Fort George Island…Did You Know? Flyer

Fort George Island
...a place of unrivalled natural beauty and captivating history
Fort George Island is the most fascinating places to explore in the Amelia Island area. The island is covered by a
majestic maritime forest with several historic backdrops, such as the 1814 Kingsley Plantation and the 1928 Ribault
Clubhouse. The mostly undisturbed forest, vast salt marshes, coastal dunes, and surrounding waterways, attracts a high
diversity of marine life, bird life and wildlife. Fort George Island is often referred to as the East Coast’s “hidden gem.”
• Did you know that Native Americans began permanently living here 6,000 years ago?
• Did you know that these Timucuan Indians were among the first to make fired-clay pottery?
• Did you know that they participated in far-reaching trading networks and carved totem poles?
• Did you know parts of archaic shell mounds and ceremonial shell rings still remain on the island?
• Did you know that native plants were used for food, shelter, clothing, medicines, & tools?
• Did you know there was a Spanish Mission on the island in the 1600’s? 200 years before others.
• Did you know that because of the epidemic diseases brought to them by the Europeans, the Timucuan Indians
were extinct as a people by 1752?
• Did you know that plantations thrived on the island from the mid-1700s to the late 1800s?
• Did you know that from 1814-1839, a white slave-trader named Zephaniah Kingsley owned a prosperous
plantation and managed it with the help of his African-born wife? Anna Kingsley had been a former slave set
free by her husband. Anna also bought land and slaves for herself.
• Did you know that Kingsley Plantation has many original structures and is the oldest surviving antebellum
Spanish Colonial plantation? It has the largest concentration of tabby slave cabins.
• Did you know that the view from the planter’s house is virtually unchanged from plantation days? It looks out
across one of the East Coast’s largest and most beautiful saltwater Preserves.
• Did you know that the Island’s Visitor Center is a former recreation resort from the 1920’s? The Ribault Clubhouse’s
gracious architecture, its remote island location, and stately grounds were appealing to such discerning guests
as Rockefellers, Carnegies, DuPonts, and Winston Churchill.
• Did you know that over 75% of Fort George Island is undeveloped? It maintains its natural beauty and 6,000year culture thanks to the National Park Service and the Florida Park Service. Audubon designates the island
as a premier birding spot. Fort George Island is in the Atlantic’s migratory flyway, and is the nesting place for
North America’s most colorful songbird. The island also has ideal habitat for bobcats, marsh rabbits, deer, mink,
gopher tortoises, raccoons, armadillos, and lizards of many kinds.