Among the most distinctive sights on St. Simons are the carved faces — Tree Spirits — that watch from the live oaks across the island. The most easily found are at Neptune Park, near the lighthouse, in Bloody Marsh, and along Mallery Street; about a dozen are catalogued by the visitor center, but several more are hidden, and asking locally is part of the hunt.
The faces are weathered, gaunt, deliberate. They give an old island, where the trees themselves are heavy with history and Spanish moss, an unexpected layer of folk-art melancholy. Pick up the Tree Spirits map at the lighthouse museum, then walk or bike between the locations.