|
Fun activities include Historic touring, picnicking, bird-watching, miniature golf, swimming, fishing, crabbing and beachcombing. Park amenities includ a visitor center, park, picnic tables, parking, swimming pool, restrooms, biking/jogging trails, lighthouse and museum, beach. Fee based activities include a trolley tour, Neptune Casino Swimming Pool and miniature golf.
Here visitors may listen to the cackling of iridescent boat-tailed grackles in the live oak canopies, or the screech of begging seagulls, or the noble silence of brown pelicans perched on the pier. One might want to examine finned trophies that lie gasping in buckets, if local fishermen have been lucky angling the deep currents that flow past the pier. The beach is best explored at low tide, when one might find whelks, horseshoe crabs, and sand dollars.
The park's name is in honor of Neptune Small, a slave that belonged to the Thomas Butler King family of Retreat Plantation, today the site of Sea Island Golf Course. During the Civil War, Small accompanied one of the Kings' sons, who was killed during the Battle of Fredericksburg.
Small retrieved the body from the battleground and bore it back to Savannah Georgia under very difficult circumstances. The family buried the son at Christ Church, and Small chose to return to Virginia to accompany another son for the rest of the bloody conflict. |
|
After the war, Small was given a plot of land on the plantation, located at the park, and he continued to work for the King family as a free man. When he died in 1907, he was buried in a small graveyard on Retreat Plantation.
Two exceptionally large Live Oaks are found shading the park, where visitors can use picnic tables, a playground, miniature golf, and benches and lounge chairs for contemplative views of sparkling St. Simons Sound.
Neptune Park Casino has a public swimming pool open during summer. A 1.5-hour trolley tour leaves from here to other points of interest on the island, but some may prefer to see it under their own steam by using the biking/jogging path. The fishing pier is open to fishing, crabbing, and shrimping. |
|
The village got its start in the 1870s resort period, when vacationers traveled from the mainland on steamships. Most of the early historic buildings of St. Simons were destroyed by fire.
The St. Simons Hotel was built in 1888 near Massengale Park, which was linked to the pier by mule-drawn trolley. The grand structure, large enough to host 300 guests, was destroyed by fire in December of 1898. The New St. Simons Hotel was built at the same location in 1910, but in 1916, it too burned. Nonetheless, St. Simons continued to be popular with vacationers, and four other hotels were established near the pier, including the Bellevue, which was renamed St. Simons Hotel.
The third St. Simons Hotel, located at the end of the pier, was replaced by the first Casino Building, which burned in 1934. The area started to develop more rapidly with the building of the causeway in 1924, and more visitors opted to become year-round residents.
With a growing population, a village of small shops and businesses was able to flourish year-round by the 1950s, and by 1960, the resident population was 3,199.
Today, the village is the focal point of commercial and tourist activities on the island. The St. Simons Visitor Center is located in the second Casino Building at the northern end of Neptune Park and offers a complete assortment of visitor facilities and information, including a library, restrooms, a theater playhouse, and an outdoor bandstand. Read more information on restaurants, lodging, and night life. |
| Contact and Address |
Phone: 912-265-0620 - toll free 800-933-2627 - Fax 912-265-0627
Address: St. Simons Island Georgia 31522 |
|
|
Visit:
 Georiga Coast and Islands National Parks
GA Coast and Islands
Georgia Coast Events
Coast Free Things To Do
GA Coast Fishing Lakes
Georgia Coast Museums
Georgia Coast Shopping
GA Coast and Islands Travel Region
|
