My husband will not believe what I’m about to say: I enjoy finding out that I’m wrong—at least when it comes to history. When a visit to a historic site reveals information that blows away my long-held assumptions, I find myself in a state of awe and wonderment.
So, when we camped at Blue Spring State Park in Florida, I was excited not only to see manatees and other wildlife, but also to learn that I was wrong about transportation networks. Of course, this is a pretty nice place to camp even if you don’t give a damn about steamboats, trains, Florida pioneers, or any history whatsoever.
First, Let’s Count the Manatees
The deep spring that feeds a shallow blue pool adjacent to the St. John’s River near Orange City provides water that remains at a constant 72 degrees Fahrenheit all year round. That’s much warmer than the river water in winter, so Blue Spring draws lots of manatees to relax and rest during the cooler months.
And the manatees draw people. The park keeps a count of manatees recorded in the spring each day, and it was well over 200 every day we were here. (We probably saw about 15 different manatees during our first afternoon walk.) Rangers report that they sometimes have over 900 at a time in the spring pool, which is 1/3 mile long.
During the warmer months, when the manatees stay in the St. John’s River, the spring is open for swimming. Rangers enjoy telling the swimmers about the fish they can see all around them, which includes a species of piranha. These particular piranhas are vegetarian, but the rangers usually wait a while before adding that reassuring bit of information.
Now, the History
Steamboats revolutionized transportation on the rivers in the early 19th Century, but I thought they had been supplanted pretty quickly by railroads just a few decades laterr. But the park full of manatees introduced me to some history that showed me just how wrong I was. The Thursby family came to the area in 1856 and built a substantial transportation business based on steamboat traffic in the 1870s and 1880s. They added a narrow gauge railway in 1881 to transport passengers from the river to the town of Orange City, but the railcars were pulled by a mule. I find it hard to believe that it was easier to lay tracks and build train cars than to simply put in a road for the mule to pull a cart along, but that must have been the case.
By the end of the decade, a standard gauge line with a steam engine linked the steamboat landing to the Florida East Coast Railway. However, the steamboats were still operating regularly until the early 20th Century. I thought that steamboats were obsolete long before that, so I found the history of the landing very interesting.
The Thursby House at Blue Spring State Park
The Thursby family left a sizeable house that is open to visitors at no additional cost beyond the regular park entrance fee. Domineering the landscape, the house shows that the pioneering family must have succeeded quite well with their transportation business. However, the house is unusual in my experience because despite its grand proportions, it is completely devoid of any decorative embellishments. No crown molding, chair rails, or paneling. When the family first moved to Florida, they lived in a rustic cabin, and when they built a bigger house decades later, they kept the plain, utilitarian style but supersized it. It even has a butler’s pantry. But despite the spacious rooms, wide hallways and high ceilings, the style still screams “penniless pioneer.”
In the first decade or so in Florida, the pioneer family had to rely on their own resources to grow food and devise medical care. They had nine more children after moving to Florida, but three of them died as infants. Their oldest son was killed by a rattlesnake while playing under the house. The transition from an isolated subsistence farm to the center of a transportation network changed the community and must have changed the family’s outlook as well. But perhaps the plain house is a sign that it actually did not. They had the space they needed for their family and guests, but no fancy extras, even if they could afford them by this point.
The Trains Still Haunt the Landscape
Trains put the steamboats out of business. And they’re still very much in evidence around the park, which can make camping a less than restful experience. Freight trains, Amtrak passenger trains, and the SunRail commuter trains blow through regularly, interrupting the sleep of campers throughout the park. It was not my favorite camping experience. However, the walkways along the spring and other areas around the park were so appealing that I imagine we will be back. We just won’t plan to stay very long.
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If you enjoy reading about the challenges of life in isolated settlements in the past, you might enjoy my books Restitution and Langley’s Choice.