The Fallen of Jekyll Island

Jekyll Island on Georgia’s coastline may be best known for it’s historic district and the Jekyll Island Club — a retreat and playground for the country’s wealthiest elite in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Established in 1886, the Club was frequented by the Morgans, Rockefellers, Vanderbilts and others of their class.

However, there is another feature worth seeing on Jekyll Island.

“Driftwood Beach” on the north end of the island shows the ongoing work of erosion. It is humbling to stand amid the ruins of the great trees that have fallen to the steady beat of ocean waves and current. And there is some sadness looking behind at the majestic oaks just off the beach — some already salt-scarred — that will soon be the next to go.

While erosion along these barrier islands is a natural process, rising sea levels are sure to hasten it. And we have yet to see whether man’s attempted interventions, like the rocks placed along the shore further south, will slow or further speed its progress.