Commercial Truck Insurance in Darien, GA

By Pat Foster-Turley September 30, 2022

Lots of my readers probably get the Harris Teeter weekly emails and they have a feature, “Meet our Fishermen.” And when it comes to shrimp specials, lots of the time they feature one Boone or another up in Darien, Georgia. Darien is only about an hour north of us by distance but it is decades away from Fernandina in time frame. It is still a small coastal fishing town, with active shrimp, clam, sturgeon and other fisheries in full operation, if you know where to look and are lucky to time it right.

Well this time we sure timed it right. We were in Darien, celebrating our 45th anniversary. We go there often to get away from the Fernandina Beach hubbub and I have developed a usual routine. After breakfast I go for a walk around the historic district, past old churches and groomed public parks. This time I was on my usual walk when I noticed a number of cars passing me and heading down a small road towards the water—Boone Dock Road. So I decided to follow them. The further I got down this dirt lane the more obvious the sound of machinery was in front of me. When I arrived at the dock I saw why. A shrimp boat was unloading their catch and all hands were on deck to receive it.

The ground crew was fine with my presence there, camera and all. I happily watched many pounds of beheaded shrimp being lifted from the hold of the boat in a large bucket on a pulley and dumped onto a conveyer belt that moved the product to the weighing station, where set amounts were then packaged for shipment. This particular boat was out fishing for six days, and presumably they beheaded the shrimp while still out at sea.

This was Boone’s fish dock, so I asked how many of the guys working there were Boones. And it turned out that most of them were! A regular family operation, the Boones, have been in the fishing business in south Georgia for four generations or more. One brother Greg, was manning the important weighing station, and another, Walter answered my questions. It turns out Walter is the head of Walter’s Caviar, in a nearby building, and he offered to show me his wares too.

And what a tour it was! Walter posed with some cans of his expensive caviar, extracted from wild caught sturgeon. Online the price of a small tin (4 ½ ounces) costs $139, a luxury for sure. Walter has paid up to $10,000 or more for a single large female sturgeon loaded with roe but he can sell the cured and packaged eggs (the caviar) for three or four times that amount.

Walter regaled me with stories about one of his relatives, Sinkey Boone, who in 1967 developed the first turtle extruder net to protect sea turtles from the shrimp trawls. This family also developed a thriving business catching jellyfish in a special net they developed for this purpose. Until recently they dried this catch and shipped tons of it to China, but now, Walter says, shipping is too expensive so they have stopped harvesting them. Inventing apparently runs in the family. Walter himself is a successful inventor and entrepreneur, having invented and marketed the Senoob (Boones spelled backwards) flare launching gun that can shoot arrows, bullets, flares, you name it, with about 120,000 sold per year.

After my interesting morning with the Boones I walked back to the hotel along the water’s edge, past shrimp boats and a few tour boats docked there. Along the way I admired the old tabby building that is being restored at great cost in the historic area.

Back at the hotel the only real decision we had to make is where to head for lunch. There are a number of fish camp/seafood restaurants in the area, all specializing in one type of seafood or another. There is Skippers, right on the water in Darien, which has a great oyster bar with their own take on oysters Rockefeller. Further up the road past Crescent is The Fish Dock at Pelican Point where they process clams. A bit further south of Darien is Mudcat Charlies, the best place ever for fried oysters. All of these places offer fresh wild caught shrimp and fresh fish and, of course, beer!

If you are looking for a quick getaway you can’t go wrong with Darien. Check it out and you won’t be disappointed.

Pat Foster-Turley, Ph.D., is a zoologist on Amelia Island. She welcomes your nature questions and observations. patandbucko@yahoo.com

DARIEN, Ga. (WTOC) - The Georgia Department of Transportation has released their preliminary construction plans for the Darien Bridge, that’s the one that connects Darien to Brunswick along Highway 17.

The bridge is an important part of the Darien community.

We now have a better idea of what construction on the Darien Bridge will look like. Local business leaders in Darien say that it remains critical that the bridge stay open through the duration of the project.

The bridge, originally built in 1944, needs repair, according to GDOT, who says it will continue to deteriorate if left as is.

“We have a huge workforce that travels from Darien to Brunswick, and vice versa. For our businesses, that could be hugely impactful for them to not be able to get quickly to work,” Darien-McIntosh Chamber of Commerce President/CEO Kat Hoyt said.

WTOC reported in July that the bridge would remain open during construction - welcome news for the community, after the state previously had planned to keep it closed for years.

“It was a huge sigh of relief. When I was able to read that they had changed it from 3-5 years being closed, down to maybe 30 days, that’s a big deal. It makes a huge difference in terms of our businesses.”

The construction plan includes building the west portion of the bridge first, and gradually moving traffic from the old portion to the new portion. They plan on closing the bridge for no more than 30 days, when traffic will be diverted to I-95, according to the plan from GDOT.

“It’s going to be a little different. When there’s construction on any roadway, there’s an impact. But, at least people will still be able to access them easily, and not be completely shut off.”

The construction plan also includes other things the community has been asking for – like a pedestrian and bike path - as well as a platform to use for Blessing of the Fleet, a McIntosh County tradition of blessing the shrimping boats for the commercial fishing season.

“I’m hoping that by expanding the bridge, you’re going to be able to connect those two areas of town. So, our natural resource area and Altamaha watershed, with the downtown Darien, that it just becomes a very cohesive experience.”

Construction isn’t expected to begin until 2026.

GDOT has scheduled a public information open house for the construction plan for Thursday, Jan. 12 from 4-6 p.m. at Darien City Hall at 106 Washington St.

Please click here to view the preliminary construction plan. There, you can also provide feedback on the posted plan.

Copyright 2022 WTOC. All rights reserved.

DARIEN, GA. | The annual burn-off of the duck ponds in the Altamaha Waterfowl Management Area is no big deal to locals, but Robert Horan said its location always draws some attention.

As he oversaw a prescribed burn of ponds Tuesday, Horan said the fires’ location of Champney Island between Interstate 95 and U.S. 17 makes for a good show for the thousands of motorists.

One man, on his way home to Syracuse, N.Y., got off I-95 to see what was burning.

The fire of 50 to 60 acres was burning near I-95 while up to 600 acres were burning to the east on Rhett’s Island, both part of pre-Civil War rice plantations that are now gathering places for migratory ducks and hunters in the cold pre-dawn hours of winter.

“This is fuel reduction and removing biomass from the ponds,” Horan said.

The fuel is dead cutgrass, a native wild rice, he said.

The burning retains open water in the ponds, but the summer growth comes back lush.

From a distance the white smoke off Rhett’s Island rose like a summer thunderhead against the otherwise cloudless blue sky. There were scattered areas of black smoke when the fires hit heavier fuel, such as fallen trees and old stumps.

Horan kicked cutgrass thatch into a woven pile to demonstrate the need for the fires. To his west, Kevin Bonicky walked through the grass in a yellow hard had and fire retardant yellow shirt and green pants torching unburned grass as he went. The flames behind him quickly grew in the light wind and Horan said, “It’ll be here in five minutes.”

The goal was to encircle the dry pond in fire, Horan said.

“We try to burn at least 1,000 acres of waterfowl management every year. It’s better at 1,500 [acres],” he said.

Burning Champney was relatively easy, but an air boat ride was required to set fire to Rhett’s Island, Horan said.

There are some structures on the Department of Natural Resources holdings that had to be protected including elevated wildlife viewing platforms. Darien and McIntosh County firefighters stood by to ensure the fire didn’t get to them.

Terry Dickson: (912) 264-0405

Driving north into Darien, Georgia, on U.S. Highway 17, I pass over a long bridge that crosses the Darien River, an offshoot of the Altamaha River considered Georgia’s wildest and most beautiful. To the right, clustered shrimp boats bob slightly in shimmery water, as if they are curtsying, their riggings capturing the filtered light of a spring day. With dappled clouds in the background, the picturesque scenery is striking.

Darien, at its heart a fishing village, is on the more southerly end of the long quarter-moon-shaped crescent of Georgia coast that curves inland from Savannah to St. Marys. Surrounded by wide swaths of saltwater marsh, in season either as golden as Midas’ touch or as pale green as seafoam, the prairies unfurl into Altamaha Sound, with long fingers of Spartina grass rippling in endless waves. The marsh is a secret garden, a labyrinth of water, mud and peat continually ebbing and flowing and camouflaging a hidden world of terrestrial and marine creatures of herons and wood storks, crabs and shrimp, alligators and otters.

The town proper of Darien, threaded with mighty oaks drizzled with Spanish moss, is the alpha and omega of the Altamaha River, the first community on its journey inland from the Atlantic and the last before it fans out to where the Altamaha Sound laps gently toward the ocean. U.S. Highway 17, the old coastal highway that’s a throwback to romantic road trips, slices through Darien before it runs north to Virginia and southward to Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Textured with an amazing depth of history, mesmerizing unspoiled nature and local seafood restaurants, Darien gives you an authentic taste of saltwater with fresh oysters, fish and its most famous denizen, Georgia Wild Shrimp. The shrimp flourishes in the warm waters of the sound, soaking in the nutrients of the rich Spartina grass, related to sugar cane, and a primary reason the crustaceans are so plump and sweet. You won’t need to walk far in Darien to find shrimp fried, broiled or boiled.

The Guale Indians were here first, and then the Spanish in the 1560s. The Spanish built missions along the coast, but only a smattering of colonists and missionaries settled before the British took a foothold in the Georgia soil. Nearly three centuries ago, Scottish Highlanders, under the leadership of Gen. James Oglethorpe, the British general credited with establishing Georgia, meandered down the coast from Savannah to establish a port city. Darien eventually became the second-oldest planned city in Georgia, after Savannah, with its grid-like streets, azalea-lined and shaded, neatly laid out in squares.

The disarming charm of Darien casts a long spell. Darien, beautiful and quiet, has a nice small-town feel as no factories or big businesses exist here. While it was once a thriving port and financial hub, its buildings date only from the Civil War, as the town, with its wonderful old colonial architecture, was burned in 1863 by Union troops.

Today’s Darien, with its population of about 1,500, not only pays homage to its seafaring past but also caters to visitors who come for the history, natural beauty, shrimp and shopping in its eclectic tiny downtown, which included Sugar Marsh Cottage Specialty Confections for artisan chocolates, Vintage Wildflowers Boutique for clothing and Waterfront Wine and Gourmet for a taste of Georgia and international wines.

Most folks, when they think of Georgia eats, think of fried chicken, pork chops and grits. You can certainly get that and more at wildly popular Sweet Tee’s Log Cabin Restaurant or B&J’s Steaks and Seafood. Sweet Tee’s buffet usually includes meats and vegetables but also extras like deviled crab or fried fish, and at B&J’s, also primarily a buffet, you can order off the menu Georgia Wild Shrimp and other bounties of the sea.

Both Skipper’s Fish Camp, on the Darien River, and Mudcat Charlie’s, overlooking the Altamaha, are casual yet a little more upscale and offer indoor and outdoor dining with a selection of cocktails. Local favorites are the shrimp, of course, plus crab, flounder and oysters. If you’re game, go for the gator tail at Mudcat Charlie’s, with its taste a mashup of chicken and fish.

For the quintessential coastal dish of rich, creamy shrimp and grits, I recommend the Oaks Club at the Oaks on the River, a small boutique hotel on the Darien River. It’s the newest addition to the Darien skyline and is the city’s tallest building, commanding three stories. It is posh by Darien’s standards, with upholstered chairs and stunning views of the marsh. The shrimp gumbo and catch of the day are also excellent choices. The showpiece Cedar Bar, adjacent to the restaurant, is carved from one single cedar tree from nearby Harris Neck Island.

While you’re likely to love Darien, it doesn’t take long to see it all, given that it’s so diminutive, so plan for a few days to explore nearby gems as well.

Start with a pedestrian-friendly, self-guided walking tour of the town. Pick up a map at the Darien-McIntosh County Visitor Center and then hit the bricks. Along the way, amble along the waterfront dotted with tabby ruins – tabby is so-called “coastal concrete” made of lime, oyster shells and water – before visiting nearly two dozen points of interest, each marked with a plaque, including the First African Baptist Church, the 1836 St. Andrews Episcopal Church, the Old City Cemetery dating to 1736 and the Grant House, the only residence to survive the 1863 destruction by federal troops.

Round out the history tour with a stop at Fort King George, established in 1721. It was the first English settlement in Georgia before Scottish Highlanders took it over in 1736. Scattred on the site is a museum and replicas of the blockhouse and barracks.

The Oaks on the River partners with Georgia Tidewater Outfitters, or you can book on your own, for cruises aboard the Delta Belle, a 30-foot custom catamaran. Options include a wine tour with wines from Waterfront Wine and Gourmet, nature tours of the Altamaha River sound or private charters that take you to remote beaches, far stretches of the sound or excellent birding sites. The painted bunting and roseate spoonbill are among the coast’s most vibrantly-hued feathered creatures.

Also take a tour on the Captain Gabby, a 42-foot hand-built wooden trawler. With room for up to six guests, the tours can last a few hours or even overnight. The experiences are personalized, including kayaking, paddleboarding, fishing, birding and photography, and give you a chance to get close with nature in the swirls of creeks and marshes around the sound.

Within a few minutes’ drive of Darien are Ashantilly Plantation, built about 1820 by coastal planter Thomas Spalding; Butler Island Plantation, dating to the late 1700s and initially owned by Revolutionary War Major Pierce Butler; and Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation, a former rice plantation that’s now a state park. Tours of Ashantilly, open only during events, can still be arranged by calling the home, while Butler Island can be explored by foot or car. Hofwyl-Broadfield is open for regular hours.

Sapelo Island, one of the pearls in the necklace of barriers islands that speckle Georgia’s coast, is but 6 miles from Darien. The state-protected island probably hasn’t changed much in a thousand years. The deeply forested island is still unspoiled and uncrowded with mazes of mostly unpaved roads and remains the home of one of the last Gullah communities along the coast. Get to Sapelo only by ferry or private watercraft.

Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge, about a half-hour’s drive north of Darien, was once a rice and cotton plantation and later Harris Neck Army Air Base. Here, hundreds of once-endangered wood stork come to build their nests and raise their young. Some 350 species of birds visit seasonally, and at the height of its population, the refuge transforms into a chaotic orchestra of avian song.

Cradled by the high bluffs of the Darien River and freckled with ancient oaks, the Oaks on the River, with 53 rooms, is the talk of the town at the moment, having just opened in November. It’s luxuriously appointed with hardwood floors, pretty rugs and a waterfront pool. The resort’s spa, though small, offers locally themed treatments including the Ashantilly Facial and Sapelo Massage.

If waking to the aroma of freshly ground coffee brewing entices you, stay at Open Gates Bed and Breakfast on Vernon Square in the heart of Darien. Shaded by oaks and magnolias, the five-bedroom Italianate inn, beachy, colorful and airy, was built in 1876 and is filled with antiques. A full breakfast is included with Southern goodies like biscuits, waffles and the Darien Shrimp Delight, a panko-encrusted shrimp cake similar to eggs benedict.

The cozy and romantic Darien Dockside Inn, also in downtown, has six individually decorated rooms and suites, all featuring views of the river and marsh. It is housed in a tabby building more than a hundred years old. Nearby, Darien Waterfront Inn offers a welcome cocktail, full breakfast and the use of bicycles, plus a two-bedroom cottage or a riverfront condominium for rent. With a two-night stay on Tuesday and Wednesday, guests are provided a free tour of Sapelo Island.

Every place evolves, but at different speeds. Darien, looking much the same as it did when I first saw it decades ago when I drove over that same bridge, does it more slowly and eloquently. If there is a bigger picture for Darien down the road, the town, respectful of its storied past, isn’t in a hurry to get to the future.

For more information, contact Discover Darien at www.discoverdarien.com or call 912-437-6684. Darien is located about halfway between Savannah, Georgia, and Jacksonville, Florida. Both cities have international airports served by most major carriers. Major roads are Interstate 95 and U.S. 17. Annual events include the Blessing of the Fleet, a spring festival honoring the shrimping and fishing industry; a Fourth of July celebration; and the Darien Fall Festival featuring classic car shows, boat tours and street vendors. Other accommodations include private homes, cottages and cabins, campgrounds and RV parks and several chain hotels.

SAVANNAH, Ga (WSAV)- Back in 1859, on March 2^nd and 3^rd, one of the largest sales of enslaved Africans and African Americans took place here in Savannah.

Known as The Weeping Time, 429 men, women, boys, and girls were sold over those two days as a steady rain poured in that city, stopping only after the last person had been sold.

The Weeping Time was not named because the enslaved wept, but it came upon because they stated that God must have been weeping, hence the rain.

From February 29 through March 3, in Savannah and Darien, the community will remember, honor, and celebrate those ancestors.

The itinerary below lists the different events throughout the weekend that will commemorate those 429 Africans and African Americans sold at The Weeping Time.

Thursday, February 29, 2024

10:00 AM – 11:30 AM

13040 Abercorn St., Savannah, GA 31410

“The Weeping Time – Past, Present, & Future”

Panel Discussion led by Dr. Kwesi DeGraft-Hanson

Host – Dr. Maxine L. Bryant, Director, Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Center

3:00PM – 4:30PM

2200 Tompkins Rd Savannah, GA 31404.

“The Weeping Time – Past, Present, & Future”

Panel Discussion led by Dr. Kwesi DeGraft Hanson

Hosts – Dr. Deborah Johnson-Simon, Scholar-in-Residence; & Friends of the Library

Friday, March 1, 2024

11:30PM – 1:30PM

502 E Harris Street, Savannah, GA 31401

“Food as Commemoration; & Researching African American Genealogy.”

Panel Discussion led by Ms. Kiplyn Primus, WCLK, Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta

Host – Mr. Johnathan Winbush, General Manager, King-Tisdale Cottage Foundation

2:00 – 3:00PM

1804 Stratford St., Savannah, GA 31415

“Teaching the Future about The Past” ***** – Dr. Kwesi DeGraft Hanson

Host – Dr. Desma Patterson, Principal, Otis J. Brock III Elementary School

Saturday, March 2, 2024

9:00 – 9:30 AM

2053 Augusta Ave, Savannah, GA 31415

Libations and Laying of the Wreath

Host – Dr. Brenda Roberts, Educator and Administrator, Savannah

10:00AM -12PM

Otis J. Brock III Elementary School

1804 Stratford St., Savannah, GA 31415

Keynote – Dr. Daniel Black, Professor of Africana Studies, Clark Atlanta University

Host – Dr. Brenda Roberts, Educator and Administrator, Savannah

You are encouraged to bring Your Umbrella for a Moment of Silence during the ceremony.

5:30PM

7777 Butler Island Road, Darien, GA 31305

Twilight Ceremony – Lights on Butler Island in memory of the formerly enslaved.

You may bring a solar light to place on the paths of Butler Island in memoriam.

5:30PM – Libations/Ceremony

Hosts – Queen mother Eunice Moore, Elder Griffin Lotson, Councilman Dr. William

Collins, Ms. Missy Brandt-Wilson, Darien & McIntosh County Community

Sunday, March 3, 2024

2:00PM – 5:00PM

St. Cyprians Church (built by formerly enslaved people and women; former Butler enslaved)

401 Fort King George Dr., Darien, GA 31305

Hosts – Ms. Clara Rowsey-Stewart & Mr. Arthur Stewart, St. Cyprians Church

For more information on the event, contact Dr. Brenda Roberts, Savannah. 912-308-6417; Ms. Kiplyn Primus, Atlanta. 678-641-2143; Ms. Clara Rowsey-Stewart, Darien. 912-271-5672; or Servant Emannu’el Branch, Rincon. 912-507-0107.