Way down upon the Suwannee River....

Suwannee River State Park, formally opened in 1951, lies just north of Live Oak FL at the confluence of the Suwannee and Withlacoochee Rivers. I stayed here for several days; nice park with full hookups.

The park occupies an area that once held the town of Columbus, established in 1841. With a population of about 500 people at its height it was served by a stagecoach line which connected Pensacola to Jacksonville, paddlewheel steamboats that plied the Suwannee from 1835 to 1901 and a rail line which spanned the river. No remains of the town exist today except for a cemetery, the old Stage Coach Road (now a park service road) and an earthworks fort constructed by the Confederate Army during the civil war.

The earthworks were built to fortify the town against an attack by Union forces who wanted to capture or destroy the rail bridge. This major link between east and west Florida was used to supply Confederate troops. In 1864 General T. Seymore marched west from Jacksonville with 5400 men, planning to capture the bridge. They were surprised by Confederate forces which had traveled east over the very bridge they wanted to capture and were defeated at the battle of Olustee on February 20^th 1864, just 50 miles east of Columbus. The bridge remained in Southern hands for the remainder of the war.

Columbus Cemetery, established in 1860 and one of the states oldest, consists of 23 graves; the oldest marked 1862 and the latest 1974. It lies within the park on The Sand Hill Trail which also crosses the old Stage Coach Road.

On the Earthworks Trail a raised wooden walkway crosses over the earthworks constructed by the Confederate Army. This dish shaped depression is surrounded by earthen mounds on which a wooden fort was built.

Balanced Rock Trail is so named because of a 20 foot tall, limestone formation which appears to be floating on the river when water levels are high enough.

Little Gem Spring, which bubbles into the river, is located along the Suwannee River Trail. Tough to tell the scale of this by the photo, but the tree near the top of the photo is several feet in diameter.

Here are a few more pictures for you to enjoy.

Hope this update finds everyone happy and healthy!

Louisiana to Florida

Thought I would post an update on my whereabouts and goings on.

 

I was at Natalbany Creek Campground in Amite Louisiana (pronounced A’-MEET or A’-MATE or AH-MEET’ depending on which radio ad your listening to) until December 30^th. Hopped the Amtrak’s City of New Orleans twice to visit friends and family in Chicago; once to spend Thanksgiving and again for Christmas. Luckily Ronna was able to accommodate me for several days at a time. Have to say that train travel is quite nice with a sleepette. But I also found out that the tracks don’t just rock you to sleep, they also jar you awake.

 

During my trips to Chicago I had the chance to spend some quality time with Ronna, dine with my close friends on great Giordano’s pizza and visit Milwaukee to see an exhibit of paintings by Thomas Sully at the Milwaukee Art Museum with my friend Bonnee. I  had wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners with family at my sister’s, as well as with Ronna at her brothers. Before departing for the final trip back south I joined my friend Donna for a dinner of boar, venison and duck sausage, followed with apple strudel for desert at Berghoff’s in downtown Chicago.

 

Was supposed to go to Branson Missouri for a truck camper rally when I returned from Chicago after Thanksgiving but Mother Nature intervened. A winter storm hit the area; ice, snow and single digit temps. I had been watching the forecasts and decided to stay holed up in Louisiana instead of taking chances on slick roads. It would have been a 10 hour drive in good weather and even if I made it in there was no guarantee of when I would be able get back out. Trying to outrun storms when you have the option of staying in safe harbor is the wiser choice; just ask any sailor.

 

I had the chance to visit Camp Moore in Tangipahoa Louisiana; a Confederate Army training camp during the Civil War. It lies beside a rail line, a rail line that once brought fresh recruits to the camp and now carries the Amtrak City of New Orleans. There is small museum located on the second story of the volunteer caretaker’s building but it was closed on the day of my visit. However the grounds were open and pamphlets were available to guide me along the short, 5 stop walking tour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The camp opened in May of 1861 and an estimated 25,000 Louisiana troops were trained here before it was overrun by Federal troops in October and November of 1864. Five thousand to eight thousand troops were training at the came at any given time and in late 1861 and early 1862 an outbreak of measles took the lives of about 800 soldiers. Many of those who died were buried in a cemetery located in the camp.

 

No trace of Camp Moore’s training facility remains today. It was completely destroyed by Federal forces and reclaimed by nature after the war, returning to its forested state. Around the turn of the century Confederate veterans reclaimed and restored the cemetery and the parade grounds. Annual reenactments are held at the camp on the weekend before Thanksgiving and I got a quick glimpse of the tents and troops as my train whizzed by.

 

Are Confederate soldiers remembered on Memorial Day and/or Veteran’s Day, I wondered? Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war). It is now celebrated in almost every State on the last Monday in May (passed by Congress with the National Holiday Act of 1971 (P.L. 90 - 363) to ensure a three day weekend for Federal holidays), though several southern states have an additional separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead: January 19 in Texas, April 26 in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 10 in South Carolina; and June 3 (Jefferson Davis' birthday) in Louisiana and Tennessee. As far as being considered veterans, Confederate soldiers received no federal veteran’s benefits until 1958, when Congress pardoned Confederate service members and extended benefits to service members and to single remaining survivors. You can draw your own conclusions to the answer of my question.

 

On December 30^th I left Louisiana, skipped through Mississippi, nicked Alabama and landed at Falling Waters State Park just outside Chipley Florida. This small, 24 campsite park is nestled on a Long Leaf Pine covered hill, 322 feet above sea level. A stream flowing from the hill plunges over a cliff and the water falls 73 feet into a 100 foot deep, 30 foot wide sinkhole and into an underground cavern; it’s the largest waterfall in Florida. Over the years two industries operated near the waterfall. During the Civil War there was a gristmill and in 1891 a legal whiskey distillery. But there is no trace of either to be found today.

 

The park is also home to one of the first oil wells in Florida. In 1919 a tall wooden derrick and steam driven rig was used to drill for oil. The final drill depth was almost 5,000 feet but no oil of commercial quality was ever found and the well as capped in 1921. Behind the capped well are the remains of a sludge pit where all the bi-products of the drilling process were dumped. A trench was dug to carry the pit contents to the stream that feeds the waterfall; doesn’t sound very “green” to me.

 

Due to Florida’s Karst Topography, caverns and sinkholes are common and the park has several within its boundaries. Sinkholes are formed when rain passes through the atmosphere and picks up carbon dioxide forming carbonic acid. This slightly acid rain may pass through the topsoil and erodes the limestone below causing the roofs of underground caverns to collapse. They are a bit difficult to photograph but the wooden walkway in the upper part of the image gives some scale to the size of this one.

 

There is a small, 2 acre lake here. The lake was created by damming one of the streams in the park and provides fishing and swimming. The overflow is directed to a stream that feeds the waterfall.

 

 

 

Seeing this sign posted next to the beach made me wonder a bit about swimming here. I scoured the shoreline looking to photograph one of the reptiles but no luck.

 

Tomorrow I’ll be off to Suwannee River State Park near Live Oak Florida. Heavy rain is forecast for the morning hours but checkout isn’t till 1PM so I should be OK to go.

 

Wishing you all a healthy and prosperous New Year!