They may not be as tall, but we love our live oaks here in the Golden Isles as much as Californians love their sequoias. A salt-tolerant species, they are the anchor of our maritime forests and they beautify our neighborhoods. They’re huge. They’re beautiful. They give us shade. No two are alike. And they’re old. Some of them are very old.
There are live oaks in the Golden Isles that are older than America. Plantation Oak on Jekyll Island is between 350 and 400 years old, say the experts. Lover’s Oak in Brunswick was there when Columbus arrived! That would be Christopher Columbus. In 1492. A more youthful group, the much-visited Avenue of the Oaks on St. Simons Island was planted in 1850.
Visit Neptune Park on St. Simons Island, especially around dusk, and you’re likely to find photographers capturing images of families, brides and grooms and visiting groups in front of the massive live oaks.
Today our live oaks are protected, but that wasn’t always the case. From about 1874 to just after the turn of the 20th century, the Georgia Land and Lumber Company operated lumber mills in the Gascoigne Bluff area. Much of the lumber used in construction of New York’s Brooklyn Bridge came from here. Before that, in the early 1800’s St. Simons lumber was used on “Old ironsides”, the USS Constitution.
The iconic Spanish moss that hangs from virtually every live oak is not really moss. It’s an herb…a bromeliad. It picks up its nutrients not from the trees, but from whatever floats by in the air. The name however has an interesting history. Native Americans called it Itla-okla, or “tree hair”. Hearing this, the early French explorers decided it resembled the beards of Spanish conquistadors and called it Spanish beard. Despite Spanish attempts to re-name it French hair, the French description prevailed, and somewhere over the centuries, it got changed to Spanish moss.
Unlike many other oak species, live oaks are evergreens—alive in winter—hence the name.
If you’re interested in buying Georgia St Simons Island property, Brunswick property, or property on Jekyll Island that has a live oak on it, call DeLoach Sotheby’s International Realty. We know where they are.