledging, or the time at which they fly for the first time. We are still seeing quite a few of these banded birds feeding in the runnels and are optimistic that we may have better success than the last couple of years. Always remember, if you enjoy Jekyll’s beach with your dog (or cat!), never allow them to chase birds, keep them on a leash, and respect the “no pets” area on the south end of the island. These rules are in place to keep Jekyll’s beach a haven for birds like the Wilson’s Plovers that may one day be lost if not for careful stewardship.