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Tolomato Island History

Special, too, is our part of a continuous history of human occupation of this area that goes back thousands of years. Through dating of pottery we know that a succession of Native American peoples lived here from at least 2000 BC into the 1600's, leaving shell middens and pieces of pottery that can still found today.  These  Native American populations included Swift Creek and Guale.  Later came Spanish missionaries and, subsequently,  the first colonists of Georgia.  

In the early 1800s, William Carnochan operated a sugar mill plantation here.  On the banks of Crum Creek along the southeast side of Tolomato Island are the ruins of the sugar mill and rum distillery built by Carnochan.  These were contructed of tabby, a coastal building material.  These were in operation until severely damaged by a hurricane in the 1820s.  These ruins are protected historic properties of Tolomato Island.