This column is the fifth in a series devoted to promoting cultural tourism in coastal Georgia. It appeared in the Tribune & Georgian newspaper in Kingsland, GA on Wedenesday (September 21, 2005).
Last week, I introduced you to Three Sisters: Woodbine, Kingsland and St. Mary’s, cities with particular personalities and unique histories that inform and bring character to Camden County, Georgia. These communities, and the people that developed and populated them, grew up along the banks of the region’s winding waterways, the Satilla, Crooked and St. Mary’s Rivers. All of them are tied to the treasure that is coastal Georgia’s history. It was the allure of this historical and remarkable context that encouraged local residents to seek a way to bring the stories of the three sisters to life.
The ideas germinated in a time of economic despair, when things seemed about as bad as they could be. Significant local employers had turned into empty promises. Discussions about finding new meaning in life and community gained urgency and vitality. In the need to look forward, visionaries found it necessary and inspiring to look backward. The oral and written histories held new promise: an opportunity to bring visitors and locals alike together in a place called “the fairest, fruitfulest and pleasantest of all the world” by French Captain Jean Ribault, the first European explorer to set foot in what is known today as Camden County, Georgia. These tales would not only pass on the stories of our coastal ancestors, but would help us reaffirm our own lives through their legacy.
Certainly, the stories would have to acknowledge and poke fun at certain givens of the region: like the problem visitors and locals alike have dealing with insects (you know why there isn’t a single gnat in Camden County? They are all married and have large families!); the fact that cultivating tourists has a long and colorful history in the area (you know in the summer, we skin ‘gators. In the winter, we skin tourists!); our penchant for long and involved church services (what do we want the Pastor not to preach on? Sundays!); and the source of the alligators in the sewers of New York City (sold as babies to northbound Yankees from roadside stands along highway 17!).
Other stories would disclose truths about the character and nature of the region from its origins and settlements (the clearly marked rice plantation on the plat map from the early 1800’s). Yet more tales would reveal the underpinnings of many folk’s properly developed distrust of authority (why you don’t ever want to fish with the deputy and how you avoided a ticket while driving on city streets when you were twelve). It would also be necessary to explore some of the characters captured in lore, including the would-be lothario that got himself elected state legislator to change the marriage laws. That way he could get married again after his divorce. And on it goes. There are so many more stories to tell; it seems that they are around every bend in the meandering rivers of Camden County.
As we continue to investigate the possibilities of the stories found along the paths of our crooked rivers, acknowledging their potential for providing entertainment, tourism and therapy, maybe we will discover new truths and new heroes. And, more importantly, maybe the stories we find and share will offer us some new brand of hope and a new sense of community that we can cast into a memorable cultural experience, creating stories of its own for those who come to share it with us.
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