Cindy McLauchlan:
A True Island Woman
By Dickie Anderson

Cindy McLauchlan is an island woman. Although she has lived other places, she always returns to the barrier islands of south Georgia and northern Florida - the islands she loves.

 She sits with the poise of a woman happy in her skin. Her thick graying hair, weathered skin and piercing eyes are striking. There is elegance in her profile – clearly a lady and a lady who has lived a wonderfully fascinating life.
"I need to be near water," she shares and finds peace in the constant motion of the sea and the feel of warm sand under foot as she walks the beaches of Cumberland and Amelia Islands.

Cindy McLauchlan
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The love of islands is in her blood. McLauchlan is of the sixth generation of her family that have lived and loved Cumberland. She has fond memories of a childhood spent exploring. She would run down the endless beach and tramp through the dense oak forests, often coming home with treasures she had found. Greyfield is the childhood home she remembers vividly.  She lived part of the year on Cumberland and part along the coast of Massachusetts – always near water.
 
The Greyfield Inn looks very much like it did the years McLauchlan was growing up - shabby chic, as the magazines like to call it. The house is located on the western shore of the island facing the Intracoastal Waterway and was built in 1900 for Margaret Ricketson, daughter of Thomas and Lucy Carnegie. McLauchlan is the youngest child of the Rickertson's daughter, Lucy R. Ferguson, known by all as Miss Lucy.  

Miss Lucy, considered one of the most passionate and outspoken defenders of Cumberland, was determined to preserve her families piece of the island and insure its future. Cumberland is now America's largest wilderness island and designated a National Seashore. The family may not have always agreed but most felt a moral and ethical commitment to protect what they realized was both a natural and a national treasure. Over the years family members farmed the land and harbored many animals, both domesticated and wild, but always with a deep regard for the uniqueness of the habitat. It is still not unusual to see horses, wild turkeys or feral pigs as one travels along the paths and roads that criss-cross the island.

Asked if living on an island made her feel isolated, she smiled and replied, "We never felt isolated, there was so much to do. Living on an island did not feel odd to us. We thought everyone took a ferry to get home.

Greyfield, Cindy's childhood home on
Cumberland Island, has been converted into an inn.
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McLauchlan inherited her mother's love of creatures great and small. To this day she is not afraid of wild pigs, rattle snakes or alligators – she respects their territories. She remembers fondly the incredible array of family pets that included a buzzard, crow, turtles, a deer, snakes, coons and all sorts of dogs, large and small.

Visiting Cumberland with McLauchlan is to be filled with a new respect for the natural and mysterious beauty all around. Like a seasoned hunter she sees things most people do not. She patiently educates those who visit about the habits and habitats of the wild animals. She owns a house on the island, a house she built with Jay McLauchlan from the ground up and still visits when she can.

She has shared her stories of growing up on a barrier island with groups over the last few years. She spellbinds her audiences with tales of her adventures playing in the grand houses built by her family generations ago. She remembers the elegant Dungeness, the grandest of them all which, sadly, has been burned to the ground.

Holidays were special on the island. Family members made homemade ornaments for the tree that stood in the main salon of Greyfield. The ornaments were crafted from the wild things the children of the family found on the island. McLauchlan remembers one particular year when the large family gathered for the holidays and after much debate selected a tree from wild forest of trees that surrounded them. It was cut down and put behind the barn to be decorated Christmas Eve. There was only one problem, when it came time to bring the tree inside they found it had been eaten by the cows that roamed the property. So they had to go back out into the foggy Christmas Eve night and find, agree and cut another tree.

McLauchlan is a talented artist. Her love of nature is evident in her watercolors and hand crafted jewelry. She studied at the Bement School in Deerfield, Massachusetts, the Wheeler School in Providence, Rhode Island, and took classes at the University of Florence in Italy. While living in Gloucester, Massachusetts, the artist continued her studies and had several shows featuring her seascapes.

Her jewelry is an eclectic marriage of bones, shells, teeth and things she finds in the wild and mixed with man-made objects that somehow speak to her. Her jewelry might include: African beads, shark or stingray vertebrae,  Indian beads, shells, crab claw joints,   coral, barnacles – she sees beauty  in everything. Her Amelia Island home is full of treasures that she has found on beaches or in the woods. Animal skulls, shells and weathered bottles line McLauchlan's book shelves. Much like Georgia O'Keefe, one of McLauchlan's favorite artists, nature dominates her art.

"I am a collector of things whose shape and form intrigue me. Each of the bits and pieces I use has a story and when I sell a piece, included is a list of all the components," McLauchlan shares.
Visiting Cumberland Island when she can, McLauchlan makes her home in Amelia Park.