Fort King George - Fort King George Historic Site Development

Fort King George Historic Site Development

For nearly two centuries after its evacuation, little was written about or known of Fort King George. Occasionally, there are references to a "Barnwell's Bluff", "Old Fort", or "First Landing", in the records, but Fort King George seemed to have faded into history. In the early 20th century there was groundbreaking research into the early history of the state, and much work was published about the early struggles for empire in the colonial era. In 1929 historian Verner Crane published his monumental book, The Southern Frontier, which comprehensively covered the period from 1670 to 1732. Other works, such as Herbert Bolton and Mary Ross's The Debatable Land helped shed light on the military struggles of the Southeast during the colonial period. Also, a plethora of articles on Georgia's early colonial struggles were written during this period. Crane's work about the contentious southern frontier was the first to describe the context for Fort King George and Barnwell's scheme of settling the Altamaha River region.

Sometime in the 1930s, Darien's local historian Bessie Lewis, then a history teacher, read Crane's monumental work. She made many trips to Charleston to study British Public Records for information about the former Fort King George. Lewis, or "Miss Bessie", as the locals fondly called her, discovered extensive material about the fort, including vital written records, descriptions, account ledgers, and several drawings with geographical details. This guided her in trying to locate the original site of the fort. Archeological excavations conducted later helped substantiate her claims. During the first excavations on the site in the 1940s, more than one dozen soldiers' graves were uncovered.

Miss Bessie and other locals organized the Fort King George Association, and worked to have the site developed for a state historic site. In 1949, the state acquired the fort site from the Sea Island Company, a development organization. The Association envisioned a site with a museum and re-constructed replica of Fort King George, but little development took place. In the 1950s, the state installed a monument and headstones in the soldiers’ cemetery, and a few picnic tables. The Association continued to lobby for reconstruction of the fort.

In the late 1960s, the Georgia Historical Commission acquired the site. Money was allotted for building a museum in 1967, and Fort King George Historic Site became a reality. In 1972, the site was taken over by the Department of Natural Resources, Parks, Recreation, and Historic Sites Division. In 1987, the site manager Ken Akins and the Lower Altamaha Historical Society teamed up in a drive to raise money to re-construct the fort's blockhouse. With a matching fund from the DNR, the fort's reconstructed blockhouse was completed and dedicated in fall 1988. It was the center of the site's activities and programs until development in the late 1990s.

Georgia State Senator Renee Kemp, from 1999 to 2002, helped gain several hundred thousand dollars in capital investment for the site to reconstruct the fort's enlisted soldiers’ barracks, guardhouse, and officers’ quarters. Site staff re-constructed the fort's firing walls and firing steps. Over the years, site staff has added various other features. In 2004, with the installation of the fort's front and back gates, the fort was officially declared to be entirely re-constructed, something Miss Bessie had dreamed of more than five decades earlier but not lived to see.

Fort King George Historic Site has become one of Georgia's premier tourist attractions, with more than 30,000 visitors annually. Site personnel provide a wide range of living history programs dealing with Colonial Life and Military Science.