My daughter and I set out to explore Colonial Georgia – forts and all. After visiting Fort Frederica on St. Simon’s Island, we drove to Fort King George State Historic Site in Darien. I had only been to Darien once before, when we toured the Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation State Historic Site and ate lunch at a seafood restaurant.
Establishment of Fort King George
In the early 1700’s, Great Britain had settled in South Carolina and began to lay claim to coastal Georgia, extending south to the Altamaha River. King George commissioned Colonel John “Tuscarora Jack” Barnwell to build a fort on the mouth of the river in 1721. While the fort stayed active for only six years, it helped solidify Britain’s presence in the area until General James Oglethorpe officially established Georgia in 1733.
Before that time, the Guale Indians lived in the area. These natives typically travelled by canoe and ate a diet of oysters and shellfish from the salt marsh. In the late 1500s, the Spanish established the Santo Domingo de Talaje mission and tried to convert the Guale to their European ways. This led to a deadly revolt in 1597 and a decline in the Guale population over the next century due to disease.
A replica of a wattle-and-daub structure stands on the property today. The Guale built shelters using twigs for a frame and packing it with mud. The final product resembled adobe or stucco, covered with a thatched roof. Inside, visitors can glimpse the opening at the top, which allowed smoke from the central fire pit to rise.
Fort Construction
Barnwell, along with skilled workers and enslaved people, built the blockhouse, measuring 26 feet on each side, out of cypress. A moat and wooden palisades protected the four-story structure from enemies. We entered on the second level, which is called the gun room. Here, several cannons on wheels were stationed. A hatch to the gun magazine downstairs allowed soldiers to quickly pass artillery.
Above the gunroom, soldiers would have stood at the ready to fire muskets out of the small openings, also called loopholes. A drawing shows how the area would have looked during the 1720s. This floor protrudes outward above the lower two floors. Small openings in the floor, called machicolations, allowed soldiers to shoot at anyone trying to climb the fort’s lower walls.
The top floor consists of a catwalk where guards would keep an eye on the river through two large portholes. The four-inch thick cypress walls provided a good defense against weapons and humidity. However, fire destroyed the original fort in 1725. After rebuilding, a second fire damaged the fort in 1727.
It’s also worth noting that older British soldiers, nicknamed the “Regiment of Invalids,” manned Fort King George. Over half of them died in the first year due to the harsh conditions. After two fires and over 140 casualties, the British decommissioned the fort in 1727. For the next five years, a couple of British scouts stayed at the outpost to keep a lookout.
Officers’ Quarters and More
Next to the blockhouse, we walked around the rest of the fort, including the blacksmith’s shop, woodshop, and lean-to huts. Sentry boxes guarded the corners of the fort. An outdoor bake house featured a brick oven. A privy was originally located near the marsh so the tide could “flush” it out.
The Officer’s Quarters consisted of a large wooden building flanked by brick fireplaces on each end. Colonel John Barnwell lived here for a time in addition to up to eight commissioned offiers.
Establishment of Darien
When James Oglethorpe arrived in 1733, he saw the need for younger individuals to settle the area. He recruited trained Highland Warriors from Inverness, Scotland, to build a town at the site. Over 175 Scottish Highlanders, including family members, sailed to Georgia in exchange for land and weapons. Originally called New Inverness, Darien is considered the second-oldest town in Georgia.
A replica Highlander cottage sits on the property today. The primitive wattle-and-daub structure consists of a small room with dirt floors and a large fireplace. A ladder leads to a small sleeping loft above. It’s hard to imagine a family coming here to brave the hot Georgia temperatures. But thankfully, the Highlanders stayed and aided the British during the Battle of Bloody Marsh.
Sawmill Town
Darien soon became a large sawmill town, supplying lumber for shipbuilding and for homes in Savannah. A plaque shows the site of the Darien Eastern Steam Sawmill Company, established in 1818 with five industrial-scale gang saws and powered by steam. Other sawmills sprang up nearby, and at its peak in 1900, Darien exported over 112 million linear board feet of yellow pine.
Inside the visitor center, a replica of a sawmill office shows the importance of this industry to Darien. However, due to overcutting, the industry fell into decline. The Savannah Lumber Mill occupied this site from 1905 until shutting its doors in 1923.
The visitor center details the efforts of McIntosh County historian Bessie Lewis, who discovered the Fort King George site in the 1930s. This was later confirmed with the discovery of the soldiers’ graves. The rest is history. The state purchased the land in 1949, but it took almost 40 years to raise the funds to build the blockhouse in 1988. The remaining fort was reconstructed by 2004.
Conclusion
Surprisingly, I really enjoyed visiting this fort, even though it is a replica. The coastal setting feels serene, especially when a breeze whips in from the Altamaha River. Darien also boasts several great seafood restaurants, so it’s a nice stop for a couple of hours. For more information about visiting Fort King George, check out the website here.