On June 29, 1940, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources acquired a tract of land along the bluffs of the Altamaha River near Darien in order to create the Fort King George State Park. It was here over two centuries earlier that Col. John Barnwell had built an English fort to defend the southern frontier. Shortly after acquiring the land, the department's Division of State Parks, Historic Sites, and Monuments erected a marble monument with the inscription:

TO THE SOLDIERS OF

FORT KING GEORGE
 
 

TO THE SOLDIERS OF FORT KING GEORGE

WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN DEFENSE OF

THE SOUTHERN ENGLISH FRONTIER IN

AMERICA DURING THE OCCUPATION OF

THIS LITTLE OUTPOST FROM 1721 TO 1727,

AND WERE BURIED UPON THIS BLUFF. FORT

KING GEORGE, BUILT ON THE LOW

GROUND 200 YARDS EAST OF HERE, WAS

THE FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN THE

LAND WHICH IS NOW GEORGIA. MORE THAN

140 BRITISH SOLDIERS LOST THEIR LIVES

IN THIS FIRST PLANNED EFFORT TO HOLD

THE OLD SOUTHEAST FOR ENGLISH

SPEAKING PEOPLE.

 
 

Nearby, the state has built a museum and reconstructed the blockhouse of the old fort.

 

 

Photo: Ed Jackson

 

© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia