It's amazing what's hiding in plain sight! If you've ever been to "Sharktooth Beach" on Jekyll Island on the Georgia Coast in Glynn County, it's a bit of a walk... just under a mile. On that walk you'll notice what looks to be remnants of an old dock, & it LOOKS like you are walking around a marsh, but there's a lot more to it than that! In the late 1960s, this was where an ambitious project to create the largest marina in the area was attempted, but never came to be.
Construction started on this project back in 1967, and as you can see by the old drawing attached to this post, this would be a big marina! It would have freshwater & saltwater boat slips, supply stores & restaurants. Workers used a dredge to create a large pond for freshwater boat storage & a boat basin with two entrances to Jekyll Creek. A small dock was built in the basin that connected to the Intra-Coastal Waterway. While it was well on it's way to being completed (a charter boat even started operating from there), there was a problem: the changing tide started depositing so much silt that the basin became unusable & the project was abandoned in the mid-1970s.
In 1984, a cable water skiing business called the Ski Rixen started operating on the dredged pond until 1996 & in 1987, Summer Waves was built between the two artificial basins.
The outer edges are now the birding trail that leads to Sharktooth Beach, and there are plenty of signs along the trail that hint toward the old marina that never came to be!
Jay Blanton | The Georgia Photography Fanatic
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