CUMBERLAND ISLAND, Ga.— Wild horses, feral hogs and deer roam free on this 18-mile barrier island, one of the largest and most ecologically diverse along the Atlantic coast. The landscape includes salt marshes, maritime forests, and an expansive stretch of pristine, untouched beach only accessible to the public by ferry.
Since 1972, the National Park Service has managed Cumberland Island National Seashore, including roughly 9,800 acres of wilderness designated by an act of Congress which stated that “the seashore shall be permanently preserved in its primitive state.”
But there’s more on this island than federally protected wilderness. Visitors also can find Native-American relics, remnants of Spanish missions, the ruins of ante-bellum plantations, and opulent homes built by the wealthy Gilded Age industrialist Thomas Carnegie and his wife Lucy, who had 9 children…