Editing St. Simons, Georgia (section)

==History==
===Pre-European contact===
[[File:St Simons Park marker, St. Simons, GA, US.jpg|thumb|St. Simons Park marker]]
[[File:St. Simons Park, St. Simons, GA, US.jpg|thumb|St. Simons Park]]

Cannon's Point, on the north end of St. Simon's Island, is an archaeological site that includes a [[Archaic period (North America)|Late Archaic]] [[shell ring]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Russo|first=Michael|title=Archaic Shell Rings of the Southeast U. S.|url=http://www.nps.gov/nhl/themes/Archaic%20Shell%20Rings.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120415124220/http://www.nps.gov/nhl/themes/Archaic%20Shell%20Rings.pdf|archive-date=April 15, 2012|publisher=National Park Service|pages=85–86|year=2006|access-date=April 25, 2019}}</ref> The Cannon's Point site has yielded evidence of occupation by Native Americans since at least as early as the appearance of [[Ceramics of indigenous peoples of the Americas#Southeastern Woodlands|ceramics]] in the southeastern United States. Milanich lists the succession of periods at Cannon's Point as: Sapelo Period (2500–1000 BC); ceramics related to those of the [[Stallings Island|Stallings culture]] of the [[Savannah River]] valley and [[Orange period]] of northern Florida; Refuge Period (1000–500 BC); [[Deptford culture|Deptford]] Periods (500 BC to AD 700); Wilmington Period (700–1000); St. Catherine's Period (1000–1250); Savannah Periods (1250–1540); Pine Harbor Period (1540–1625), where European artifacts appear in the archaeological record in this period; and Sutherland Bluff Period (1625–1680), where Native American occupation of Cannon's Point seems to have ended during this period.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Milanich|first=Jerald T.|author-link=Jerald T. Milanich|date=September 1997|title=A Chronology for the Aboriginal Cultures of Northern St. Simon's Island, Georgia|url=http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00027829/00067/51j|journal=The Florida Anthropologist|volume=30|issue=3|pages=134–42|via=University of Florida Digital Collections}}</ref>

Many scholars in the early 20th century identified the people of St. Simons Island as [[Guale]]. Hann cites evidence that the people of St. Simons, at least as early as 1580, were part of the [[Mocama]] people.{{sfn|Hann|1996|pp=70, 176}} Ashley et al. suggest that St. Simons may have been occupied by the Guale people when Europeans arrived in southeastern Georgia in the 16th century and that the original Guale population on St. Simons was displaced from at least the southern part of the island after the [[Juanillo|Guale rebellion of 1597]], and replaced by Timucua speaking [[Mocama]] people.{{sfn|Ashley|Rolland|Thunen|2013|pp=397-400}}

===Spanish mission of San Buenaventura de Guadalquini===
The mission of [[San Buenaventura de Guadalquini]] was established on the southern end of St. Simons sometime between 1597 and 1609 (probably near the present-day [[St. Simons Island Light]]) and was the northernmost mission in the Mocama area. The [[Timucua language]] name for St. Simon's Island was ''Guadalquini''. The Spanish called it ''Isla de Ballenas'' (Isle of Whales). Some Spanish documents called the island {{em|Boadalquivi}}.{{sfn|Ashley|Rolland|Thunen|2013|pp=397, 421}}{{sfn|Hann|1996|p=175}}{{sfn|Milanich|1995|pp=115, 172}}

Raiders from the Chichimecos (the Spanish name for [[Westo]]s), Uchise (the Spanish name for [[Muscogee]]), and Chiluque (a name the Spanish used for a faction of the Mocamo and for [[Yamassee]]) and possibly other nations, aided and supported by the English in the [[Province of Carolina]], attacked Colon (also called San Simon) a village of un-Christianized Yamasee to the north of San Buenaventura on St. Simon Island, in 1680.{{sfn|Ashley|Rolland|Thunen|2013|p=401}}{{sfn|Hann|1996|pp=269, 271-72}}{{sfn|Worth|2007|pp=19-20, 98}} A force of Spanish soldiers and Native Americans from San Buenaventura went to the aid of Colon, forcing the raiders to withdraw.{{sfn|Hann|1996|pp=268–69}}

In 1683, St. Augustine was attacked by a pirate fleet, and in 1684 missions along what is now the Georgia coast were attacked by Native American allies of the English. The mission of San Buenaventura was ordered to move south and merge with the mission of [[San Juan del Puerto, Florida|San Juan del Puerto]] on the [[St. Johns River]]. Before the mission could be moved, pirates returned to the area in the second half of 1684. On hearing of the presence of the pirates, Lorenzo de Santiago, chief of San Buenaventura, moved the people of his village, along with most of their property and stored maize, to the mainland. When the pirates landed at San Buenaventura, they found only ten men under a sub-chief who had been left to guard the village. The San Buenaventura men withdrew to the woods, and the pirates burned the village and mission.{{sfn|Hann|1996|pp=270-71}}{{sfn|Milanich|2006|p=174}} After the pirates burned the mission, the people of Guadalquini moved to a site about one league west of San Juan del Puerto on the St. Johns River, where a new mission named Santa Cruz de Guadalquini was established.{{sfn|Hann|1996|p=271}}

=== Fort Frederica ===
{{main|Fort Frederica National Monument}}
[[File:GA St Simons Fort Frederica NM fort02.jpg|thumb|Remains of Fort Frederica]]
Fort Frederica, now [[Fort Frederica National Monument]], was built beginning in 1736 as the military headquarters of the [[Province of Georgia]] during the early English [[Colonial America|colonial period]]. It served as a buffer against [[Spain|Spanish]] incursion from [[Florida]].

Nearby is the site of the [[Battle of Gully Hole Creek]] and [[Battle of Bloody Marsh]], where on July 7, 1742, the [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] ambushed Spanish troops marching single file through the marsh and routed them from the island. This marked the end of the Spanish efforts to invade Georgia during the [[War of Jenkins' Ear]].<ref>[http://www.glynncounty.com/cgi-bin/oaktree.pl?dbf=data.txt&ID=00001260 Fort Frederica National Monument, 6515 Frederica Road, St. Simons Island, GA 31522, Historic_Places, http://www.nps.gov/fofr/<!-- Bot generated title -->], National Park Service</ref>

It was preserved in the 20th century and identified as a national historic site largely by the efforts of Margaret Davis Cates, a resident who contributed much to historic preservation. She helped raise more than $100,000 (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=100000|start_year=1941}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}) in 1941 to buy the site of the fort and conduct stabilization and some preservation. It was designated as a [[National Monument]] in 1947.<ref>http://www.nps.gov/fofr/historyculture/.../cate.pdf {{dead link|date=August 2021}}</ref>

=== Wesley brothers ===
[[File:Wesley Oak marker, St. Simons, GA, US.jpg|thumb|Historical marker about the Wesley Oak]]
In the 1730s, St. Simons served as a sometime home to [[John Wesley]], the young minister of the colony at Savannah. He later returned to England, where in 1738, he founded the evangelical movement of [[Methodism]] within the Anglican Church. Wesley performed [[missionary]] work at St. Simons but was despondent about failing to bring about conversions. (He wrote that the local inhabitants had more tortures from their environment than he could describe for [[Hell]]). In the 1730s, John Wesley's brother [[Charles Wesley]] also did missionary work on St. Simons.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.glynncounty.com/cgi-bin/oaktree.pl?dbf=data.txt&ID=00012851|title=Wesley Oak (historic marker), Historical Markers|website=www.glynncounty.com}}</ref> In the late eighteenth century, Methodist preachers traveled throughout Georgia as part of the [[Great Awakening]], a religious revival movement led by Methodists and Baptists. A significant impact of the revival was to convert [[Slavery in the colonial history of the United States|enslaved African-Americans]] in Georgia (as well as those in the rest of the [[Thirteen Colonies]]) to Christianity.

On April 5, 1987, fifty-five St. Simons United Methodist Church members were commissioned, with Bishop Frank Robertson as the first pastor, to begin a new church on the north end of St. Simons Island. This was where John and Charles Wesley had preached and ministered to the people at [[Fort Frederica]]. The new church was named Wesley United Methodist Church at Frederica.

=== American Revolution ===
In 1778 Colonel [[Samuel Elbert]] commanded Georgia's Continental Army and Navy. On April 15, he learned that four British vessels (the naval vessels {{HMS|Galatea|1776|6}} and HMS Hinchinbrook, and the hired vessels ''Rebecca'', and ''Hatter'') from [[East Florida]] were sailing in St. Simons Sound. Elbert commanded about 360 troops from the Georgia Continental Battalions at Fort Howe <!-- not [[Fort Howe]] in Canada--> to march to [[Darien, Georgia]]. There they boarded three Georgia Navy galleys: ''Washington'', commanded by Captain John Hardy<!-- not the Brit [[John Hardy]]-->; ''Lee'', commanded by Captain John Cutler Braddock; and ''Bulloch'', commanded by Captain Archibald Hatcher.

On April 18, they entered Frederica River and anchored about {{convert|1.5|mi|km}} from [[Fort Frederica National Monument|Fort Frederica]]. The next day the galleys attacked the British vessels. The Colonial ships were armed with heavier cannons than the British, and the galleys also had a shallow [[draft (hull)|draft]] and could be rowed. When the wind died down, the British ships had difficulty maneuvering in the restricted waters of the river and sound. Two British ships ran aground, and the crews escaped to their other ships. The battle showed the effectiveness of the galleys in restricted waters over ships designed for the open sea. The victory in the [[Frederica naval action]] boosted the morale of the colonials in Georgia.

=== Cotton production ===
[[File:Tabby House, St. Simons, GA, US.jpg|right|thumb|Slave cabin built in 1805, now called the Tabby House]]
During the [[plantation era]], Saint Simons became a center of [[cotton]] production, known for its long-fiber [[Sea Island Cotton]].<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=St. Simons Island |url=https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/geography-environment/st-simons-island/ |access-date=2022-07-13 |website=New Georgia Encyclopedia |language=en-US}}</ref> Nearly the entire island was cleared of trees to make way for several large cotton plantations worked by enslaved [[Geechee]] people and their descendants. The plantations of this and other Sea Islands were large, and often the owners stayed on the mainland in Darien and other towns, especially during the summers, because the Island was considered swamp lands. Still, enslaved Geechee people lived on the island and were not allowed to come to the mainland unless accompanied by an enslaver. This season was considered bad for diseases in the lowlands. These enslaved people were held in smaller groups and interacted more with whites. They were also confused with the [[Gullah]] tribe from South Carolina. An original slave cabin still stands at the intersection of Demere Rd. and Frederica Rd. at the roundabout.

=== American Civil War and its aftermath ===
During the early stages of the war, Confederate troops occupied St. Simons Island to protect its strategic location at the entrance to Brunswick harbor. However, in 1862, [[Robert E. Lee]] ordered an evacuation of the island to relocate the soldiers for the defense of [[Savannah, Georgia]]. Before departing, they destroyed the lighthouse to prevent its use as a navigation aid by [[U.S. Navy]] forces. Most property owners then retreated inland with the people they enslaved, and the [[U.S. Army]] occupied the island for the remainder of the war.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Georgia's Land of the Golden Isles|last = Vanstory|first = Burnette|publisher = University of Georgia Press|year = 1981|location = Athens, GA|pages = 139}}</ref>

Postwar, the island plantations were in ruins, and landowners found it financially unfeasible to cultivate cotton or rice. Most moved inland to pursue other occupations, and the island's economy remained dormant for several years. Formerly enslaved people established a community in the center of the island known as Harrington.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Harrington Community, Communities|url = http://www.glynncounty.com/oaktree.pl?id=00008690|website = www.glynncounty.com|access-date = 2016-01-13}}</ref>

===Since Reconstruction===
Saint Simons' first exports of [[lumber]] occurred after the [[Naval Act of 1794]] when timber harvested from two thousand Southern live oak trees from Gascoigne Bluff was used to build the [[USS Constitution|USS ''Constitution'']] and five other [[frigate]]s (see [[six original United States frigates]]). The USS ''Constitution'' is known as "Old Ironsides", as cannonballs bounced off its hard live oak planking.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Roads Less Traveled: Exploring America's Past on Its Back Roads|last = Wilkerson|first = Lyn|publisher = Writers Club Press|year = 2000|pages = 311}}</ref>

The second phase of lumber production on the island began in the late 1870s when mills were constructed in the area surrounding Gascoigne Bluff. The mills supported a vibrant community that lasted until just after the turn of the twentieth century. During this time, lumber from St. Simons was shipped to New York City for use in the construction of the [[Brooklyn Bridge]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title = St. Simons Island: A Summary of Its History|last = Green|first = R. Edwin|publisher = The History Press|year = 2004|location = Charleston, South Carolina|pages = 61}}</ref>

In contrast to the post-Civil War era, the decline of lumber did not open a new period of economic hardship; for a new industry was taking hold on St. Simons Island. As early as the 1870s, summer cottages were being constructed on the island's south end, and a small village was forming to serve them. Construction of the pier in 1887 brought visitors by boat from Brunswick and south Georgia.<ref>{{Cite book|title = GLYNN COUNTY HISTORIC RESOURCES SURVEY REPORT|publisher = Quatrefoil Historic Preservation Consulting|date = 2009|location = Savannah, GA|pages = 25}}</ref> The Hotel St. Simons, on the present site of Massengale Park, opened in 1888.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Images of America: St. Simons Island|last = Morris|first = Patricia|publisher = Arcadia Publishing|date= 2003|location = Charleston, South Carolina|pages = 104}}</ref> About a decade later, two hotels were built near the pier. The arrival of the automobile and the opening of the Torras Causeway in 1924 ensured the continued growth of tourism on St. Simons, the only one of the [[Golden Isles of Georgia|Golden Isles]] not privately held. New hotels were built. Roads were constructed, and tourism became the dominant force in the Island's economy.<ref>{{Cite web|title = History of Saint Simons Island, Georgia|url = http://www.glynncounty.com/History_and_Lore/Ed_Green/later_resort_days.shtml|website = www.glynncounty.com|access-date = 2016-01-13}}</ref>
[[File:GA St Simons King and Prince Hotel02.jpg|thumb|King and Prince Hotel]]
On April 8, 1942, [[World War II]] became a reality to residents of St. Simons Island when a German [[U-boat]] sank two [[oil tanker]]s in the middle of the night. The blasts shattered windows as far away as Brunswick, and unsubstantiated rumors spread about German soldiers landing on the beaches.<ref>{{Cite web|title = World War II: German U-Boat Attacks|url = http://www.todayingeorgiahistory.org/content/world-war-ii-german-u-boat-attacks|website = todayingeorgiahistory.org/|access-date = 2016-01-13}}</ref> Security measures were tightened after the sinkings, and anti-submarine patrols from Glynco Naval Air Station in Brunswick ultimately ended the U-boat threat. During the war, [[Malcolm McKinnon Airport|McKinnon Airport]] became Naval Air Station St. Simons, home to the Navy Radar Training School.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Coastal Georgia Historical Society|url = http://www.saintsimonslighthouse.org/cg.html|website = www.saintsimonslighthouse.org|access-date = 2016-01-13|archive-date = August 26, 2014|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140826082818/http://www.saintsimonslighthouse.org/cg.html|url-status = usurped}}</ref> The [[King and Prince Hotel]], built in 1941, was used as a training facility and radar station. It was listed on the U.S. [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 2005.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Georgia Historic Hotel, Historic Beach Resort {{!}} The King and Prince|url = http://www.kingandprince.com/history.aspx|website = www.kingandprince.com|access-date = 2016-01-13}}</ref>

President [[Jimmy Carter]] visited the island with his brother [[Billy Carter]] in 1977, arriving by [[Marine One]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/08/politics/jimmy-carter-obama-isis/index.html |title=Carter criticizes Obama on ISIS: 'We waited too long |first=Ashley |last=Killough |date=October 8, 2014 |website=[[CNN]]}} See photo 10.</ref>

During the postwar years, as resort and vacation travel increased, permanent residential development began to take place on St. Simons Island and surrounding mainland communities. The island's population grew from 1,706 in 1950 to 13,381 by 2000.<ref>{{Cite web|title = History of Saint Simons Island, Georgia, GA|url = http://www.glynncounty.com/History_and_Lore/Ed_Green/residential_era.shtml|website = www.glynncounty.com|access-date = 2016-01-13}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=U.S. Census website |url=https://www.census.gov |website=[[United States Census Bureau]] |access-date=2016-01-13 |publisher=United States Census Bureau }}</ref>