Little Cumberland Island and the historic communities known as the Settlement
and High Point located just across the creek on Big Cumberland form the north
end. This area has a separate history from the south end because the two were
located 18 miles away from each other. The northenders' commercial and social
activities were influenced by their proximity to St. Simons and Brunswick, while
the south enders were influenced by the settlements of St. Marys and Fernandina.
At the north tip of Cumberland Island is Little Cumberland Island, a
2,400-acre tract that is separated from the big island by Christmas and
Brockington creeks. Though part of the Cumberland Island National Seashore,
Little Cumberland Island is privately owned and not open to visitors without an
invitation. With 1,600 acres of uplands, this Holocene island is larger than Sea
Island, but has fewer beaches with approximately 2.5 miles of sand. There are
one hundred, 2-acre lots where development is allowed, but only 36 homes have
been built. Little Cumberland has monitored sea turtle nesting since 1964,
longer than any other island on the Georgia coast. Unfortunately, the island has
seen drastically reduced numbers of turtle nests, declining from an average of
151 in the 1970s to an average of 44 in the last 10 years, for reasons that are
not entirely clear to scientists.
Both Cumberland islands have been home to a lighthouse. One has been
relocated, and the other is now privately owned. Cumberland Island received its
lighthouse first. Six acres at the southern tip of the island were ceded to the
U.S. Government in 1802 by the state of Georgia for the construction of a
lighthouse. However, it was eighteen years before the lighthouse, built by
Winslow Lewis, became a reality. After eighteen years of service, the lighthouse
was dismantled brick by brick and reassembled on the northern end of Florida's
Amelia Island, which lies just across the mouth of the St. Mary's River from the
original lighthouse site. Apparently the lighthouse was able to better mark the
entrance to the river from the Florida side.
Reference:
The Sherpa Guides / Little Cumberland Island
Lighthouse Friends
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