The A.S. Varn & Son oyster and crab factory on the Moon River was the biggest employer in Pin Point, the Gullah Geechee community settled in 1896 by formerly enslaved people from Ossabaw, Green and Skidaway Islands. A.S. Varn Sr. opened it in 1926, and when a hurricane wrecked the site in 1929 he rebuilt the plant. Men of the community brought in oysters in winter and live crabs in summer in wooden bateaux, and women picked crab at the factory. Its canned oysters went to restaurants as far away as New York. Pin Point is the birthplace of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. In 1971 A.S. Varn Jr. filed a federal suit to stop the use of mirex, a fire ant poison he said was killing oysters and blue crabs.
In 1973 Varn sued for $50,000 in damages over the Skidaway Island bridge, built in 1965–67, claiming it blocked the ebb and flow of Shipyard Creek and was silting up the plant. The factory closed in 1985, and the buildings fell into disrepair.
Crow Holdings, the Dallas investment firm of the Trammell Crow family, announced in November 2010 that it would restore the plant, and it was dedicated as the Pin Point Heritage Museum on 19 November 2011, the day a Georgia Historical Society marker was unveiled at Sweetfield of Eden Baptist Church. Thomas spoke that day and called himself a son of Pin Point.
Getting there
31.9531, -81.0905
Locations are approximate and may be inaccurate, on private land, or otherwise inaccessible. Check before you travel.
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