<P> Officially renamed "Savannah Beach" in a publicity move at the end of the 1950s, the city of Tybee Island has since reverted to its original name . (The name "Savannah Beach" nevertheless appears on official state maps as far back as 1952 and as recently as the mid-1970s .) The small island, which has long been a quiet getaway for the residents of Savannah, has become a popular vacation spot with tourists from outside the Savannah metropolitan area . Tybee Island is home to the first of what would eventually become the Days Inn chain of hotels, the oft - photographed Tybee Island Light Station, and the Fort Screven Historic District . </P> <P> It is one of the few locations where the U.S. Air Force dropped an atomic bomb--by accident (during a botched 1958 military training exercise). Though the "Tybee Bomb" did not detonate (and, according to some reports, was not armed with a fuse), there has been ongoing concern, since the Mark 15 nuclear bomb lost during the mishap was never found . </P> <P> Native Americans, using dugout canoes to navigate the waterways, hunted and camped in Georgia's coastal islands for thousands of years . The Euchee tribe likely inhabited the island in the years preceding the arrival of the first Spanish explorers in the area in the 16th century . Tybee is the Euchee word for "salt". </P> <P> In 1520, the Spanish laid claim to what is now Tybee Island and named it Los Bajos . It was at the northern end of the Guale missionary province of Spanish Florida . During that time the island was frequented by pirates who used the island to hide from those who pursued them . Pirates later used the island's inland waterways for a fresh water source . After the founding of South Carolina in 1670, warfare increased between the English and their pirate allies and the Spanish and their Native American allies . In 1702, James Moore of South Carolina led an invasion of Spanish Florida with an Indian army and a fleet of militia - manned ships . The invasion failed to take the capital of Florida, St. Augustine, but did destroy the Guale and Mocama missionary provinces . After another invasion of Spanish Florida by South Carolina in 1704, the Spanish retreated to St. Augustine and Pensacola; the Sea Islands were depopulated, allowing the establishment of new English settlements such as the colony of Georgia . </P>

Where did the name tybee island come from