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Tybee Island is located at the northeastern end of Geogia’s Atlantic Coast and is one of the best-known of the barrier islands. It is believed that its name came from the Native American Euchee tribe’s word for “first”. Others believe it may be from the name of the Choctaw Chief, “Iti Ubi”. Still, other say it came from the word, “tabby”, the material that coastal settlers use to build their homes.

Although, only two and a half miles long and two thirds of a mile wide, its location, which is not too far outside of the mouth of the Savannah River, has made it an important defense post for the past two hundred years, as well as a resort area for visitors and many permanent residents.

Not only does Tybee Island have a romantic history, it also has a heavy metal history in the form of a bomb. Therefore, lets investigate this “been there done that” island. No need to have a boat, unless you want one, but we can drive there. A tailgate, fried chicken and sweet tea will do just fine.

Because Tybee Island guards the major sea entrance to Savannah, General James Edward Oglethorpe, when he founded the colony of Georgia in 1733, wanted to put a beacon on the island to guide the ships to and from the settlement. Therefore, our founding father had a wooden navigational tower built in 1736. It  helped mark the island and the nearby entrance to the Savannah River, before the lighthouses became federal property. Even though the tower was tilted, it is said to have stood there until 1741, when a storm swept it away.

To build this first tower, Oglethorpe selected William Blithemann, a master carpenter, as the boss of this job. Oglethorpe then moved ten families to the island and gave each a fifty-acre plot. However, the mosquitos were so bad that several of the settlers died before the octagonal tower was finished, a tragedy that some of the people of Savannah mistakenly attributed to overindulgence in rum.

At one point, Oglethorpe was so upset at the lack of progress on the beacon that he jailed Blithermann and threatened to hang him. The carpenter’s crew pleaded for their boss’s life and promised to finish the tower within five weeks. In the next sixteen days, they completed more work than they had done in the preceding sixteen months! In 1736, the men finally finished the ninety-foot tall, wooden tower, supposedly the tallest building of its kind in America at that time.

The only problem was that the structure was too close to the Atlantic Ocean and this made it vulnerable to beach erosion. After a storm washed away this first tower, officials had the workers begin a new stone and wood tower, which they finished in seven months. The man in charge of the construction this time was  Thomas Sumner. He was so successful with this new tower, that he was able to petition British officials for five hundred acres of land near Fort Frederica on St. Simons Island, which is south of Tybee, plus six hundred workers to cultivate the land. This eventually made Sumner a rich man.

Despite Sumner’s pride in the tower, he too, had built it too close to the ocean, which soon threatened to topple it. In 1773, the workers built one much further inland. This was the third tower and was one-hundred-feet-tall, made of brick with interior wooden stairs and landings. Like its predecessors, it did not have a light. Instead, it too was to be used only as a day marker. The tower did finally acquire its first light in the form of spermaceti candles, in 1789.

The lighthouse was two years old when the United States Lighthouse Service came into being. Now, in 1791, it received the first lamp and reflector system which replaced the candles. It was early in the 1800s, when the lighthouse got an upgrade in the form of a second order Fresnel lens.

In 1822, workers built a smaller tower, seaward and installed a firelight so that mariners could line up the two towers to determine where the channel was. During the War Between the States, retreating Confederate forces concerned that the high light would aid approaching Union troops, succeeded in putting the lighthouse out of commission by removing the lens and setting the stairs on fire. After the federal troops landed, they used Tybee Island to bombard Fort Pulaski on the mainland and force it into submission.

Like many navigational stations in the Southern United States, Tybee Island light suffered considerably during the War Between the States. In 1861, when Union occupation forces took over the island, they did further damage. By the War’s end, the lighthouse was in ruins.

Work on the new tower was delayed when federal troops unwittingly brought cholera onto the island, killing the foreman and four workers. This delayed repairs and restoration but it was completed in 1867. However, the work was done well and the result was a far more impressive Tybee Island light station. The workmen were able to save the bottom 60 feet of the damaged lighthouse and then added 94 feet more to the original height, making the new building some 154 feet tall.

At the same time, the tower was fitted with a nine-foot tall, state of the art Fresnel lens. Now the lighthouse was able to send its signal nearly 20 miles out to sea. In 1933, electricity replaced the kerosene that had been used to fuel the light. All who saw the light, knew the welcoming entrance to the Savannah River was just to the north of the tower.

When the light first shone on October 1, 1867, the tower was all white. Twenty years later, the bottom half of the tower was painted black and the upper half stayed white. Now, it has a black top, white middle and black bottom. If you have a chance to visit the tower, you will see that it is still possible to see the cracks in the tower wall caused by storms and an 1886 earthquake.

In the late nineteenth century, Tybee Island became a popular recreational area even though visitors could only reach it by sailboat or steamer. When a railroad was built in 1887, from Savannah to the Island, many Savannah residents made the day trip for picnics and swimming.

Today, there are thousands of annual visitors that come to visit this island, and see the five-acres of land where the lighthouse is built. Also, a real thrill, is to climb up this tower and see the spectacular view of the surrounding lands and out to sea where there usually are sailboats and power boats as well as ocean liners passing by. Then there are the tours of the houses where the head keeper, the first assistant keeper and the second assistant keeper lived. Also, you can tour the original summer kitchen and fuel storage buildings and also a small lighthouse museum.

Tybee Lighthouse is Georgia’s oldest, and tallest light. It is maintained by the nonprofit Tybee Island Historical Society. Now, under lease to this local society, the tower did receive major restorations in the 1990s, making it possible for this same lighthouse to continue to aid mariners today, as it has been since the beginning of its operating, one hundred years ago.

The island is also a favorite with residents as it doesn’t have an over whelming number of condominiums, but is populated mostly by summer cottages and year-round homes. Thus, it maintains its peaceful atmosphere.

Surprisingly, Tybee Island, has in fact, one of the most extensive wildlife sanctuaries on the barrier islands of Georgia, the Tybee National Wildlife Refuge. It is a favored spot for many kinds of birds including nesting terns. The island maintains it and there are strict laws that are enforced.

Another must see place on Tybee Island is Fort Screven, where most of the military history of the island is centered. The Fort is on the northeast coast of the island.

Fort Screven sits in a strategic location that effectively guards the approaches to Savannah. At various times in its history, the site was controlled by the Spanish, the French the British, the Confederacy and the Union. However, its position allowed Union soldiers to bombard Fort Pulaski and reduce its massive walls to rubble.

After the War Between the States, officials realized that a fort positioned on the tip of Tybee Island was essential for guarding the approaches to Savannah. Therefore, they began making plans to build one. They wanted to incorporate in the new fort, the latest design findings from battels fought in similar sites. For example, the knowledge that engineers gained from the bombardment of Fort Pulaski, namely that masonry and brick forts could not withstand a shelling by rifled bore cannons. This resulted in the use of dirt and sand on the outer walls of the batteries at Fort Screven to “soften” the blow.

It took a lot of time and planning to complete the fort. During its building, the forts name changed from Fort Tybee to Fort Graham and finally to Fort Screven. This name honored General James Screven, a Georgia native, who was killed in action in 1778, near Midway, Georgia, during the Revolutionary War.

At the time the fort was built, America and Spain seemed destined to fight a war over Cuba, especially after the sinking of the United States battleship, “Maine”, in Havana Harbor, which resulted in the loss of 266 American lives. Thus, Georgia’s coastal defenses, especially the entrance to Savannah, Darien, Brunswick and St. Mary’s Harbors were strengthened.

When there was no longer a Spanish threat to the Southeastern United States, officials found another use for Fort Screven. It became the headquarters for the Unit Submarine Forces. This was our country’s defense against the German U boats which patrolled along our shores in the two World Wars.

The Fort remained in active use, as the Fort Screven Reservation, until 1945. Then after World War II, when the fort became one of many that were no longer needed in peacetime, the federal government sold it to Savannah for two hundred thousand dollars. A year later, the town sold off much of the fort’s three hundred acres to a local developer who transformed the old officer’s quarters into beautiful homes for retired military families.

Today, the memories of many of the soldiers stationed at Fort Screven in World War II, brings them back for visits. Although, most of the other remnants of the military presence are gone, the museum inside Fort Screven has on exhibit the memorabilia from the history of the Fort, the Tybee Island lighthouse and Tybee Island, itself.

Of course, every old fort has a ghost and Fort Screven is no exception. The full moon and high tides just brings the ghosts out. At Fort Screven, every full moon that passes over the old fortification, brings about the sounds of fighting and cries of death as the ocean waters turn the color of blood red.

Another unusual incident that is talked about in connection with Fort Screven, dates from the Spanish American War. At that time, an artillery Captain named A. D. Schenck was stationed there. His son was also an Army man, a lieutenant serving in the Philippines. Mrs. Schenck’s daughter, Elizabeth, later told this story.

She and her mother were sitting sewing one day in their quarters on the old Officers Row. Suddenly, the mother jumped up and cried, “Oh, I just saw your brother, Will! His shoulder disappeared as he fell backwards!”  The family was very worried until a news report confirmed her premotion. The young officer had indeed been fatally shot in the shoulder, while fighting native insurgents at about the same time his mother had glimpsed him in her quarters.

Another of the ghost stories takes place at the Officers Row. Here is where a former resident kept finding lights being turned on after he was sure that he had turned them off. He found that after five minutes, the lights came back on. Next, he decided that he had to do a thorough check of the house to be sure that no one else was home. Just as he had thought, he was the only person that was there. After the lights had come back on three more times, he decided to write down all the lights that he turned off. Once again, after five minutes the lights came back on. Now, he knew for sure, that he had turned them off. All he could do was look down at his dog, and scratch his head. He knew his dog was smart, but he had never learned how to turn on the lights! It has to be ghosts!

The fort is across the road from the lighthouse which is said to be haunted by a former keeper.