Gascoigne Bluff

Gascoigne Bluff is a Georgia historical marker in Glynn County, dedicated 1956.

On Demere Road, at the entrance to St. Simons Island.

Get directions ↗Start a road trip Historical trails

Throughout the ages Gascoigne Bluff has been the gateway to St. Simons Island. An Indian village was located here. Capt. James Gascoigne of HM Sloop-of-was, HAWK, which convoyed the Frederica settlers on their voyage across the Atlantic in 1736, established headquarters for Georgia's naval forces and had his plantation here. In the invasion of 1742 the Spaniards landed at this Bluff. Live oak timbers for the building of USS CONSTITUTION, better known as "OLD IRONSIDES," and the other vessels of our first US Navy were cut on St. Simons and loaded here in 1794 for shipment North where vessels were built. During the Plantation Era these lands became the sea island cotton plantation of James Hamilton. A wharf here was the shipping center for the St. Simons plantations. 1874-1902 this Bluff was lined with great mills, where cypress and long leaf yellow pine timbers were sawed into lumber and shipped to all parts of the world. The causeway built in 1924, connecting St. Simons with the mainland, has its terminus here. In 1949 the Methodist Church acquired the upper part of the Bluff and established EPWORTH-BY-THE-SEA as a Conference Center.

Marker not in place due to damage or maintenance Note from the marker program.

Maps this old were drawn largely by eye, so places on them can sit miles from where they really are. The pin is ours and marks the marker's location today.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1746 · A Map of the British Empire in America. (Sheet 10). (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1764 · Carte de la Nouvelle Georgie (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1776 · A General Map of the Southern British Colonies, in America. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1778 · Parte Orientale della Florida, della Giorgia, e Carolina Meridionale. Fogl. XI (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1852 · Georgia, Florida. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

A Map of the British Empire in America. (Sheet 10), 1746, covering the location of Gascoigne Bluff, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — A Map of the British Empire in America. (Sheet 10), 1746, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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For example, one family's tree showed the Articles of Confederation marker in Pennsylvania standing under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s.

What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

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This historical marker is part of the Georgia Historical Marker Program and was erected by the Georgia Historical Commission. Marker texts and locations come from the Society's own marker database.

Gascoigne Bluff

Historical maps covering this location

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