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 Plan to visit Jekyll Island this winter to participate in what has become an obsession with some people!
We started placing Island Treasures on the beaches back in 2001. Beachcombers used to delight in finding very rare glass floats that fishermen used to place in their nets. Jekyll Island commissioned glass artists (and gave them Jekyll Island sand) to create these beautiful glass floats to mimick the ones used back then. Beachcombers on Jekyll Island during the months of January and February can find their own Island Treasure!
Many floats are placed every day at different times of the day above the high tide line on the beaches for lucky beachcombers. There are lots of opportunities to find yours!
 For 2007, we introduced the high-tech Island Treasures. One program was the “virtual island treasure” where a picture of a float would show up on a different section of jekyllisland.com arbitrarily each week. You could find an Island Treasure while sitting in your living room! We also merged our Island Treasure program with geocaching, which is a sort of “high-tech” treasure hunting game with gps units. We placed 10 floats in different areas of the island and told people exactly where they were! Well, we told them the gps coordinates, which, turns out, is not really that easy to find.
We’re definitely planning to do the virtual island treasures for 2008 and at least one, if not several, geocaching opportunites involving the floats. If you have any other ideas, just let us know! So plan to visit us this January or February to claim your Island Treasure. It’s all about the hunt! (or you can buy one at the Jekyll Island Welcome Center or online at www.jeyllisland.com!)
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| Golden Isles Scholastic Chess! |
Register, support, or come watch the Golden Isle Scholastic Chess Association Tournaments on Jekyll Island!
Chess education is extremely effective with children because:
- Chess involves all levels of critical thinking (knowledge, comprehension, analysis, evaluation);
- Chess requires forethought and cultivates visualization skills;
- Chess improves problem solving skills;
- Chess encourages children to overcome the fear of risk-taking;
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- Chess teaches concentration and self-discipline;
- Chess enables children to assume responsibility for their decisions;
- Chess rewards determination and perseverance;
- Chess raises self-esteem and promotes good sportsmanship;
- Chess encourages socialization skills that extend across cultures and generations;
- Chess is fun!
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Children from all backgrounds can succeed at chess.
Even children who are not performing well in school are inspired by chess and show a better attitude toward learning.
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 The Jekyll Island Arts Association is pleased to announce its November exhibit titled, “Footloose ‑ Two Painters and a Woodworker.” Painters Susan Knight Smith and Frances Landel will show their work with woodworker, Gary Snedeker. The show runs from Nov. 2 ‑ 29 in Goodyear Cottage in Jekyll’s Historic District.
Darien resident, Frances Landel has been painting since the mid eighties, and has studied with many artists of national and international reputation. She has an arts degree from Georgia State School of Art and Design as well as a degree in English literature from Emory University. She says that “being the author of a mood, capturing a color or light is a tremendously satisfying endeavor.” Frances has traveled to Tuscany and Paris with fellow exhibitor, Susan, where they painted and sketched.
Susan Knight Smith works primarily in pastel, which allows her to combine her love of expressive drawing with vibrant color. In addition to landscapes, she paints portraits, figure studies, still life, intimate garden scenes, and particularly enjoys plein air painting. Of her work, she simply says, “I paint what delights me.” Her work is in over one hundred fifty collections in the U.S., has been included in publications and has won numerous awards. She paints on location and from her home studio in Powder Springs, Georgia.
Gary Snedeker, from Port Orange, Florida, is a woodworker who creates pieces which seem to draw you closer to see all of the objects incorporated within, and even to touch. “My work is very tactile,” Gary says, “I invite people to touch it ‑ it’s part of it.” His work begins with naturally weathered fence posts, some of which still have barbed wire attached. After turning them on a lathe, he then adds a collage of natural materials, embedding some of them into the surface of the post. The result is a unique piece which will hold your interest as you enjoy the variety of textures and objects ‑ everything from beach glass to antlers.
Everyone is invited to view this wonderful combination of artwork and to meet the artists at a reception at Goodyear Cottage on Nov. 4 from 1 ‑ 3pm. Admission is always free to the gallery and shop which are open Mon‑Fri 12 ‑ 4pm and weekends 10 ‑ 4pm. Call 635‑3920 for more information.
 The Jekyll Island Arts Association is excited to invite you to a special evening of music featuring classical guitarist, Francois Fowler. Please join us on Monday, November 5th at 7:30pm in Beachside Hall of Jekyll’s Convention Center.
The recipient of national and international prizes, grants and awards, Dr. Fowler has given solo recitals in the United States, Canada and Mexico. He received his Bachelor of Music from the University of Ottawa, Canada and a Doctorate in Music from the Florida State University. He is currently a faculty member at the Dana School of Music at Youngstown State University, Ohio, where he maintains an active guitar studio and coaches guitar ensembles. Fowler’s new CD entitled Nocturne includes works by Canadian, Swiss and American composers.
Dr. Fowler’s program will include works by Johann Bach, Isaac Albeniz, and Johann Kaspar Mertz; as well as music he composed himself. He will also include Three Jazz Standards, which he arranged for guitar.
Refreshments will be served following the program. Also visit our current exhibit and the shop at Goodyear Cottage in Jekyll’s historic district, Mon ‑ Fri 12 ‑ 4pm and weekends 10 ‑ 4pm. Admission is free to the upcoming program, the shop and gallery. Call Goodyear Cottage at 635‑3920 for more information |
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   The ocean’s power can terrify a child, motivate a poet, and captivate a scientist. We are refreshed by its breezes and entranced by the light of the moon dancing upon its waves. Its tides swirl and breathe new life into the salt marshes. Plants, Plankton, and other tiny critters become the marsh mud. Our ocean, not the bluest of waters, is chock full of nutrients, making it the perfect spot for shrimp, oysters, fish, shorebirds, crabs, and more. This area we call home, the tideland, or a barrier island is complex and miraculous. In this section of Beachscape, we hope to explain some of the mysteries of the sea, beach, salt marsh, plants, and animals of the area.
What is a Barrier Island?
The tidewater landforms that run parallel to the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, barrier islands, are the outer defense of the mainland against storms. About 295 barrier islands stem from Maine to Texas, generally a beach system with pounding surf and eroding beaches, grassy dunes behind the beaches, maritime forests, followed by wetlands inland. Salt or tidal marshes are on the sound side facing the mainland. And the shape of a barrier island is usually stretched out with one end wider than the other (like Jekyll Island).
The barrier islands of the southeast formed 10,000 years ago when the great continental ice sheets thawed causing the sea level to rise. Ridges once onthemainland were cut off by the surge.  Eventually only the higher land was left asisolated islands, and sedimentation from the rivers that flow to the ocean is constantly added to the area between the island and the mainland (the marsh).
The Salt Marsh
The wetlands sustain the coastal way of life. With the comings and goings of the tides, the marsh is flooded at high tide, and drained down to mudflats and shallow salt pan pools at low tide. The ecosystem of the marsh supports an extreme abundance of life. First-timers mistake the marsh for foul-smelling muck, not appreciating the tideland’s gifts until they sit down at the table of their favorite seafood restaurant. Most, thankfully, appreciate its beauty, its smell, and its bounty.
Why is the Water Greenish-Brown?
The color of the ocean on Jekyll Island often surprises or even offend some first-time visitors. Why the mucky water? Our water is loaded with diatoms. These are microscopic, one-celled plants (phytoplankton) whose numbers flourish in warming water. The chlorophyll in them makes the water green. The brown color comes from detritus (decaying tiny plants and animals) from the marsh and from the silt that is stirred up from the current.
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