From 1870 to 1920, McIntosh County, Georgia, was one of the most
energetic communities on the southern coast. Its county seat, Darien,
never had a population of more than 2,000 residents; yet, little Darien
was, for a considerable time, the leading exporter of yellow pitch pine
timber on the
Atlantic Coast. Burned to ashes during the Civil War, Darien
rose up and, with its timber booms and sawmills, took its place among
the leading towns of the New South of the late nineteenth century. In
this unique photographic retrospective of Darien and McIntosh County,
over 200 images evoke generations past of dynamic, hard-working people.
Pictured within these pages are timber barons, sawmill workers, railroad
builders, and shrimp fishermen. They are depicted among views of the
buildings and structures associated with an era that was the most active
in the recorded history of the community, which dates back to the
earliest days of the Georgia colony in 1736.