Have you ever wondered what left behind those prints and tracks on the seashore, or what made those marks or dug those holes in the dunes? Life Traces of the Georgia Coast is an up-close look at these traces of life and the animals and plants that made them. It tells about how the tracemakers lived and how they interacted with their environments. This is a book about ichnology (the study of such traces) and a wonderful way to learn about the behavior of organisms, living and long extinct. Life Traces presents an overview of the traces left by modern animals and plants in this biologically rich region; shows how life traces relate to the environments, natural history, and behaviors of their tracemakers; and applies that knowledge toward a better understanding of the fossilized traces that ancient life left in the geologic record. Augmented by illustrations of traces made by both ancient and modern organisms, the book shows how ancient trace fossils directly relate to modern traces and tracemakers, among them, insects, grasses, crabs, shorebirds, alligators, and sea turtles. The result is an aesthetically appealing and scientifically grounded book that will serve as source both for scientists and for anyone interested in the natural history of the Georgia coast.

"What Nature Suffers to Groe" explores the mutually transforming relationship between environment and human culture on the Georgia coastal plain between 1680 and 1920. Each of the successive communities on the coast--the philanthropic and imperialistic experiment of the Georgia Trustees, the plantation culture of rice and sea island cotton planters and their slaves, and the postbellum society of wage-earning freedmen, lumbermen, vacationing industrialists, truck farmers, river engineers, and New South promoters--developed unique relationships with the environment, which in turn created unique landscapes. The core landscape of this long history was the plantation landscape, which persisted long after its economic foundation had begun to erode. The heart of this study examines the connection between power relations and different perceptions and uses of the environment by masters and slaves on lowcountry plantations--and how these differing habits of land use created different but interlocking landscapes. Nature also has agency in this story; some landscapes worked and some did not. Mart A. Stewart argues that the creation of both individual and collective livelihoods was the consequence not only of economic and social interactions but also of changing environmental ones, and that even the best adaptations required constant negotiation between culture and nature. In response to a question of perennial interest to historians of the South, Stewart also argues that a "sense of place" grew out of these negotiations and that, at least on the coastal plain, the "South" as a place changed in meaning several times.

In this book, you'll find plenty of evidence that the supernatural is alive in the Golden Isles. Crumbling slave cabins, plantation homes and grand mansions, ancient forts, even a hospital that once cared for the five hundred slaves of Retreat Plantation -- all have their own aura, created by those long since dead. A silent Indian couple wanders, looking with pleading eyes to anyone who can help find something precious lost long ago. The ghost of a lonely woman still haunts the theater where she killed herself. Two men grapple with swords in a graveyard, replaying a scene from their lives again and again. -- A woman visiting an old inn experiences deja vu when she is transported to an elegant party that took place there a century before. The ghost of a young polo player killed in a bizarre horseback riding accident strides silently through the place that was his last destination on earth. These stories of restless souls, heartbroken lovers, skin-walkers, and protective spirits will give you a case of the creeps. Keep the lights on!

In 1888, Charles Colcock Jones Jr. published the first collection of folk narratives from the Gullah-speaking people of the South Atlantic coast, tales he heard black servants exchange on his family's rice and cotton plantation. It has been out of print and largely unavailable until now. Jones saw the stories as a coastal variation of Joel Chandler Harris's inland dialect tales and sought to preserve their unique language and character. Through Jones' rendering of the sound and syntax of nineteenth-century Gullah, the lively stories describe the adventures and mishaps of such characters as "Buh Rabbit," "Buh Ban-Yad Rooster," and other animals. The tales range from the humorous to the instructional and include stories of the "sperits," Daddy Jupiter's "vision," a dying bullfrog's last wish, and others about how "buh rabbit gained sense" and "why the turkey buzzard won't eat crabs."

An astonishing amount of geological information -- as well as excellent information on historic sites, beaches, places to stay, and places to eat -- abound in this series of coastal guides. The books feature the best the coast has to offer in a comprehensive and concise format. More than twenty maps guide the reader in an easy-to-follow design. The reader will have fun learning about the flora and fauna of the coast, as well as the geology and natural history of each area. Illustrations, sidebars of unique information, and photographs make this a very pleasing book to look through and read.

"Living Beaches of Georgia and the Carolinas" satisfies a beachcomber's curiosity within a comprehensive yet easily browsed guide covering beach processes, plants, animals, minerals, and manmade objects. Full-color photos. Maps.

This engaging and curiosity-rousing book blends scientific fact with a timely conservation message and anecdotes of a family's encounters with nature. It is an invitingly readable guided tour of the flora, fauna, and landscape of the distinctive Georgia coast.

Ninety years ago, Millie Sullivan's great-grandmother was a guest at oil tycoon Howard Dawkins' palatial estate on the shore of St. Simons Island, Georgia. Now, Millie plays a 1920s-era guest during tours of the same manor. But when her grandmother suggests that there is a lost diary containing the location of a hidden treasure on the estate, along with the true identity of Millie's great-grandfather, Millie sets out to find the truth of her heritage--and the fortune that might be hers. When security guard Ben Thornton discovers her snooping in the estate's private library, he threatens to have her fired. But her story seems almost too ludicrous to be fiction, and her offer to split the treasure is too tempting to pass up . . . Get ready for a romantic escapade through dark halls and dusty corners that will have you holding your breath and sighing with delight as two charming characters get caught up in the adventure of uncovering the past and finding their way to an unexpected future.

This collection of fifty-nine primary documents presents multiple viewpoints on more than four centuries of growth, conflict, and change in Georgia. The selections range from a captive's account of a 1597 Indian revolt against Spanish missionaries on the Georgia coast to an impassioned debate in 1992 between county commissioners and environmental activists over a proposed hazardous waste facility in Taylor County. Drawn from such sources as government records, newspapers, oral histories, personal diaries, and letters, the documents give a voice to the concerns and experiences of men and women representing the diverse races, ethnic groups, and classes that, over time, have contributed to the state's history. Cornerstones of Georgia History is especially suited for classroom use, but it provides any concerned citizen of the state with a historical basis on which to form relevant and independent opinions about Georgia's present-day challenges.