The World of the Novel
Creek Island
Creek Island, originally Isla Isabel, was part of Spanish Florida until 1821. When the United States took possession of Florida, the island was eventually placed under Georgia authority, largely because it sat much closer to the Georgia coast than to mainland Florida.
A long ferry ride from the mainland, Creek Island is close enough to feel familiar and far enough away to feel forgotten, which is pretty much how it remains today.
In its heyday in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the island was shaped by privateers, smugglers, traders, and the families who stayed when history moved on. Many of the people who live there today are descended from those early island families. Its old stores, weathered inns, hidden paths, and wind-bent marshes hold more than local legend. On Creek Island, the past has a way of rising to the surface.
Tortuga Creek
On the north end of the island, shown at the far left of the map, is its only town, Tortuga Creek. The star-shaped section marks the old Spanish fort, established in 1733 as a coastal watch post during the early conflicts between Georgia and Spanish Florida. It was the northernmost fort of the old Spanish Florida empire.
The Sanctuary
The circle of homes near the top center of the map is the Sanctuary, the ancient Creek village where Muscogee people have lived for centuries. Surrounded by estuaries, marshes, and dense coastal forest, it remained hidden from outsiders and is still home to descendants of Native people and enslaved Africans, later called Black Seminoles, who escaped from the southern colonies.
Creek Island Farm
The farm, which takes up a little less than half the island, has long been its lifeline. It was established in 1790, when José Martinez received a Spanish land grant from the King of Spain as a reward for his service as a soldier. Since then, the farm has supplied food for the island, the fort, and the families who made Creek Island their home.
