Little St. Simons, Georgia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Virtually untouched for centuries, Little St. Simons Island is the most remote and uninhabited of Georgia's Golden Isles. The island covers an area of 10,000 acres (40 km²) that has been privately owned but recently opened to the public since the early 1970s. Little St. Simons Island is located slightly northeast of St. Simons Island and Sea Island. It is separated from these islands by the Hampton River and from the marshes of the mainland by Buttermilk Sound.

Guests are invited to come enjoy Georgia coastal beauty for a day's or night's stay. However, island occupancy is limited to no more than thirty persons at a time. Guests can hike, bike, boat or be driven around the island.

The island is cypress, live oak, and pine forested. Some 220 species of bird are known to visit. Other species that call the island home include the alligator, the European fallow deer, and armadillo. Off the shores otters, dolphins, and right whales swim in the inlets and open waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

The island's first owner was Samuel Ougspourger, a Swiss colonist from South Carolina, who purchased the island from King George II, in 1760, and eight years later sold it to his grandson Gabriel Maniqualt. Today the island is owned by the relatives of Philip Berolzheimer, a wealthy New Yorker who acquired the island in 1908.