Situated on Sapelo Sound, near Sapelo and St. Catherine's islands on the Georgia coast, Cooper's Point at Shellman Bluff boasts a rich cultural heritage dating back to 1736, when John MacIntosh Mohr and a group of Scottish Highlanders established a fortress outpost to protect the fledgling settlement of Savannah from Spanish invasion. Ruins of Spanish forts and missions can still be found on the barrier island. The colonial Fort King George has been recreated on the mainland at Darien.

In the years following the American Revolution, Darien and the coastal region experienced great prosperity as its plantations produced cotton, rice, and indigo for world markets. The Altamaha River became the water highway for great rafts of pine, oak, and cypress.

Over the decades the community sustained itself and evolved as a quiet coastal fishing village, becoming well-known for some of the best shrimp and crab exports on the Georgia coast.

Today, McIntosh County continues to reinvent itself as a prime eco-tourism destination, with miles of rivers, barrier islands that comprise the Georgia Golden Isles, and hundreds of square miles of coastal marshland off the mainland. Eco-tourism opportunities abound along the many creeks and rivers, where visitors enjoy a variety of water sports. Canoeing, kayaking, boating and fishing these waters produce great feelings of pleasure and discovery.

Nearby are other destinations like the Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge, Blackbeard Island National Wildlife Refuge and Wilderness Area, Fort King George, Wolf Island National Wildlife Refuge and Wilderness, and Sapelo Island National Estuarine Sanctuary.