The
Beaches of St. Simons
St. Simons Island's beaches are limited to the southern end of
the island in a band stretching 4 miles from Gould's Inlet on
the eastern side to King Creek on the southwestern side. The beaches
have experienced tremendous changes since the beginning of the
island's recorded history, and continue to erode and accrete as
a response to the effects of wind, waves, tides, and storms. Not
many sea turtles nest on St. Simons Island for reasons not entirely
understood but probably due to the island's mix of currents, sand
quality, width of beach, rock seawalls, beach orientation, and
development.
St.
Simons Beach
St. Simons Beach, the area between the King and Prince Beach Resort
and fishing pier, through the years has been assaulted by currents,
tides, and storms and has eroded significantly. If not for the
placement of the Johnson Rocks in 1964, it is believed that the
beach would have retreated all the way to the brick county buildings
behind Neptune Park. In the 1920s, the beach extended out to the
wings of the present pier, and the old pier extended the length
of the new pier from that spot. In the 1920s, people could drive
their cars on the beach from the pier to the King and Prince,
something that would be unthinkable today. At low tide, beachcombers
can walk to the King and Prince, but at high tide, much of the
beach is submerged as waves crash on the seawall known as the
Johnson Rocks.
Destroying
a large portion of St. Simons Beach was Hurricane Dora in 1964.
South of the King and Prince, the hurricane snatched beachfront
homes into the Atlantic, tore out the middle section of Beachview
Drive, and obliterated Postell Avenue, which ran parallel to Beachview
one block closer to the ocean. A small gurgling artesian well
on the beach south of 9th Street once was found in the backyard
of a beachfront home. Today, it is used by thirsty shorebirds
or children playing in the gurgling spring.
This
part of the island's beach is most vulnerable to erosion for a
variety of reasons. Perhaps the main reason is that in front of
Neptune Park in the sound is a 70–80 feet deep trench with
fast-moving currents.
Massengale
Park
Massengale is a popular and busy public park, where the smells
of grilled hamburgers and hot-dogs mix with the happy shouts of
playing children. It provides access to the southern end of East
Beach, and visitors who head north from here will experience the
best beach the island has to offer. The sand is hard-packed and
suitable for biking.
The
park came about due to philanthropy by the Sea Island Company,
which was in the process of limiting public access to its beaches
and wanted to provide a public beach area for St. Simons residents,
but not on Sea Island. The Sea Island Company bought the property
in 1945 in an attempt to get the state to build a state park,
but it was deemed too small, and the state instead purchased Jekyll
Island. In 1955, the Sea Island Company donated the property to
Glynn County for the park.
The
woodlands of the park and East Beach, supporting Live Oaks and
pines, are remnants of the maritime forest on the Holocene fragment
of St. Simons. Because of the younger, poorer soil, this forest
is much less diverse, compared with the mid-island forests that
are growing on richer, Pleistocene soils found west of Bloody
Marsh.
East Beach and Coast Guard Station (Coastal Encounters
Nature Center)
The historic Coast Guard Station is home to the St. Simons division
of Coastal Encounters Nature Center. This excellent nonprofit
organization is dedicated to adult and child education about Georgia's
precious coast. Programs include barrier island ecology walks,
kayak excursions in the marsh, boating with naturalists, summer
science camps, and other field trips. Inside the station are touch
tanks and aquariums featuring local marine species. Another branch
of Coastal Encounters is located on Jekyll Island. A group is
working on a plan to open a maritime museum in the historic station
as well.
The
beach here has accreted considerably since the 1950s. Wood Avenue
runs behind the old shoreline, showing how much the area has grown.
The area north of the Coast Guard Station has grown the most on
the island and has extensive dune meadow and shrub communities
that are interesting to study for plant succession relative to
beach and dune formation. Extensive shoals display the effects
of longshore currents carrying sand south from Little St. Simons
Island and Sea Island meeting cross currents from Gould's Inlet
and northern currents of the sound. Worries about recent erosion
at the area known as East End, however, where condos have been
built near "new" beach, has led to an application for
a seawall to protect this recent development.
Gould's Inlet Park
A small park located at 15th Street and Bruce Drive provides a
great view of the best birding spot on the island, recognized
by its selection to the Colonial Coast Birding Trail. This inlet
separates East Beach, a Holocene fragment of St. Simons south
of the inlet, from Sea Island to the north. The bar and inlet
are good examples of Georgia's barrier island-estuarine interface.
The inlet and sand bars are constantly moving, changing shape,
preventing vegetation from becoming established, and creating
a resting place for many species of birds, as well as a feeding
site for certain species. Resident birds seen here include laughing
and herring gulls, willets, American oystercatchers, black skimmers,
brown pelicans, black skimmers, and royal terns. During warm weather,
including fall and spring migration periods, bird watchers may
identify black, sandwich, gull-billed, common, and Caspian terns;
black-bellied, semi-palmated, and Wilson's plovers; reddish egrets,
marbled godwits, whimbrels, ruddy turnstones, sanderlings, red
knots, and western sandpipers. Cold-weather birds include black-bellied
and piping plovers; black-backed, and ring-billed gulls; Caspian
and Forster's terns; red-backed dunlins; and red-breasted mergansers.
As
the southern part of Sea Island has grown, the northern end of
East Beach has lost 1,640 feet of land since the Civil War, according
to Schoettle. As you walk or bike south on East Beach toward Coast
Guard beach, the homes fall away from the shore, due to the growth
of the beach since 1930. These homes used to be beachfront property.
They still are, but they are located much farther from the water.
Fishermen
sometimes try their luck on Gould's Inlet Dock, where tidal pulses
attract many species of fish and other marine animals.
