Buddy Sullivan’s new book,
High Water on the Bar,
tells of Darien’s timber days

There was a time in the distant past when Darien was much more than simply Darien. A hundred years ago, and more, our town was referred to as "Big Darien."

Why?

Timber and lumber…more timber than one could accurately count, so much of it came down the Altamaha River to Big Darien’s sawmills.

And, countless ships in the sound, across Doboy’s Bar, to snug anchorages, unloading ballast rock and taking on huge cargoes of Darien timber. It all made Darien the pine timber capital of the Atlantic coast for a generation and more.

A new book, High Water on the Bar, tells this amazing story of river raftsmen, sawmill operators and timber barons, such as Joseph Hilton and Henry Todd, as well as Darien’s colorful, competitive (and often combative!) bar pilots, depicting one of the most interesting eras in the town’s long and diverse history.

Buddy Sullivan, the county historian and fourth generation McIntosh Countian, has written this new volume of coastal Georgia history. Since 1988, he has written 16 books on local, regional and state history, including the comprehensive account of Darien and McIntosh County, Early Days on the Georgia Tidewater.

The writer and director of the Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve said, "I spent much of my youth roaming the streets of Darien, hearing the stories of timber rafting and sawmilling from my forebearers and their contemporaries."

His maternal great-grandfather, Thomas Marshall Hunter, was the pastor of the Darien Presbyterian Church in the 1890s, who experienced first-hand the peak of Darien’s timber industry.

"I spent much of my adolescence growing up at Cedar Point and Valona on the McIntosh County tidewater, where I developed very early in life an appreciation and abiding interest in the county’s maritime history—navigating the tidal creeks in an old wooden bateau collecting crabs and oysters, going out on local shrimp boats when the industry was thriving on the Georgia coast, and exploring the myriad rivers, sounds, embayments, islands and ballast hammocks of the county, an avocation I continue to enjoy."

Darien’s 50-year experience with the commercial processing and shipment of pine timber during the 19th and early 20th centuries, is a story that has often been told, but not from the unique perspective offered by the author.

Sullivan has viewed and written of Darien and its timber through a triangular prism of historical investigation, first from the vantage point of present-day research disciplines; the first-hand, contemporaneous memoirs of a family that played perhaps the most significant role in the events related here; and finally, from the official record of the City of Darien itself through its accounting of shipping associated with the local timber industry.

Darien Downtown Development Authority (DDDA) is providing the outlay of funds to print the book, as well as to provide a grant to support the research and compilation of the work.

DDDA board member and chairman of the project, Con Holland, said, "Once again, our community is fortunate to have Buddy Sullivan among our number to give context and life to the story of Darien’s banner years. With Buddy’s previous books, I have enjoyed trying to figure out where old mills, plantations and cemeteries are located in conjunction with the story he was telling. With his new book, I find the lives and relationships discussed to be both interesting and fun. What local might be related to one of Buddy’s subjects and could those huge ships actually get all the way up the river to Darien? Real stories of real people in a time when people seemed bigger than life. Buddy Sullivan does another stellar job with this new publication. This book is a ‘must have’ for anyone who treasures historical books on McIntosh County."

An unveiling of the book is planned on Wednesday, Dec. 2, with a reception and book signing by Buddy Sullivan planned for 4 to 7 p.m. at Open Gates Bed and Breakfast on Vernon Square in Darien.