This past week I had the opportunity to visit the Altama Plantation, formerly called Hopeton, near St Simons Island, Georgia. It is such a beautiful property with a rich history with records dating back as far as 1763. It was most recently owned by the Jones family that also owned Sea Island. One of the original owners studied water control in Holland and put that knowledge to work in a diking and drainage system that supported the rice fields of Hopeton. It was also home to sugar mills, and ruins still remain, two of the chimneys pictured below with the year 1899 engraved with cut bricks. The ancient oak and pine trees are just stunning with drooping Spanish moss, and Gardenia’s like you have never seen before left over from prior owners gardens. Wildlife is abundant, while only there for 24 hours we saw an alligator, wild hog, tons of deer, a water moccasin, a turkey, several hawks and a massive owl. Coming from Atlanta it was simply amazing to be in a place like that.
I spent some time looking for information on Altama, and this is one of the best records I could find: Georgia’s Land of the Golden Isles
Below are pictures I captured while there. All of these images are available on www.CarsonMatthewsPhotography.com/Travel/GoldenIsles
Thanks for reading,
Carson Matthews
www.CarsonMatthewsPhotography.com
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