Plan Your Visit

The Gullah Geechee Heritage Region

The Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor is a federally designated National Heritage Area recognizing the culture of Gullah Geechee people along the southeastern Atlantic coast.

What the Corridor Is

Congress designated the corridor on October 12, 2006, through the National Heritage Areas Act of 2006, and created a federal commission to oversee it. It runs from Pender County, North Carolina, to St. Johns County, Florida, and includes parts of four states.

  • North Carolina
  • South Carolina
  • Georgia
  • Florida

The Gullah Geechee Georgia Museum is located in Brunswick, Georgia, within the corridor. The museum does not operate facilities elsewhere in the four states.

Simplified map of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage CorridorThe corridor follows the Atlantic coast from Pender County, North Carolina, through South Carolina and Georgia, to St. Johns County, Florida. Brunswick, Georgia, is marked near St. Simons and Sapelo Islands.Atlantic OceanPender County, NC (north end)Charleston, SCSavannah, GASapelo Island, GABrunswick: the museumSt. Simons Island, GASt. Johns County, FL (south end)
Simplified map drawn from real coordinates, for orientation only. The gold band suggests the coastal corridor and does not show its legal boundary. See the Commission’s website for the official map.

Coastal Georgia and the Golden Isles

A wide view of the Marshes of Glynn at Brunswick, Georgia, with golden grass and open water
The Marshes of Glynn, Brunswick, Georgia

Brunswick

The museum’s home. Learn about Brunswick’s Gullah Geechee legacy and Needwood Baptist Church.

Broadfield and the Altamaha River

The Needwood congregation was organized in 1866 on Broadfield Plantation. Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation Historic Site, a Georgia state historic site, interprets the region’s rice-growing history.

Sapelo Island

Home of Hog Hammock, one of the last remaining intact Gullah Geechee communities on Georgia’s barrier islands.

St. Simons Island

Part of the Golden Isles, with a Gullah Geechee history tied to the plantations of the Georgia coast.

Sources