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This fourth largest of Georgia's barrier sea islands is accessible by a thirty-minute ferry ride departing from Meridian, nine miles north of Darien. The 5.5 mile beach is open to the public but the majority of the island is controlled by four separate entities: the University of Georgia Marine Institute, the Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve, the R. J. Reynolds Wildlife Refuge and the Hog Hammock community.
To experience Sapelo Island, a visitor may purchase a ticket that includes the ferry trip, a guided tour of Sapelo's tabby ruins, historic mansions and recently restored lighthouse, punctuated by spell-binding tales of Guale Indians, Spanish missionaries, English pirates, sea island cotton plantations and millionaires' retreats.
Limited commercial lodging is available in Hog Hammock, a private community of some 75 residents - descendants of the 400 slaves who worked the cotton fields of a 19th century Sapelo plantation. This Gullah village is the last concentration of African Americans on the Georgia coast who speak the melodic Geechee dialect of their fore bearers.