Missing are the palm trees that reach into the cloudless blue sky. Instead, I am surrounded by Needle Palms up to my shoulders and skinny Scrub Pines towering overhead as far as the eye can see. The pines leave a pad of dried, brown pine needles at my feet as thick as a mattress. The dirt road ahead is powdery grey sand and I imagine the tire ruts are wagon wheel tracks. This is North Central Florida. This is what Florida looked like before the developers came.
One of the most precious gems in North Central Florida is Morningside Nature Center in Gainesville. Since 1976, the mission of this municipal-run park is to preserve the history of North Florida and to foster an understanding of this natural setting.
When most people think of Florida (and plan Florida vacations), they imagine beautiful beaches, theme parks or the bustling metropolis of Miami. It is true that all these places offer great memories for travelers, but North Florida’s charms are unique in the state. A short two-hour road trip North from Orlando brings travelers into a world forgotten. Visitors are often surprised to find a thick canopy of hard wood trees and a deep reverence for history and nature in this part of the state.
Morningside has trails for walking and in the right season, offers guided wildflower walks. However, the crown jewel of the park is the living history farm, which recreates farm life in the 1870’s. Knowledgeable staff is on hand to answer any question about historic rural life that visitors dream up.
The farm consists of a cabin, a kitchen (with a kitchen garden), a barn, a blacksmith forge, a privy, a smokehouse and a schoolhouse. The cabin and the barn are original to the mid-1800’s and were re-located to the site from locales less than an hour’s drive away. The other structures were built in the modern era using historic, period-correct methods.
From our porch rockers, farm staff Sally Wazny and Brickman “Bricky” Way, explain that the cabin was built by Irish immigrants named Joseph and Sarah McCarroll in the 1840’s. Farmers would likely have constructed the barn first and then the home because animals were an investment that needed protection. As the family became more established (and financially sound) the separate kitchen building was added.
Today Morningside boasts two gardens. The kitchen garden is a haven for mustard greens, squash, and other period-appropriate vegetables. Morningside is proud to grow heirloom varieties of most of its vegetables. This means that the provenance of the seeds can be traced back to the 1800’s. The second garden is the cash crop field, which grows samples of Sea Island cotton (also an heirloom variety) and corn. Way explains that farmers would have sold these products rather than consuming them.
The blacksmith’s forge allows visitors to see historic tools and, on Living History Days, to see local blacksmiths put those tools and historic methods into action. Farmers made often made their own nails, hinges, horseshoes and wagon parts.
Morningside staff also tend to a small array of animals, including cows and goats. This is one rare instance where staff breaks with history. In order to help with their numerous programs for families and young children, Morningside keeps a few pigs. However, Wazny explains that early settlers on very small homesteads like this one, would trap small wild pigs and “notch their ears.”
“Each family had a unique notched pattern, similar to a cattle brand, with which they marked the animals. Farmers would then release the pigs into the wild to fatten up naturally. They baited them back in the Fall. Once re-captured, the animals would be slaughtered in preparation for the winter,” Wazny said. Pigs would provide nourishment for a farmer’s family throughout the winter season.
Once each Fall, the farm hosts a public “Cane Boil” that celebrates the harvest of local sugar cane that is then boiled down into syrup. Visitors can buy cane syrup onsite that day. If you have only eaten maple syrup, then cane syrup is a bit of an acquired taste, but well worth a try.
The farm also boasts an original one-room schoolhouse. Though today, the schoolhouse represents a learning environment from 1870, in reality, this structure was one of the few buildings that housed African American students in rural North Central Florida between the late 1800’s and the 1930’s.
When planning your next Florida itinerary, branch out to areas beyond cities with flashing lights and pulsing music. The real Florida provides a link to our true American heritage if visitors know where to look. Walk back in time one afternoon and see one of the most historic and untouched landscapes in Southern history.
If you go: Contact the City of Gainesville for details on re-opening plans, programs and hours. The park’s website: Nature Parks (cityofgainesville.org)
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