Kitabı oku: «A Guide-Book of Florida and the South for Tourists, Invalids and Emigrants», sayfa 5

5. – JACKSONVILLE TO TALLAHASSEE, QUINCY AND ST. MARKS

(Tallahassee, and Pensacola & Georgia, and Florida, Atlanta & Gulf Central railways. Time 14 hours, one train daily.)

The train leaves Jacksonville following the old military road, and soon enters open pine woods. The first station is White House (eleven miles). The next (eight miles) is Baldwin, (Florida House, M. Colding Proprietor). Here the Florida railway connects for Fernandina, Cedar Keys, Gainesville, and other points in East Florida.

Beyond Baldwin the train passes over a swampy country intersected by numerous creeks flowing northward into the St. Mary’s river, which near here makes its South Prong far to the south. Sanderson, (eighteen miles) is an insignificant station. Olustee (ten miles) is a rising village in the midst of a wide level tract, (no hotel; board at private houses $1.50 to $2.00 a day.) Ocean Pond, half a mile from the road (right hand side), is a handsome sheet of water, nearly circular, about four miles in diameter. It is deep, and offers excellent fishing.

LAKE CITY

(twelve miles; two tolerable hotels, $3.00 per day, $15. per week; newspaper, Lake City Press; telegraph office) is a promising place of several hundred inhabitants. Three miles south of the city is Alligator Lake, a body of water without any visible outlet. In the wet season it is three or four miles across, but in winter it retires into a deep sink hole, and the former bottom is transformed into a grassy meadow.

Welborn

Is the next stopping place (twelve miles. The Griffin House, and several boarding houses; $1.50 per day, $6.00 per week). It is a prosperous village of 150 inhabitants. The water is good, and the neighborhood healthy. Its height above tide water is 200 feet.

Stages leave Welborn daily for the *White Sulphur Springs, on the Suwannee river, eight miles north of the station (fare $2.00). These springs are a favorite resort for persons suffering from rheumatism and skin diseases. They have been estimated to discharge about three hundred hogsheads a minute. The *hotel, ($3.00 per day, $12.00 per week, $40.00 per month,) accommodating seventy-five guests, stands within a few yards of the Suwannee river, there a pretty stream about fifty yards wide. There is also a private boarding house near by. Dr. A. W. Knight, of Maine, resides at the hotel, and will be found an intelligent physician. There is good fishing in the river, and as the county is but sparsely settled, small game is abundant. Horses can be had for $2.00. The basin of the spring is ten feet deep, and 30 feet in diameter; the stream runs about a hundred yards and then empties into the river.

Leaving Welborn, the train passes Houston, (five miles), and reaches Live Oak (six miles.) Here the morning train stops for dinner. A good table is set by Mr. Conner, who keeps the hotel ($3 per day, $12.50 per week, $30.00 per month. Boarding, Mrs. M. A. McCleran, $25.00 per month, Mrs. Goodbread, $1.00 per day, $20.00 per month; Newspaper, Live Oak Advertizer; Churches, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist.) At this point a connecting railway diverges north to Lawton, Ga., on the main line of the Atlantic and Gulf R. R. Live Oak to Savannah, $9.00. Live Oak has at present about 250 inhabitants, and is a growing place. The country in the vicinity is the usual limestone soil of Middle Florida, covered with pine. Peaches flourish very well, and the soil is reasonably productive.

The Lower Spring, on the banks of the Suwannee river, eight miles north of Live Oak, is reached by trains twice daily on the road to Lawton. Its waters are sulphurous, and it is a favorite resort for certain classes of invalids. The accommodations are passable.

Beyond Live Oak, is Ellaville, (thirteen miles, formerly called Columbus), near the Suwannee. This river is comparatively narrow, and divides at this point into its east and west branches.

The next station (fifteen miles) is Madison, the county seat of Madison county (Madison hotel). The village is half a mile from the depot, located on a plain bordering on a small lake.

Beyond this are Goodman station, (fourteen miles), Aucilla, (seven miles), and the Junction (seven miles). At the latter a railway four miles in length diverges to

MONTICELLO,

The county seat of Jefferson county.

Hotels.– Monticello house, kept by Mrs. Madden, accommodates about thirty guests, $2.00 a day, $30.00 to $40.00 a month; Godfrey House. The village has a population of about 700. It is pleasantly located and regularly laid out, the court house occupying a square in the center of the town. There are four churches, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist. There is an academy of nearly 150 pupils, part of the support of the institution being drawn from the Southern Educational Fund, provided by the banker, Mr. Peabody. A flourishing colored school is also in the vicinity. Lake Mickasukie, an extensive body of fresh water, is about three miles distant.

The climate of this part of Florida is dry and equable, and the soil the very best upland pine. Many invalids would find it a very pleasant and beneficial change from the sea coast or the river side, and immigrants would do well to visit it. Game and fish are abundant, and the sportsman need never be at a loss for occupation.

Leaving the Junction, the train stops at Lloyd’s (nine miles), Chavies, (six miles), and finally at

TALLAHASSEE

Hotels.– City Hotel, Hagner house, about $3.00 a day.

Newspapers.– The Floridian and Journal, Democrat, an old established and ably conducted paper; the Tallahassee Sentinel, Republican, likewise well edited.

Churches of most denominations.

The capital of Florida is a city of about 3000 inhabitants, situated on a commanding eminence in the midst of a rolling and productive country. The name is probably a compound of the Greek talofah, town, and hassee, sun. The site was chosen in 1823 by three commissioners, of whom Colonel John Lee Williams, the subsequent historian of Florida, was one. In the following year the first house was erected. A pleasant stream winds along the eastern part of the town, and tumbles over a limestone ledge in a little cataract. The capitol is a brick building, stuccoed, with a handsome center reached by a broad flight of steps, and with spacious wings. It was built by the United States during the territorial government. It stands in the center of the town surrounded by a large open square. The usual chambers for the legislative, judicial, and executive bodies are found here.

In one of the offices a curious piece of antiquity is preserved. It is the fragments of a complete suit of ancient steel armour ploughed up in a field near Monticello. From its appearance it is judged to date from the sixteenth century, lies twenty-four miles west of Tallahassee, (fare $1.50), the present terminus of the railroad. (Pop. 1,000).

QUINCY

Hotels.– Willard’s, in the centre of the town, and Wood’s, at the railroad depot. Both $2.50 per day – $10.00 a week.

Boarding House.– *Mrs. Ann Innes; same prices.

Churches.– Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Methodist.

Newspaper.– The Quincy Monitor, a well conducted Journal.

The vicinity is a rolling, pine country, with limestone sub-soil. Plenty of marl is found, suitable for fertilizing. Cotton, corn, tobacco, and vines are cultivated with success. There is an agricultural association, of which Judge C. H. Dupont is president. Some caves and other natural curiosities are found in the vicinity.

Stages run from Quincy to Chatahoochee, tri-weekly; fare $5.00 – twenty miles – an exhorbitant charge. The boarding house in Chatahoochee, $2.00 per day. The steamer from Columbus and Bainbridge, Ga., touch at Chatahoochee daily; fare to Apalachicola, $5.00.

TALLAHASSEE TO ST. MARKS

By St. Marks Railroad – distance twenty-one miles; time, one hour and thirty minutes. There is no hotel at St. Marks, and but one boarding house, that of Mrs. Eliza Barber, $3.50 per day, $12.00 per week. There are excellent hunting and fishing in this vicinity, and boats can be hired at very reasonable prices, but horses are scarce. The town is an old Spanish settlement, and some remains of the ancient fortifications are still visible in the vicinity. It was first settled under the name of San Marcos de Apalache, in 1718, by Don Joseph Primo. At one time it was a port of some promise, but has now fallen into insignificance.

It is situated at the junction of the St. Marks and Wakulla rivers. The latter stream is ten miles in length, and takes its rise in the famous *Wakulla fountain. The name is the Creek word wankulla, (n-nasal) South. It is a remarkable curiosity, and should be visited by those who have the time. The most pleasant – and most expensive – means is to hire a carriage at Tallahassee, from which the spring is seventeen miles distant.

The country in the vicinity is low and flat, covered with dense groves of cypress, liveoak, &c. The spring is oval in shape, about thirty yards in diameter, and quite deep. On the eastern side is a rocky ledge, whence the stream issues. The water is cool, impregnated with lime, and of a marvellous clearness. Troops of fishes can be seen disporting themselves in the transparent depths.

Mr. Wise, of the Coast Survey, found bottom at eighty feet, the lead being plainly visible at that depth. In the same vicinity the Ocilla, Wacilla, and Spring Creek Springs are likewise subterranean streams, which boil up from great depths in fountains of perfect clearness.

NEWPORT,

A few miles from St. Marks, on the St. Marks river, was at one time a place of considerable summer resort, but is now but little visited. Near by is a natural bridge, over the river, which is esteemed sufficiently curious to attract occasional visitors.

6. THE OKLAWAHA RIVER AND THE SILVER SPRING

Boats leave Jacksonville and Palatka every Thursday for Lake Griffin. Time from Palatka to Silver Spring, forty hours; fare, $5.00; distance, 100 miles. The boats are necessarily small, and the accommodations limited.

The Oklawaha, so called from one of the seven clans of the Seminoles, falls into the St. John opposite the town of Welaka. It is only within a few years that, at a considerable expenditure, it has been rendered navigable. Its mouth is hardly noticed in ascending the St. John.

At Welaka, leaving the broad, placid bosom of the former river, the little steamer enters a narrow, swift and tortuous stream, overhung by enormous cypresses. Its width is from twenty to forty yards, and its depth from fifteen to twenty feet. Natural, leafy curtains of vines and aquatic plants veil its banks.

Twelve miles from the mouth the boat passes

DAVENPORT’S BLUFF,

On the right bank, where there are a few houses. Above this point the “Narrows” commence and extend eight miles. The river is divided into numerous branches, separated by wet cypress islands. Dense, monotonous forests of cypress, curled maple, black and prickly ash, cabbage trees, and loblolly bays shut in the stream on both sides.

Seventeen miles above Davenport’s Bluff are the

*BLUE SPRINGS

These rise in the river itself about four feet from the right bank. They are warmer than the river water, and when seen in the sun’s rays have a dark blue tinge. They have never been analyzed.

Nine miles above these springs the pine woods abut on the river, and there is a settlement on the right hand bank called

FORT BROOKE

This is within two miles of *Orange Spring, a sulphur spring, with strongly impregnated waters, but at present without accommodations for travelers. It is to be hoped that this will not continue, as it is one of the most admirable of the many medicinal springs of Florida.

Twelve miles above is near where the waters of Orange Lake drain into the river.

PAINE’S LANDING,

One and a half miles beyond is a settlement with the pretty name Iola. A few miles further up “forty foot Bluff” commences, which skirts the river several miles, here and there separated from it by cypress groves.

As the steamer ascends, the banks become higher, pines more frequent along the shore, and cultivated fields more numerous.

At length, at a distance of 100 miles from the mouth of the river, the crystal current of *Silver Spring Run, here as large as the river itself above the junction, pours into the coffee-colored waters of the Oklawaha. The Run is ten miles in length, with extensive savannas on either side, shut in by a distant wall of pines. In the spring months these savannas are covered with thousands of beautiful and fragrant flowers.² The stream is rapid, with an average width of 100 feet, and a depth of twenty feet. The water is perfectly clear, so that the bottom is distinctly visible. At places, it is clothed with dark green sedge, swaying to and fro in the current; at others, ridges of grey sand and white shells offer a pleasant contrast.

The Spring-head forms an oval basin, 150 yards long, 100 feet wide, and forty feet deep. The water gushes from a large opening about 5 feet high, and fifteen feet long, under a ledge of limestone at the north-eastern extremity. It is free from any unpleasant taste, has a temperature of 73 degrees Fah., and is so transparent that a small coin can be distinctly seen on the bottom of the deepest part of the basin. When the basin is seen with the sunbeams falling upon it at a certain angle their refraction gives the sides and bottom the appearance of being elevated and tinged with the hues of the rainbow.

Some observations I took about a mile below the basin, with a three inch log, at a time when the water was at an average height, show that this fountain throws out about three hundred million gallons every twenty-four hours, or more than twenty times the amount consumed daily by New York city.

At Silver Spring stages meet the boat for

OCALA,

The county seat of Marion co., nine miles distant. The intervening country is rolling, with pine woods and hammocks. Ocala is a neat town, with about 300 inhabitants, two hotels, $1.50 per day, $25.00 per mo.; several boarding houses; two newspapers, East Florida Banner; livery stable; physician, Dr. T. P. Gary; several churches; mail three times a week by stage to Gainesville on the Florida R. R., fare for one passenger to Gainesville, $6.00; mail stage to Tampa.

This portion of the State impresses the visitor favorably, and is well adapted for sugar cane and fruit, but it is cursed with malarial fevers of severe type. A few miles south of the town are the remains of Fort King, a military post in the Seminole war, and six miles south, near the road to Tampa, there is a cave of some size in the limestone rock.

Returning now to the Oklawaha, and pursuing our journey up that river, no change in the monotony of the cypress swamp occurs for about sixteen miles above Silver Spring run. At this distance is the small settlement Cow Ford. Beyond it the cypress disappears, and a savanna covered with dense saw grass stretches on either side for one or two miles from the river. This portion of the river has been but recently cleared and it was not till early in 1868 that the first steamboats could make their trips through this part. The chief difficulty encountered was the floating islands which covered the river, sometimes so thickly that no sign of its course was visible. They were composed mainly of the curious aquatic plant the pistia spathulata. These had to be sawed in pieces and the fragments suffered to float down, or fastened to the shore.

After passing through these savannas some miles the boat enters Lake Griffin, a narrow lake about nine miles long. Several thriving settlements are on its banks, which present a diversity of soil, swamp, hammock, and pine land.

Six miles beyond Lake Griffin is Lake Eustis, a smaller body of water, but more pleasing to the eye. The settlement of Fort Mason is upon its shores.

Beyond Lake Eustis a deep channel a mile and a half long called the Narrows leads to Lake Harris. It is fourteen miles in length and in some parts seven miles wide. Much of the land upon its banks is of the best quality. The Oklawaha enters it at its southwestern extremity.

LEESBURG,

A small village, passed between Lakes Griffin and Harris, is now the county seat of Sumter county. About five miles above Lake Harris is Lake Dunham, the head of navigation of the Oklawaha. A settlement on this lake bearing the name Oklawaha is the terminus.

All this country south of Silver Spring Run is laid down quite incorrectly on all maps but the last edition of Mr. Drew’s “Map of Florida.”

7. FROM FERNANDINA TO CEDAR KEYS

(Florida Railroad; distance 154 miles; time 11 hours, 30 min. Fare $11.00.)

The train, on leaving Fernandina, runs southward on Amelia Island, for about three miles, through a forest of pine and live oak with an undergrowth of myrtle and palmetto. The road then turns westward and crosses the salt marshes, and a narrow arm of the sea, the latter about twenty-five yards wide, which separate the island from the main. Beyond these, it enters the low pine lands of Nassau county. They are unproductive, thinly inhabited, and to the traveler extremely monotonous. The first station is Callahan (27 miles); the next Baldwin (Florida House), where a connection is made with the Pensacola and Georgia Railway for Tallahassee, Jacksonville, etc.

The country gradually rises and improves in quality of soil beyond this point, but houses continue sparse. The station next beyond is Trail Ridge (15 miles). Here the mail is delivered for Middleburg on Black Creek, twelve miles east. (See Route up the St. John.)

Much of the land is swampy, and the road crosses a number of small water courses, tributaries of Black Creek. The traveller is now approaching the Lake country of Central Florida. The succeeding small station, Waldo, (22 miles) is in the midst of a group of ponds, lakes and extensive swamps.

They are known as the Ettini ponds. They are separated by sand hills and stretches of fertile low-lands.

Twelve miles beyond Waldo is

GAINESVILLE

Hotels.– *Exchange hotel, by Messrs. Barnes & Shemwell; the Magnolia house; the Bevill house; charges, $2.50 per day.

Newspaper.– The New Era, (Democrat).

Two Livery Stables.

Churches.– Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian.

Gainesville (pop. 1500) is situated in one of the most fertile regions of Florida. It is on a portion of the old “Arredondo Grant,” which embraced the larger part of the rich Alachua plains, and has been called, not without reason, the garden of the State. The soil is a sandy loam, resting on limestone. The latter is friable, and easily eroded by water. The rains frequently thus undermine the soil, which suddenly gives way, forming so-called “sinks” and “pot holes,” common throughout Alachua and the neighboring counties. One of the largest is the *Devil’s Wash Pot, 200 feet in depth, into which three small streams plunge by a series of leaps. Payne’s Prairie, a rich, level tract, twelve miles in length, enclosing a pretty lake, commences three miles south of Gainesville.

The famous *Orange Grove commences about twelve miles south of Gainesville, and extends nearly around Orange Lake. It is probably the largest natural orange grove in the world, and in the spring when the trees are in blossom, perfumes the whole region.

The Natural Bridge over the Santa Fe river is most readily approached from Gainesville, from which it is about twenty-four miles distant, west of north. The road passes through Newnansville, (the Wilson House, widow Frier’s boarding house, both $2.25 per day,) a place of 200 inhabitants. Near this place is Warren’s Cave, a curiosity of local note. The Natural Bridge marks, in fact, the spot where the river enters an underground channel for three miles of its course. Close to the bridge are the Wellington Springs, a sulphurous source of considerable magnitude, but with no accommodations.

A mail stage with very limited provisions for passengers, leaves Gainesville for Micanopy, Ocala, and Tampa, three times a week. Travelers arriving at Gainesville, on their way to the upper St. John, will do well to hire a private conveyance and go by Payne’s prairie and the Orange Grove to Ocala (thirty-eight miles) and the Silver Spring whence they can take the boats on the Oklawaha. (See page 89.) This trip will show them the most fertile portion of central Florida.

Leaving Gainesville, the train passed over a high, rolling, limestone country, through open forests of pine, hickory, blackjack, and other hardwood trees. The first station, Archer, fifteen miles, (one hotel, $3.00 per day,) is in the midst of such scenery. About ten miles beyond it the surface descends, and cypress and hammock become more frequent.

The next station, Otter Creek, twenty-two miles, is on the western border of the dense Gulf hammock, the part of it which lies in this vicinity being styled the Devil’s hammock.

As it approaches the Gulf, the road crosses a number of small creeks and over several arms of the sea, passing from island to island until it reaches Cedar Key (nineteen miles), where is the terminus. (*Hotel kept by Mr. Willard, $3.00 per day.)

The population of the key is about 400, chiefly engaged in lumbering. Excellent hunting and fishing can be had in the vicinity, and many pretty shells and sea-mosses are found along the shore. A hard sand beach, half a mile in length, is a favorite promenade. There are no horses on the island, but boats, here the only means of transportation, can be hired from $3.00 to $5.00 a day. Remains of the former Indian occupants, such as shell mounds, stone axes, arrowheads, pottery, etc., are very abundant.

Steamers touch at Cedar Keys every day or two, providing ready communication with the principal points on the Gulf. The fares are about as follows: to Tampa, $10.00; Key West, $20.00; Havana, $30.00; St. Marks, $10.00; Apalachicola, $20.00; Pensacola, $30.00; New Orleans, $40.00; Mobile, $20.00.