Glynn County

The county in brief

A traveler's read on Glynn County

At the Jekyll Island Club's peak membership in 1900 the club represented roughly one-sixth of the world's total wealth per the National Trust for Historic Preservation, drawing the Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, Morgans, and Pulitzers to a Gilded Age winter retreat that issued just over 100 lifetime memberships — and that ended abruptly in 1942 when wartime fuel rationing made the island indefensible against U-boat patrols and the State of Georgia purchased the property for $675,000 in 1947. Glynn County still treats the four Golden Isles barrier islands (St. Simons, Sea Island, Jekyll, Little St. Simons) as the economic and ecological core, with Brunswick (population 16,247) the mainland services anchor at the I-95 Exit 36 corridor.

The Jekyll Island Authority operates as a state agency that runs the entire island under a public-private model — the only Georgia county-adjacent landmass with a single landlord governing every parcel, every rental, and every camping permit. Jekyll Island Campground operates 200 RV-friendly sites with full hookups across two loops, the only coastal Georgia public campground accepting rigs over 40 ft, and reservations open via the Authority's site 11 months ahead — the November-March snowbird window books within hours. The island enforces a soft 65/35 conservation-to-development land cap by 1971 state legislation, capping commercial sprawl. Cumberland Island National Seashore 30 miles south is accessible only by NPS-contracted ferry from St. Marys; no vehicle traffic of any kind is permitted on the island, ruling out RV access entirely. Fort Frederica National Monument on St. Simons preserves the 1736 British colonial settlement.