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Maritime Tourism Trail
Special Water Trips
Besides visiting other sites listed on the Maritime Heritage Trail, here are some exceptional trips you can experience if you have time and plan ahead.
Big Bend Saltwater Paddling Trail
Directions: Located along the coast from St. Marks Lighthouse to the Suwannee River.
Description: Sea kayakers have long known of the multi-day expedition possibilities along Florida’s Big Bend Gulf Coast. The area boasts one of the longest and wildest publicly-owned coastal wetlands in the United States, and a striking array of bird and marine life. Flocks of white pelicans often zoom past in winter and great egrets, white as snowflakes, dot marshy expanses. Bald eagles and ospreys entertain with their aerial maneuvers, and in the often clear waters one can spot crabs, fishes, sea turtles, manatees, cannonball jellyfish, and small sharks and rays.
Information: A 40-page guide to the 105-mile trail includes detailed maps and information on the rich natural and cultural history of this region. Seven designated primitive campsites exclusively for trail users are spaced 10 to 14 miles apart and require permits. To order the guide visit myfwc.com/recreation/big_bend/paddling_trail.
City of Hawkinsville Underwater Archeological Park
Directions: The City of Hawkinsville is located in shallow water on the western bank of the Suwannee River, about 100 yards south of the railroad trestle (now a part of the Nature Coast Trail State Park) at Old Town. Access to the site is by boat only. The site is marked by a series of buoys on the vessels’ starboard side, and by mooring buoys approximately 50 feet downstream from her stern. Visitors are asked to tie up to the mooring buoys to prevent anchor damage to the site, and to display a "diver down" flag. For experienced divers only.
Description: The City of Hawkinsville is a surprisingly intact survivor of late 19th-century coastal steamboat technology. Originally built at Abbeville, eorgia, in 1886 for the Hawkinsville (Georgia) Deepwater Boat Lines, she was sold in June 1900 to the Gulf Transportation Company of Tampa for use on the Suwannee River. The City of Hawkinsville was 141 feet long, with two decks, a single smoke stack, a square stern, and a molded bow. She was a post-hurricane newcomer, brought into the river to assist a booming lumber industry. She was the largest and the last steamboat to be stationed on the Suwannee River, serving a route that included Branford, Clay's Landing, Old Town, and Cedar Key.
Information: http://www.flheritage.com/archaeology/underwater/preserves/uwcity
Dog Island Shipwrecks
Directions: Dog Island, the easternmost part of a barrier island chain, is located 3.5 miles off the Big Bend coast, where the Crooked River merges into the Carrabelle River and then flows into St. George Sound. Small and remote, the island can only be reached by airplane, or by boat or ferry from the city of Carrabelle. The Nature Conservancy owns most of the island as a bird sanctuary, with the remaining portion privately owned residential property. Currently, Dog Island has fewer than 100 residents.
History: There is some evidence of human presence on Dog Island dating back as long as 8,000 years. The island also has a rich maritime history. The discovery of a 9th century canoe is a testament to the presence of prehistoric mariners on the island. During the 17th and 18th centuries the barrier islands became a haven of piracy and smuggling. On February 16, 1766, Le Tigre, a French merchant brigantine, was en route to New Orleans and wrecked 300 yards east of Dog Island in a great storm. A survivor, Monsieur Pierre Viaud, chronicled the experience. In 1799, the HMS Fox, a 14-gun British war schooner, wrecked later that year. During the Civil War, Dog Island was used by the Union Navy as a base for staging the blockade of Apalachicola. As part of the United States, economic shipping greatly increased in the area as St. Marks and Apalachicola became major ports on the Gulf Coast. Both sail and steam ships traveled to Dog Island to exploit its resources of lumber and naval stores such as turpentine and pitch products. In 1838, the Dog Island Light was built on the western tip of the island.
In 1899, the second hurricane of the season struck the area, almost destroying the town of Carrabelle, leaving just nine homes. Roughly six miles inland at McIntyre, only two mill boilers were left after the storm. The summer resort of Lanark Inn was said to have been "blown into the Gulf." The Carrabelle, Tallahassee, and Georgia Railroad was destroyed for a distance of 30 miles and a locomotive was displaced some 100 yards from the track. Fifteen ships, twelve of which were loaded with lumber, were sunk or destroyed, as were some 40 ships under 20 tons. Still visible today, t he scattered remains of a three-masted Norwegian Bark lies in the westernmost cove of
Dog Island Bay: Another shipwreck, the Priscilla, believed to be a late 19th century/early 20th century fishing smack built in Maine and owned by a Pensacola seafood company, lies in the surf zone directly opposite Shipping Cove on the Gulf side of the island. Records suggest she was recked sometime before 1917.
During World War II, Dog Island became part of Camp Gordon Johnston. Four separate camps comprised the complex: three for regimental combat teams, and the fourth for the headquarters and support facilities. Dog Island was used for practicing amphibious landings and airdrops.
Contact: www.anthro.fsu.edu/research/uw/research/ships/dog_island
A project, the Dog Island Shipwreck Survey, is being conducted by Florida State University to systematically search the waters off Dog Island, using acoustic and electromagnetic devices to discover and identify historic shipwrecks. |
