Thirteen miles may not sound like much, but when they’re filled with the wide array of sights and activities on Amelia Island, it’s a gracious plenty for more than one vacation.

Take someone who doesn’t love the beach, and your traveling buddy will still have plenty of options.

Until I stayed a week on Florida’s northeastern corner this past summer for a family reunion, just 175 miles from Tifton, I held the mistaken notion that Amelia was all about pricey, high-rise, privately owned properties. They are there, but so is much, much more.

Ghosts, for instance, and I think I met a few.



A beach for all

An astounding 50 blocks of lovely architecture are easy to enjoy with walking and driving tours amid handsome Fernandina neighborhoods recognized by the National Registry of Historic Places.

An equally astounding stretch of beach is like it all used to be — no high-rise condos. When I walked along the shore toward the southern end of the island and discovered American Beach, I was thrilled that some oceanfront landowners in America managed to resist the allure of the big bucks offered by developers.

The “Beach Lady” MaVynee Betsch, claiming that “without a vision, a people perish,” pulled the attention of the Smithsonian, Sierra Club, environmentalists and preservationists throughout the world to Amelia Island. She has a Georgia tie —her sister Dr. Johnetta B. Cole was a former president of Spelman College.

How about horses? I visited an Amelia Island working ranch where even first-time riders can meander miles of beach to see dolphins, shorebirds and the waves. No galloping allowed. Ninety percent of the riders are on a horse for the first time.

On a clear day you can also see horses on Cumberland Island to the north if you go to Fort Clinch State Park, a preserved 19th century military fort with a six-mile self-guided nature tour, Florida’s tallest dunes and re-enactors in period clothing.

Kayaks, canoes, hiking trails and birds on an array of additional state parks frame the island. I picked up a Talbot Islands brochure to discover Little Talbot Island with five miles of pristine beach accessed via boardwalks, Big Talbot which is a maritime hammock with live oaks and saw palmetto, Pumpkin Hill Creek Preserve protecting 4,000 acres of uplands and Fort George Island with its shelly soil.



Scooting along

When I pulled myself away from playing in the surf, also abundant at Amelia Island, I explored a small portion of the coast and the marshes on a Segway, sort of a grown-up scooter. I’ve seen security officers riding them in airports, but trying this machine called a personal transporter at Amelia Island Plantation on the south end of the island was a first for me.

Segways are also available for rent at Fort George Island.

Lean forward and go forward; lean back and move in reverse. The more you lean, the faster you go. Stand up straight and still, and you stop. No brakes needed.

I only crashed into the boardwalk railing once, but since it’s easy to jump off these self-balancing devices, all was well and I resumed my ride. A nationwide software glitch caused a recall Sept. 15 but repairs are expected to be successful.

A video and a lesson precede any Segway rental, and riders must be at least 8 years old and weigh 65 pounds or more at Amelia Island Plantation or 14 and at least 100 pounds at Fort George.

You can reserve a condo or a room, or buy a house, at Amelia Island Plantation or just enjoy the shops, restaurants, golf, lush grounds and Segway. The Kelly Seahorse Ranch is almost next door, to the south, and $50 gets you a one-hour, five-mile horseback ride on the beach, as long as you’re at least 13 and weigh no more than 230 pounds.

Reservations are recommended and no rides are available on Mondays.

This tip of the island, right before the George Crady Bridge to Jacksonville is a Florida state park. Pay $1 for access and fish all day, or fish from the mile-long pedestrian bridge, but don’t plan to swim here. The tides and the rocks prohibit that.



The city of eight flags

The opposite end of Amelia Island, just 13 miles away and an easy drive on A1A, felt like a different world to me with an entirely different set of experiences. Fernandina is a beach and a little city too, with loads of charm and history. Stay in a bed and breakfast inn or a motel and have a vacation by the sea while you touch the history of America’s only location to have flown eight different ruling flags.

French, Spanish, English, U.S. and Confederate you might be able to recall from high school history, but I had to visit the local Museum of History to figure out the other three. The Patriots of Amelia Island flag flew one day in 1812; the Green Cross of Florida briefly in 1817 and Mexican Rebel battle flag in 1818, according to docent Jim Snyder on the day I toured.

Those eight flags influenced immigration which leads to an international population today, reflected in the array of restaurants.

Located in the old county jail, the museum explains the last city to be platted by the Spanish in the Western Hemisphere. Exhibits aren’t high-tech, but they are two- and three-dimensional covering 500 years of history, and I enjoyed them all, staying much longer than anticipated. Well-trained docents lead the way every day at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

The Amelia Island Museum of History also leads the way around town with walking tours of the historic district Friday and Saturday at 3:30 p.m. and ghost tours Friday nights at 6. The fee for both is $10 for adults and $5 for children.



Haunted footsteps

My traveling companion, husband G. W. Tibbetts, and I opted for the ghost tour, figuring we needed a guide to find them. For the architecture, you can follow the self-guided Centre Street tour brochure with photos and a snippet of information about 44 of the beautiful homes, churches and business buildings in the 50-block National Register of Historic Places district.

Time was short and we didn’t do that, but we walked by seven of the prettiest homes on North Sixth Street, just north of the Presbyterian Church built in 1858 and occupied by Federal troops.

Museum docent Jim Snyder reports Union officers loved Fernandina so much they returned after the war and built homes here, influencing the architecture, as did wealthy Northern visitors who arrived in the late 1800s via steamship.

That changed when the trains replaced the ships and Fernandina became Florida’s first cross-state railroad terminus, with rails to Cedar Key.

The ghosts, however, appear to have remained. G. W. and I fully expected our photos to show some Fernandina spirits in the windows. After all, Amy Blackmarr’s “Ghosts of Dahlonega” book made us believers so why not anticipate cold chills or wisps of light on Amelia Island?

Ask for Joe Anderson when you schedule a tour, because he wrote the script three years ago and documented the ghost stories. He’s convinced only the spirit of Major Dorier’s deceased wife could have cracked the mirror in St. Peter’s Episcopal Church and he’s certain Nettie Thompson returns regularly to her home at 23 S. Seventh even though she died in a hotel fire in Miami years ago.

Everyone who encounters her in the house says she’s short, stout, dressed in black silk with taffeta petticoats and carries a candelabrum. We’re squinting hard when we study our photo of her house, hoping to spot her in the window.

Want to test if a place is haunted? On our walking tour Joe said, “We are told dogs will stay in a house with a ghost, but cats won’t.”



Historic dunes

On my own I explored American Beach, on foot from the shore side and by car from the A1A land side. This too is a National Historic District on Florida’s Heritage Trail. Entrepreneur A. L. Lewis bought the 200 acres in 1935 for his employees to have access to a beach holiday. Modest homes, an amazing dune and a sense of community prevail today.

President of the Afro American Insurance Company, Lewis became Florida’s first black millionaire. His great-granddaughter MaVynee Betsch led the effort to protect and preserve 120 acres of this land; an Oberlin Conservatory of Music classically trained opera singer-turned-activist who died last year, Betsch is credited with protecting the 60-foot dune in American Beach and jump-starting efforts to restore the Evans Rendezvous nightclub where Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong performed.

Additional efforts to protect the entire community continue today, with support throughout the island, say Museum of History staff and volunteers.

Named NaNa, the West African word for grandmother in the Twi language, the dune is now in the hands of the National Park Service and the nightclub is protected by the Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit land conservation organization, with plans to renovate the historic structure.

I strolled the paths at 1705 Lewis St. and you can too, according to the invitation sign in the front yard. Named “God’s Garden and His Saints” by the owners, this little oasis is a peaceful counterpoint to the bustling beaches on either side of American Beach and a testimony to the strength and kindness of this community.

More to Amelia Island than you suspected? I’m going back to experience the rest.