Almost everywhere we went while staying at Skidaway State Park required us to drive on Highway 204, and every time we did we passed a small unobtrusive sign that read Pinpoint Heritage Museum. Our curiosity finally got the best of us, and we decided to go see what it was all about. The sign for the entrance to the museum is even more well hidden than the sign on 204, so we actually saw all of the town of Pinpoint before we found the museum.
Shortly after the Civil War, a group of recently freed black men bought the town site and founded the town of Pinpoint. Their descendants still live there today in a small close-knit community with one cemetery and one church, the Glory of Eden Baptist Church.
They are all of Gulla-Geechee heritage. When they speak to visitors they use excellent English, with a typical Georgia accent, but among themselves they speak Gulla, a dialect so incomprehensible to outsiders that it might as well be its own language. If you ever read Pat Conroy’s book, The Water Is Wide, about his years teaching in a Gulla school, you’ll know what I mean.
The one industry in Pin Point was the A. S. Varn & Son Crab and Oyster Factory. That business closed in 1985, and its buildings now house the museum.
The tour starts with a well-produced 20 minute video that provides insight into the history and culture of Pinpoint. They are proud of the fact that they are so close – If someone gets into financial trouble, neighbors will join together to pay their mortgage, and all adults can and do exercise the right to discipline anybody’s kids.
Their approach does seem to work; everyone we met seemed to be friendly, healthy and well educated.
You can’t take the tour without them bragging a little about their favorite son. Pinpoint is where Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was born and raised.
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