Back To Ossabaw

Daylong trip to Ossabaw Island helps Pin Point residents and others reconnect to their heritage

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Some came to see history firsthand. Others came to revisit a childhood home or to celebrate the contributions of the Gullah-Geechee people.

On Saturday, more than 40 people took a cold, choppy boat ride across the water to Ossabaw Island. There, they spent the day rediscovering their roots, shoring up images and cementing memories to pass on to their communities on the mainland.

The group, composed of residents from Sandfly, Skidaway Island, Pin Point, Hilton Head Island and other places, was among the 2,000 or so people who will be granted access to the island this year.

After it was designated as the state's first Heritage Preserve in 1978, only those with education, research, cultural or historical aims are allowed access to Ossabaw.

Saturday's visit, arranged by the Ossabaw Island Education Alliance in conjunction with the Ossabaw Island Foundation, fit firmly under the "cultural" and "historical" categories.

The group, separated into a pontoon boat and two smaller vessels, launched from the Skidaway Narrows boat ramp and slowly chugged its way to the island.

The wind-whipped passengers piled into a former hunting lodge called the Clubhouse to defrost in front of the fire.

Jim Bitler, the Ossabaw Island Foundation's on-island coordinator, reeled off a few facts about the island and its past and present inhabitants, but he stressed the aim of the day was to share recollections passed down from earlier generations.

"I have as much to learn from you as you do from me," he said.

Everyone loaded into the back of a trailer and proceeded down one of the oldest, continuously used roads in America. The island has slowly been allowed to revert back to its natural state, and there was a hint of wildness to the foliage - the massive, sprawling oaks, the dense canopies of Spanish moss, the clumps of palmettos. Low-lying branches brushed the tops of heads.

The scenery prompted Marion "Bo" Bowens, who lived on the island as a child, to mention that horses were the main mode of transportation on the island for a long time.

"I bet that was fun, huh Bo?" someone asked.

"For the guys that rode the horses it was!" he replied.

After a couple of miles, the caravan stopped at Middleplace, an area once used for timbering. The site was marked by a huge mound of sawdust and a few freestanding tabby walls (a concoction of sand, lime, oyster shells and water).

Renee Sams peered closely at a crumbling wall and slowly ran her hand over it, trailing dust.

"I am amazed," she said. "This is historic in a real sense of the word. Can you imagine how long it took them to make this with the shells?"

The visitors headed back to the Clubhouse for lunch and to share their thoughts on the day so far.

Emanuel "Hemo" Williams lived on the island until he was 5. His mother worked as a maid and his father was a gardener. Williams recalled his dad crabbing off the main dock and his own small hands helping pull in the crab line.

His voice shook at the memory, now more than 50 years old.

"I'm just so overwhelmed to be back," he said.

The day's trip included historical and cultural lessons as well as familial memories.

Living historian Jamal Toure appeared as the "spirit of the island" to remind the group of how the Gullah-Geechee people have contributed to American culture, from before the time of the "Big Shoot" (the Civil War) to today.

Very late in the afternoon the group headed back to the mainland. Kesi Sams, who came on the trip at the request of her father, Adolphus Morris Sams, said she'd never seen him so happy.

All her life, her dad recounted the struggle growing up as a black man in the South, but on Saturday "a little boy came out that I have never seen."

Hearing stories about her dad living on the island all those years ago - playing on the beach, swimming, roping cattle - was a revelation.

"You don't hear about the lighthearted stuff. It's good that he had time to enjoy life when he was young."

The elder Sams came away from the island with a renewed purpose to keep telling the stories of his youth spent on Ossabaw.

"If you know about your culture, you can find your place without getting lost in this world," he said.

"I know who I am. I don't need anyone to validate who I am. I'm from Ossabaw."