"... After ’s death and temporary possession by several individuals, the island eventually passed into the hands of Christophe du Bignon, a wealthy landowner fleeing the excesses of the . Establishing a plantation built on slave labor, ownership of the island stayed in the family until the last remaining du Bignon, John Eugene, after founding the Jekyll Island Club, sold the island to the club for $125,000 in the late 1880’s. The plantation period of Jekyll’s history evokes reminders of slave labor and the horrendous conditions that they endured. ... The island achieved widespread name recognition in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when the exclusive Jekyll Island Club became the destination for the fabulously wealthy titans of the country. , , and were but a few of the patrons of the club. Tangible reminders of the Jekyll Island Club years are the buildings themselves, where millionaires spent the winters on the island in the resort’s clubhouse or in their custom-built “cottages.”"