A BIT OF THEN AND NOW

D'awfoskee Island meaning: sharp or pointed feather located in South Carolina. It's one of several small barrier sea Islands in the low country. Located right across from the shores of Hilton Head Island and north of Savannah, Georgia. Daufuskie Island is and has always been accessible only by boat or emergency helicopter pad. Our timeline dates back as far as .7,000 BC when the oldest arrowhead was found.  Around 1860 Daufuskie was divided into eleven plantations. Between 1893-1903 Maggioni & Company oyster cannery was big business with many African American Gullah native men, women and young adults. They picked and shucked the oysters from Daufuskie's very shores. In 1917 boll weevil came to the Island and infested the cotton crop. The last midwife delivered her last baby (boy) on the Island in 1969. The telephone lines were laid in 1972 for the first call to be made from the Island. Throughout the years many Daufuskie Gullah natives left for a better education and employment as the Island changes did not meet their needs. As the elders grew older, some stayed and farmed their land while others left for other or better opportunities. Today Daufuskie has a fire department, three restaurants, one gas station, a private golf course, and a ferry that runs seven days a week and in the near future a grocery store.