Sapelo Island, located off the coast of Georgia, has a rich and diverse history that spans thousands of years. The island was originally inhabited by Native American groups, including the Guale, who lived on Sapelo for centuries before European contact. The shell middens on the north end of the island date back to roughly 4000 BCE, making it older than the pyramids in Egypt.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the island was occupied by the Spanish, the British, and the French. Thomas Spalding was the island’s first major consolidated landowner after obtaining the island from several French landowners. Enslaved Africans were forcibly brought to Sapelo to work on the rice and indigo plantations, and their descendants, known as the Gullah-Geechee people, continue to maintain a cultural presence on the island today. Find out more about the Gullah-Geechee people, past and present, at the Sapelo Island Cultural and Revitalization Society.

Following the Civil War, the island was sold to Howard Coffin, and subsequently to Richard J. Reynolds, the heir to the Reynolds tobacco fortune. R.J. Reynolds renovated the South End Mansion to its current configuration and moved the remaining settlements of Gullah-Geechee peoples to Hogg Hummock. R.J. Reynolds was the last major private landowner; his land holdings on Sapelo eventually transferred to the state of Georgia for the purpose of habitat and wildlife conservation.

Presently, Hogg Hummock is the last remaining private community on the island.  The rest of the island is state-owned, with various entities managing the parcels.  The major land management agencies are the Department of Natural Resources – Wildlife Resource Division (SINERR, R.J Reynolds WMA, Natural Areas), and State Parks and Historic Sites. The University of Georgia Marine Institute leases the land from Georgia Department of Natural Resources on the south end of the island on which they manage the buildings, infrastructure, and landscaping. 

Discover more about the anthropological and archeological history of Sapelo Island.