15,000–8,000 BC

Paleoindian Period . Evidence of human presence in the area.

8,000-5,000 BC

Archaic Period . Earliest people nomadic, moving with the seasons. Eventually people settled and started to farm and trade with neighboring groups.

1528

First Spaniard, Panfilo de Narvaez, arrived.

1539

Hernando de Soto spent the winter in the Apalachee town of Iniachica, which is now part of Tallahassee.

1542

First map of area published in Spain.

1633

Franciscan Friars named St. Vincent Island while visiting Apalachee tribes.

1656

Mission San Luis de Apalache established as western capital of the Spanish Mission system in La Florida.

1679

Spanish constructed first fort at San Marcos de Apalache (now St. Marks).

1682

Fort San Marcos was captured and burned by pirates.

1705

First European settlement in Franklin County was a fort built by the Spanish at the mouth of the Apalachicola River.

1750

Creeks and Seminoles inhabited St. Vincent Island.

1763

The English acquired Florida from Spain through the Treaty of Paris.

1790

Pirates (such as Jean Lafitte and Captain Kidd) utilize the Cedar Key area as a sanctuary.

1803

William Augustus Bowles, the self-proclaimed Director-General of the "independent and sovereign" Creek and Seminole Nation of Muskogee, whose capital was located near the present-day Tallahassee, died in prison in Havana.

1804

Fort Prospect Bluff (now Fort Gadsden).was built on the Apalachicola River by Major Edward Nichols.

1812-1816

British agents secure the Indians in the area as allies.

1816-1818

First Seminole War . British agents occupy area.

1818

Andrew Jackson occupies fort at San Marcos de Apalache.

1820s

Cottonton, a settlement at the mouth of the Apalachicola River with district’s Customs Collector, was incorporated in 1829 and named Apalachicola in 1831.

1821

United States acquired Florida from Spain under the terms of the Adams-OnisTreaty.

1827

Town of Magnolia established on west side of the St. Marks Rive, boasting a customs house, four warehouses, a post office, and a bank.

1828-1861

64 steamboats listed Apalachicola as their home port and over twice that number were active on the river system. Over 80% were side-wheelers because they were more powerful and had greater maneuverability.

1829-1830

St. Marks Lighthouse constructed.

1830

Town of Newport on the St. Marks River established as economic center with large stores, warehouses, wharves, and stills. It became the county seat in 1844.

1830s

Zachary Taylor , twelfth president of the United States, forded his way across the Steinhatchee River.

1832

Franklin County was created and Apalachicola declared the county seat. Apalachicola became the third largest port on the Gulf Coast after New Orleans and Mobile.

1833

St. George Island Lighthouse standing 65 feet tall was built at West Pass.

1835

The Apalachicola Land Company was organized.

1836

Tallahassee-St. Marks Railroad became among the first railroads in Florida. It was operated by mule and later converted for use by steam engines. The line operated for 147 years.

1836

Apalachicola Land Company dredged Apalachicola Harbor. The federal government also appropriated money in the 1830s to remove obstructions from the Apalachicola River and to deepen the channel in the Bay and St. George Sound.

1835-1842

Second Seminole War . U.S. Army established a military depot and detention camp for Indians in Cedar Key.

1838

Military forts were constructed to defeat the Indians on the Econfina, Fenholloway, Steinhatchee, and Suwanee Rivers. Fort Fanning was originally called “Palmetto” but was renamed in honor of Colonel Alexander Campbell Wilder Fanning.

1839

Dog Island Lighthouse constructed.

1843

Hurricane of September 13 with 10 ft. tidal surge causes major destruction.

1843

Establishment of Wakulla County.

1845

Establishment of Levy County.

1846

Wakulla Hotel at Newport sulfur spring marketed as a health resort for the medicinal quality of the mineral water.

1848

American physician John Gorrie, the inventor of cold-air refrigeration, introduced his ice-making machine in Apalachicola.

1848

Cape St. George Island Lighthouse replaced St. George Island Lighthouse.

1851

Georgia and Florida Plank Road completed to connect Newport with southern Georgia.

1851

Devastating hurricane flattend buildings and area lighthouses.

1854

Seahorse Key (Cedar Key) Lighthouse constructed.

1855

Hunters and fishermen began settlement on east bank of the Carrabelle River.

1856

Establishment of Taylor County.

1855-1859

Faber Pencil Mill established on Atseena Otie Key. This is followed by additional lumber-dependent factories and mills. Commercial fishing is started in the Cedar Key area. Lighthouse is completed on Seahorse Key. Construction begins on Railroad from Fernandina Beach to Cedar Key. Present site of the Town of Cedar Key is laid out.

1861

Florida Railroad (from Fernandina Beach to Cedar Key) is completed on March 1st.

1861-1865

Civil War . Florida secedes from the Union. Union blockade of Big Bend begins to halt, confiscate, or destroy shipments of cotton, turpentine, lumber, and other products to undercut the South’s economy. Confederate seineyards and saltworks were prime military targets. In 1864 a Union raiding party, supported by shelling from the USS Tahoma, attacked and destroyed “seven miles” of saltworks on the St. Marks River as well as at Goose Creek and Shell Point. The destruction included “455 salt kettles, 95 sheet-iron boilers, and 268 brick furnaces,” comprising an estimated loss of $2 million to the South. A Federal detachment from the gunboat, Port Royal, attacked salt works near St. George’s Sound. Six boilers, two large vats and several kettles were destroyed.

1862

Confederate Gunboat SPRAY returned fire as the Federal ship MOHAWK positioned itself off Lighthouse Point.

1860s

Mullet seineyards along the Big Bend were a traditional source of food and barter. One eyewitness reported mullet being caught at Shell Point in such quantities that “40 barrels were brought in with one pull of the seine.” It is not surprising that Union forces frequently raided these valuable fisheries, including an attack in October 1964 on a seineyard and fishery on Mashes Island that reportedly destroyed fish houses, dwellings, salt kettles, a large seine, and several fishing vessels.

1865

Battle of Natural Bridge. Confederate troops defeat Union forces to save Tallahassee.

1865-1870

Post-Civil War . Atlantic and Gulf Railroad, connecting the heart of the Apalachicola-Flint-Chattahoochee River basin directly to Savannah, Georgia, diverts cotton that otherwise would have been bound for shipment from Apalachicola.

1867

John Muir, noted naturalist and conservation leader, arrived at Cedar Key on his " thousand-mile walk to the Gulf." Muir's journal account of the adventure was published in 1916.

1868

St. Marks fire destroys six large warehouses, a wharf, several ice houses, and a steam cotton press, which were never rebuilt.

1869 -1879

Prosperity returns to Cedar Key. Fishing Industry expands. New and bigger sawmills and pencil factories are located on Atseena Otie Key and Cedar Key. Shipbuilding becomes a major industry (located at Piney Point). Land sells for 50 cents an acre. Tourism becomes a major industry.

1870

Lumber industry revived.

1873

Hurricanes and freezing weather destroyed warehouses and local citrus trees around Apalachicola.

1875

St. Teresa was founded on St. James Island

Late 1870s

An intensive effort to harvest the oyster beds in Apalachicola Bay begins.

1880

Florida Railroad becomes known as the Atlantic Gulf and Western Indian Transit Company. Yellow Fever breaks out--Snake Key quarantined.

1881

Ice plant moves from Tampa to Cedar Key but is forced to close down due to insufficient fresh water.

1882

Money was spent to deepen East Pass and develop a deeper and wider channel entrance from the Bay into Apalachicola’s wharves.

1884

Only Customs House in Florida, besides Key West, locates in Cedar Key.        

1885

Steamboat "Walkatomica" plies the St. Marks River.

1885

Ruge Brothers Canning Company in Apalachicola becomes Florida’s first successful commercial oyster packers by using pasteurization.

1888

The first commercial shipment of phosphate is made.

1890

Timber and seafood resources in the Cedar Key area are depleted.

1890

Major naval store industry grows up in present-day Carrabelle, with sawmill and turpentine stills.

1894-95

Founding of the towns of Sopchoppy and Panacea. Panacea Mineral Springs Hotel held 125 guests.

1895

Height of the sponge industry in Apalachicola with two sponge warehouses and approximately 100 men employed in this industry, as third largest in the state.

1895

Crooked River Lighthouse constructed.

1896

Paddlewheel steamboats, such as the City of Hawkinsville, City of Jacksonville, and Belle of the Suwannee, plied the Suwannee River. The Hawkinsville lies submerged below the Suwannee River Bridge at Old Town, and is designated an Underwater Archaeological Preserve.

1898

Eastpoint established by group of families from Nebraska who set up a cooperative colony with all profits being shared. They were engaged in farming, seafood, lumber, and manufacturing.

1899

People from surrounding communities would come to Jena and Steinhatchee by horse and wagon after the crops were in to fish and hunt.

1900

Fire destroys the Apalachicola business district.

1903

Timber traffic in Apalachicola increases to over $13 million by 1903, a 700% increase from 1898.

1905

The Lanark Village area was promoted by the Georgia, Florida, and Alabama Railroad as a fashionable resort for Georgians.

1907

The Apalachicola Northern Railroad came into Apalachicola and ran an "oyster special" to Atlanta with oysters packed in ice.

1910

The Hampton Springs Resort Hotel was constructed just west of the city of Perry.

1914

The fishing and oystering industries ranked second in Franklin only to lumbering, and the county was the state’s leading producer of oysters.

1915

Wakulla Beach , Florida ’s first subdivision, was established with three hotels.

1920s

Shrimpers shifted their primary base of operation in Florida from Fernandina Beach to Franklin County and Apalachicola.

1921

The establishment of Dixie County.

1925

Wakulla Springs was purchased by Jacksonville real estate developer George T. Christie as a tourist attraction with glass-bottom boats and a pier.

1927

Seafood was the primary industry in Franklin County. Apalachicola had 16 seafood and packing plants operating at full force.

1930

Intracoastal Waterways were opened.

1930s

The bow skiff, built of sixteen-foot old-growth cypress, becomes the standard boat for commercial fishermen of the Big Bend.

1930s

Sturgeon caviar was canned in towns like Sopchoppy.

1931

St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge was established to set aside an area for thousands of wintering waterfowl.

1935

The John Gorrie Bridge opened, connecting St. George Island with the mainland.

1940s

World War II . Camp Gordon Johnston, originally named Camp Carrabelle, was established in Franklin County as training site for D-Day invasion of Normandy. The camp stretched from Alligator Point to Carrabelle and included Lanark, St. Teresa, Dog Island, and St. George Island. It was the second largest military installation in Florida.

1940s

World War II PT boats were built on St. Marks River near Newport.

1957

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cut a permanent pass between St. George and Little St. George Island, called Bob Sikes Cut.

1994

“Net Ban” amendment to the Florida Constitution passes limiting mesh size of gill nets used by commercial fishermen.

1995

Hurricane Opal caused damage in the Big Bend.

1998

Hurricane Earl hit Big Bend.

2004

Bryant Patton ( St. George Island) Bridge opened as third longest in Florida and the longest in North Florida.

2005

Hurricane Dennis caused damage in Big Bend.

2005

Cape St. George Lighthouse relocated to St. George Island for reconstruction.