Fort King George is the oldest English Fort
established on what is now the Georgia coast. The fort was built in 1721 and manned by British troops to
encourage British settlers to establish farms and communities in the area and
to discourage French and Spanish settlers from doing the same. The fort remained an active post until 1727. The fort was never attacked and no troops
were killed or injured in battle.
Nevertheless, they suffered great losses from difficult conditions and diseases.
140 members of the force, included the commanding officer, died from various
diseases and poor sanitary conditions.
The fort was abandoned in 1727.
Today, there is a visitor center and interpretive
exhibit on the site of the reconstructed fort, which details the history of the
fort and other important activities that occurred on the site over the
years. You can walk through the
reconstructed site and imagine the harsh conditions that led to the deaths of
so many of the soldiers at the fort. There
is a grave yard where be at least 109 graves are located but only a few
headstones remain. None of those resting
here are identified by name. Some of the
graves were likely flooded over the years by the changes in the river nearby. More headstones were known to be here, but
many were vandalized or simply stolen sometime in the past.
In 1736, General James Oglethorpe brought Scottish
Highlanders to the area to settle on the site of the old Fort. These settlers founded the town of New
Inverness, later named Darien, nearby. We
made a very quick stop in Darien, since the main street was under major repair
and vehicles were parked everywhere a free spot of grass or dirt could be
found. We found a spot to park briefly
to walk along the newly renovated waterfront park. There are many listed sites that we missed in
this charming town and hopefully we will be passing thru again sometime.
7 comments:
Very interesting story of the history of Fort King George!! Times sure were tough back then!!
Darien sure looks like a nice little town!! Nice waterfront!!!
There are so many old little towns to see. I love visiting and reading about the history of them. I keep saying one of these days we'll take our time to visit a few more of those southern little gems.
One wonders why somebody would steal a headstone, not like you could reuse it?
This is one place I've never heard of (along many). Thanks for the tour.
Can’t even imagine the hardships trying to create a settlement in what was probably essentially a swamp. I suspect malaria was a big cause of the deaths. How sad that vandals would be so selfish as to destroy or steal headstones. People just seem to have no sense of morality or any conscience.
We have never heard of Fort King George. The village is amazing. We really enjoy reliving history. What a gem.
You guys find the neatest places.
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