Williamson Island | Tybee Island, Georgia
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View a map showing Georgia’s newest barrier island and all of Georgia’s major barrier islands.
Williamson Island is the youngest Georgia island. Shoreline surveys of 1913 show the formation of a sand spit from the central portion of Little Tybee’s shoreline. At the time, Beach Hammock was the southernmost ocean shoreline in the Tybee-Little Tybee complex. The spit continued to lengthen, with Little Tybee Creek routed to the south between the spit and the marsh. Between 1957 and 1960 the spit was breached. The resulting island is Williamson. This low, narrow barrier is like those typically found on coasts with high wave energy and low tidal energies.
After the island was created, Kerr-McGee Corporation and the state both claimed ownership. This disagreement over an ephemeral body of sand was taken to the courts. The state was eventually designated the island’s proper owner and manager.
By Tonya D. Clayton, Lewis A. Taylor, Jr., William J. Cleary, Paul E. Hosier, Peter H.F. Graber, William J. Neal, and Orrin H. Pilkey, Sr. in Living with the Georgia Shore
Tagged with: Barrier Islands in Georgia
Photo Gallery
Georgia Barrier Islands Photos
Photographs of 16 major barrier islands along the Georgia Coast with brief descriptions. Photos are arranged in geographical order north to south. For more detailed information on each island see Barrier Islands In Georgia and the Georgia Barrier Islands Map.
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