Ossabaw Island

Located just 7 miles by water from the thriving port city of Savannah, Georgia, Ossabaw Island is the antithesis of her neighbor-little changed by the progress of the modern world and a gem among Georgia's barrier islands. With 25,000 acres of forested uplands and marshes laced with tidal creeks, Ossabaw has for years been an earthly eden to a sparse population of farmers, hunters, artists, and scholars eager to escape the rigors of daily life and to commune closely with nature.

In this unique retrospective, the history of the island comes to life through remarkable vintage images, culled from the collections of the Georgia Historical Society; the Ford, Torrey, and West families; Project Genesis and Ossabaw Island Project members and directors John Earl, Al Bradford, and Helen Hamada; Paul Efird; Dr. M. Craig Alee; and others. Ossabaw is explored from prehistoric times through the arrival of the Spanish 450 years ago, from its plantation years through the purchase of the island by the Torrey family in 1924, and from the establishment of Eleanor Torrey West's internationally acclaimed Ossabaw Foundation through the sale of the island to the State of Georgia in 1978. Within these pages, readers will enter the historic gardens of Mrs. Nell Ford Torrey, meet a young Eleanor Ford Torrey exploring her own paradise on horseback in the 1930s, mingle with the influential businessmen at Dr. Torrey's hunting parties, and gaze in breathtaking wonder at the beauty of Georgia's first Heritage Preserve.