Woodbine was founded in 1893 on the banks of the Satilla River and grew from earlier riverside sawmill communities established in the mid 1800's. Harvesting timber was a major occupation, with large rafts of logs floated down the river to the sawmills. Earlier, the land where Woodbine now stands was part of Woodbine Plantation, which covered 1,400 acres of land and river marsh along the south side of the Satilla. Over the years, together with other plantations on the river, it produced rice, cotton, timber, and turpentine, and before the railroad arrived in 1893, plantation products were shipped to market on steamers docking along the river.