Tides & Towns
Coastal Georgia · GA

Jekyll Island

A state-owned island where Gilded Age millionaires once wintered.

Residents
866 (2020 census)
State-owned since
1947
Kept natural
65% of the island, by law
Tides
Two highs, two lows a day

Then

  1. Before 1700

    The Guale and Mocama peoples live in the area. In the late 1600s they are driven out, and survivors resettle in what is now Florida.

  2. 1730s

    James Oglethorpe names the island for his friend Sir Joseph Jekyll, who gave £600 toward founding the Georgia colony.

  3. 1738

    William Horton makes Jekyll his home and runs a plantation on enslaved labor. His tabby house, burned in a 1742 Spanish attack and rebuilt, survives as one of the oldest buildings in Georgia.

  4. 1790s

    Christophe du Bignon, a refugee from the French Revolution, acquires the island just before 1800 and builds a plantation on slavery.

  5. 1858

    On November 28, the slave ship Wanderer lands more than 400 captive Africans near the island, half a century after the United States banned the trade.

  6. 1886

    Wealthy investors buy the island from John Eugene du Bignon and form the Jekyll Island Club. Members come to include J.P. Morgan, William Rockefeller, Joseph Pulitzer and William K. Vanderbilt.

  7. 1910

    In late November, Senator Nelson Aldrich and a few financiers meet in secret at the club. The plan they draft helps shape the Federal Reserve.

  8. 1915

    AT&T president Theodore Vail takes part in the first transcontinental telephone call from the club.

  9. 1942

    The club closes during World War II.

  10. 1947

    Georgia buys the island for $675,000 and makes it a state park. The Jekyll Island Authority is created in 1950 to run it.

Now

By law, 65 percent of the island stays mostly natural. It is about 7 miles long and 1.5 miles wide.

The 240-acre historic district has been a National Historic Landmark since 1978, and the old clubhouse reopened as a hotel in 1985.

Driftwood Beach, on the north end, is known for its weathered pine and oak roots. The Georgia Sea Turtle Center treats injured and cold-stunned sea turtles.

On the water

From NOAA's predictions for Jekyll Island Marina, Jekyll Creek, GA over the next 365 days. Heights are in feet above mean lower low water (MLLW).

Pattern
Two highs and two lows a day, close in size
Typical daily range
7.0 ft
Biggest swing
9.9 ft on Jan 23
Smallest swing
4.6 ft on Mar 31
Highest high
8.9 ft, Oct 1 at 10:28 AM
Lowest low
−1.7 ft, Jan 23 at 3:19 AM

Tide stations around Jekyll Island

Sources