Sapelo Island

Sapelo Island is a Georgia historical marker in McIntosh County, dedicated 2003.

At the Sapelo Island Visitor Center, off GA 99 in Meridian.

Get directions ↗Start a road trip Historical trails

Situated five miles to the east, Sapelo was home to Native Americans four thousand years ago and was the site of a sixteenth-century Franciscan mission. Thomas Spalding was a leading planter of Sea Island cotton and sugar cane during his ownership of Sapelo from 1802 to 1851. Slave descendants still live on the island at Hog Hammock. Sapelo was owned from 1912 to 1934 by automotive pioneer Howard E. Coffin, followed by tobacco heir Richard J. Reynolds from 1934 to 1964. The University of Georgia Marine Institute opened on Sapelo in 1953. The State of Georgia bought the island in separate purchases in 1969 and 1976, almost 18,000 acres, from the Reynolds estate.

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

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)
1802 · United States 1. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1816 · Georgia. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1816 · Georgia (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Georgia, 1816, covering the location of Sapelo Island, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Georgia, 1816, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

Example

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

Upload your family tree and TreeAlive finds the markers near where your own ancestors lived.

See your family's markers

Start with a tree file, a FamilySearch sign in, or a WikiTree ID.

Report a problem with this page

The marker isn't at this spotOur pin may be off. If you know where it stands, tell us.I couldn't find the markerWe record what the source recorded. We have not been to look.The sign reads differentlyThat would be an error, and we can pass it to the program.The historical map looks wrongThe period map behind the pin, not the marker itself.Something else

We may pass what you report to the state's marker program. Please don't include personal details.

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

More markers nearby

"The Thicket," Sugar Mill & Rum Distillery Ruins2 mi
Baisden's Bluff Academy4 mi
Ardoch5 mi
Old Meeting House5 mi