weso02.editor's choice 8/1/02 10:41 AM Page 89 Big talbot island state park Beautiful 10. beaches Ours is a region blessed with a bounty of beaches – from untamed barrier islands to oceanfront strands flanked by arcades. Especially inviting are the miles of undevel- oped beachfront still remaining along our Southeastern coast. Just to the south of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, where multimillion-dollar mansions rub shoulders with the shore, the undeveloped beachfront at Guana River State Park offers the same view and the best of beachside amenities (sun, sand and surf), without a million-dollar mortgage. A bit farther south in historic St. Augustine, Florida, is Anastasia State Recreation Area. There, coastal camp- ing, swimming, sunbathing, surfing, sailboarding and fish- ing offer time well spent and a premier coastal getaway. Four miles of white sand beaches, tidal marshes and a lagoon provide birders with ample opportunities to observe resident populations of pelicans, gulls, terns, sandpipers and wading birds. The 2002 Editors’ Swing around and take flight on a pelican path, glid- ing north to Jacksonville’s Hanna Park, with its backdrop Choice Awards of high dunes, sea oats and ancient maritime forest. coastal Comfortable campsites – including four newly completed cabins – invite beachseekers to stick around and enjoy Northeast Florida at its beachy best. A short hop over the St. Johns River jetties takes you past Huguenot Park – where four-wheelers and pickups countdown prowl the wide, hard-packed sands – and on to Little Talbot Island State Park. There, five miles of unspoiled, uncrowded beach awaits. Right next door is Big Talbot When it comes to our coast, how do we love thee? Let us count the waves. Island State Park. Park under live oaks and take a short walk down a wide path to the edge of the 15-foot-high bluffs on Nassau Sound. Head down the steps and you’re 10 reasons to covet our coast on the beach. Lured here by sun, surf and shells, most beachcombers would never imagine they’re treading over remnants of our last ice age. The area harbors the remains BY THE EDITORS OF WATER’S EDGE MAGAZINE • PHOTOGRAPHY BY ED HALL of such prehistoric creatures as mastodons, giant ground sloths, ancient whales, sharks, jaguars and armadillos. For some, it’s the beach. Others are drawn by the lure of the links, winding waterways or pathways to the past. The Leaving Big Talbot Island, Florida, A1A crosses the appeal is real, and for those of us fortunate enough to call this place “home,” sharing a slice of our coastal pie is the least we can do. We are, after all, a generous bunch, and our region has greatness to spare. Nassau Sound bridge to Amelia Island, Florida, where a Yes, our little slice of the coastal South – from its cities to its shores – reveals a magical mix certain to cast its spell string of resort properties has turned the island into a and capture the imaginations of those who come here. Many stay; others vow to return, and do. favorite hideaway for the hurried and hassled. Just down Here’s why: the road is American Beach, a historically black beach community, which, in recent years, has been at the center of a heated duel between preservationists and developers. Resort development has bypassed Georgia’s Cumber- land Island, thanks to decades of steadfast resistance by the island’s handful of private landowners and designation as a national seashore in 1972. Though landowners and the National Park Service have often been at odds – primarily over ownership rights and public access – both have man- aged to fend off developers, who fancied Cumberland as another Hilton Head, South Carolina. From the Harbor Marina at Fernandina Beach, Florida, guests and daytrippers to Cumberland’s historic Greyfield Inn can catch the inn’s private launch, Lucy Ferguson, though most visitors to the island opt for the 45-minute ferry trip from the National Park Service’s dock at St. Marys, Georgia. Cumberland island SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2002 WATER’S EDGE 89 weso02.editor's choice 8/1/02 10:41 AM Page 90 9. Waterways Here on the water’s edge, we don’t always walk the wholly within Florida. It is also one of the few rivers that same paths, but our surrounding waters – the ocean, flows north. Early promoters of the river capitalized on rivers, tidal creeks and marshes – create a geographical this, dubbing it the “Nile of America.” bond that we in this region feel and understand. Twenty bridges and three ferries span the St. Johns, The Atlantic Ocean is the highway of exploration lending to its image of accessibility. Though the river remains and commerce that brought the first Europeans to our a watery highway of commerce, much of its commercial shores. But that splendid sea – carver of coastlines and clout disappeared by the 1930s as the state’s rail and high- connector of continents – in many minds plays second way systems diverted traffic from the water to the land. But, fiddle to the magnificent St. Johns River, the waterway while commerce stalled, recreation boomed, and the river responsible for opening Florida’s interior and designat- became the domain of boaters, anglers and others seeking ed a National Heritage River in 2000. release on the river. That distinction remains and, in fact, con- In his highly acclaimed book, River of Lakes: A Jour- tinues to expand. ney on Florida’s St. Johns River (University of Georgia Perhaps nowhere is the river’s impact felt as much as Press, 2000), author Bill Belleville calls the St. Johns “a in Jacksonville, where Mayor John Delaney delights in river of infinite potential, a place to indulge myths, to leading excursions on the St. Johns and its tributaries – evoke shards of timeless magic, to search for the natur- waterways he often uses to showcase his city and sur- al realities that are sublime instead of merely virtual roundings. The river affords an unobstructed view of All- and safe.” tel Stadium, the port, a rebounding downtown, as well At 310 miles long, the St. Johns is the longest river as the culturally rich and diverse neighborhoods of Avon- dale, San Marco, Riverside and Arlington. Kingsley plantation A major portion of the mayor’s Preservation Project, a Mayport ferry $312 million growth-management and river-access plan, focuses on the region’s link with the surrounding water- ways. Some $25 million in improvements is planned for the National Park Service’s Timucuan Ecological and His- toric Preserve, which will feature paddling trails and dock- ing facilities. An additional $20 million will be spent for 8. History water quality improvements, including $5 million for the restoration of Mill Cove in Jacksonville’s Arlington area. Mill Cove, a part of the St. Johns River, was once a bounti- ful fishing area, noted for record tarpon and attracting From St. Augustine, Florida, to Savannah, Georgia, there such fishing notables as writer and outdoorsman Ernest are sturdy fortresses with cannon mounts, watch towers Hemingway and baseball great Ted Williams. and moats to repel invaders, and settlements and smaller Myriad other waterways – the Tolomato, Matanzas, forts lost to time or covered by shifting sands and seas. Amelia, St. Marys and, of course, the Intracoastal itself – Visiting our region’s historic sites – some ghostly silent, course through the region, their estuarine waters no others gregarious with tourists and interpreters – makes doubt our greatest natural, recreational and economic real the early struggle for supremacy by the sea. resource. Among the earliest New World adventurers to the Southeast coast were the French, led in 1562 by Jean Rib- ault, who sailed with two ships into the St. Johns River at Jacksonville and staked his claim for France in Florida. But he was a little late, because Don Juan Ponce de Leon had claimed Florida for Spain about 50 years earlier. When the French returned to the St. Johns River with 200 settlers and soldiers and built Fort de la Caroline, Spanish soldiers, based 40 miles south in St. Augustine, overran the settlement and killed most of the defenders. The Fort Caroline National Memorial exhibits a nearly full-scale rendering of the French fort and tells the story of the failed colony. But destroying the French community didn’t assure peace to the Spanish. British colonization of Georgia and the Carolinas, a short sail to the north, prompted Spain to build the Castillo de San Marcos in 1672 to protect St. Augustine. In 1742, Spain also built a watchtower fortress, Fort Matanzas, 14 miles south of St. Augustine on the Matanzas River. Fort Matanzas and the Castillo, both National Park Service sites, are remarkably intact for modern-day invaders to explore. Sixteen miles east of Jacksonville is Fort George Island, where the British construct- ed a fort in 1736. Though researchers aren’t certain exactly where the waterfront fort was built, visitors to the island’s Kingsley Plantation, which dates to 1813, can tour the plantation house of Zephaniah Kingsley St. Johns river and his wife, Anna Jai, whom he purchased 90 WATER’S EDGE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2002 weso02.editor's choice 8/2/02 8:25 AM Page 91 7. Great escapes Need an escape from the workaday world? Our little known. And there’s no shortage of non-golf activities, piece of the coastal South offers great getaways with either. The Beach Club is an oceanside haven for beach resorts and accommodations catering to even the most lovers, while the Sea Island Spa has been heralded by discerning traveler. numerous publications – including Travel & Leisure and Amid the natural beauty of Amelia Island on North- the Robb Report – as the nation’s finest spa facility.