Oatland Island near Savannah, Georgia, is a one hundred-acre Sea Island preserve centered on the animals and habitats of the Georgia coast, with more than one hundred fifty animals, local species exhibits, and a two-mile trail through wetlands, forest, and historic areas. Its significance lies in a layered past: once owned by John McQueen and used for cotton and sugar cane, it later became a retirement home for railway conductors and their families, then a U.S. Public Health Service detention hospital and malaria research site tied to the early Communicable Disease Center. Since nineteen seventy-four, it has served environmental education and public visitation under the local school system.