Driftwood Beach
On the northern shore of Jekyll Island, decades of erosion have hollowed out a maritime forest into a boneyard of sun-bleached oaks and pines, their roots clawing the sand like the skeletons of some vast wreck. In the 1910s, William J. Hart served as an assistant superintendent charged with protecting the island's wildlife, and one dawn he surprised two poachers raiding sea turtle nests for their prized eggs. The confrontation turned violent; in the scuffle a poacher drew a gun and shot Hart dead on the very sand he was sworn to guard. Visitors and ghost-tour guides say his spirit still walks the shoreline in the early morning hours, pacing his old patrol, his footprints erased by each incoming wave before anyone can follow them.
📍 North End of Jekyll Island, Jekyll Island, GA 31527, Jekyll Island, GA · Get directions