Jekyll Island
National Historic Landmark District · Jekyll Island, Georgia
A barrier island on the Georgia coast that the Morgans, Rockefellers, Vanderbilts and Pulitzers bought in 1886 as a private winter club, and where in 1910 a secret meeting drafted the plan that became the Federal Reserve. The state bought the island in 1947 and by law most of it must stay undeveloped, which is why it looks nothing like the resort coast further south. The club buildings are a National Historic Landmark district, and Driftwood Beach at the north end — a forest of salt-killed oaks standing in the surf — is the most photographed stretch of shore in Georgia.
100 James Road, Jekyll Island, Georgia, 31527, United States
The island is open at all hours; a parking fee is charged per vehicle at the causeway gate, daily or annual. Beaches, Driftwood Beach and Horton House are free and open at all times. The Georgia Sea Turtle Center, the historic district tours and the shops keep their own daytime hours, reduced in winter.