Cumberland Island is the southernmost and largest barrier island on the Georgia coast, with a history that predates the arrival of Western civilization in the Americas. Currently, it has few full- time residents, but its beauty brings thousands of visitors each year from around the world. Day hikers and overnight campers bask in Cumberland’s tranquility and marvel at its natural treasures, walking beneath canopies of live oak trees draped in Spanish moss.
Comprising three major ecosystem regions, Cumberland is home to large areas of salt marshes and a dense maritime forest, but its most famous ecosystem is its beach, which stretches over seventeen miles. The island is also home to many native and nonnative species, such as white-tailed deer, turkey, feral hogs and horses, wild boar, nine-banded armadillos, and American alligators, as well as many species of birds.
Aside from wild horses and the remains of Thomas M. Carnegie’s estate, most visitors are unaware of the details of the island’s varied history. Cumberland’s past tells a rich and complex story, one of conquest by indigenous tribes, French and Spanish explorers, English settlers, cotton planters, and occupation by British and Union naval forces.
Cumberland Island: Footsteps in Time is the first book about the island that offers readers a complete history of the island combined with stunning photography and historical images. Richly illustrated with more than 250 color and black-and-white photographs, it is a comprehensive history, from native occupation to the present. Author Stephen Doster takes the reader on a chronological journey, outlining the key events and influential inhabitants that have left their mark on this stretch of Georgia’s coast.
Each chapter focuses on a specific era: indigenous occupation; Spanish occupation; English occupation; the colonial period and War of 1812; the planter era and Civil War; the Gilded Age; north-end settlements and hotels; and the creation of a protected national seashore.
About the Author :
Stephen Doster (Author)
STEPHEN DOSTER was born in Kingston, England, and raised on St. Simons Island, Georgia. He is an award-winning author and editor of several books, most of which focus on Georgia and the Georgia coast, including Lord Baltimore and Voices from St. Simons: Personal Narratives of an Island’s Past. He also produced Saint Simons 360, a historical video. Doster was named a 2021 Georgia Author of the Year by the Georgia Writers Association for his book Cumberland Island: Footsteps in Time (Georgia). He lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
Benjamin Galland (Photographer)
BENJAMIN GALLAND, born and raised on St. Simons Island, grew up exploring and photographing the pristine and unparalleled beauty of the southeastern coast. Aside from his artistic photography, he owns Volo Project and offers commercial marketing photography specializing in lifestyle, tourism, hospitality, food, and conservation. With a passion for storytelling, the outdoors, and conservation, Galland uses his camera to portray the things that matter most to him. He has five books published with the University of Georgia Press: Island Time: An Illustrated History of St. Simons Island, Georgia; Island Passages: An Illustrated History of Jekyll Island, Georgia; Sapelo: People and Place on a Georgia Sea Island; Cumberland Island: Footsteps in Time; and Following the Tabby Trail: Where Coastal History Is Captured in Unique Oyster-Shell Structures. Galland is an avid outdoorsman and enjoys kayaking, fly-fishing, camping, and exploring.
Review :
The Cumberland Island National Seashore is the largest, southernmost, and wildest of Georgia's famed Golden Isles and one whose great spirit is difficult to capture in words. Stephen Doster has done just that, combining scholarly research and admirable storytelling skills to profile the island's natural and human history, starting with its first Native American inhabitants thousands of years ago. Beautifully illustrated with Benjamin Galland's photographs as well as early maps, old documents, and rare photos, Doster's book deserves a place on every island lover's bookshelf.
