Trees and Crackers
Forest Capital Museum State Park
FL State Parks Quest: 36/175
Perry, FL
23 December 2018
Introduction
Two days before Christmas, a Sunday before two holidays off of work immediately following weekend, I made an impromptu staycation daycation vacation. I wanted to go kayak camping, but I was physically not up for it at all. My sense of adventure remained in a more subdued state, and I made my way to two state parks. I first went to Forest Capital Museum State Park before making my way to get into the holiday spirit at 'The Festival of Lights'
'The Festival of Lights' at Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park
'The Festival of Lights' at Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park
Park Profile - Forest Capital Museum State Park
- Region: North Central
- Year Established: 1968
- Location
- Physical Address: 204 Forest Park Drive Perry, FL 32348
- GPS: 30.080464, -83.566685
- Google Maps
- Distance from Tallahassee: 1 Hour
- Phone: 850.584.3227
- Fees:
- Park Admission: FREE
- Museum: $2/person
- FREE with an Annual Pass
- Hours: 09:00 - 17:00, Thursday to Monday [Closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays]
- FL State Parks Website
- FL State Parks Brochure
- FT Ranger on Duty: Yes
- Passport Stamp Location: Forest Capital Museum State Park
The Gear
The Story
When turning into the park, there is a picnic area and playground to your right. On the left was a UF IFAS Extension.
I parked at the museum entrance further down the road where I spent about 45 minutes to an hour talking to the ranger, Deb. Neither of us were really in a hurry to do much, and I welcomed the conversation. I stamped my passport and showed my annual pass to waive my $2 entrance fee to the museum.
I parked at the museum entrance further down the road where I spent about 45 minutes to an hour talking to the ranger, Deb. Neither of us were really in a hurry to do much, and I welcomed the conversation. I stamped my passport and showed my annual pass to waive my $2 entrance fee to the museum.
The Museum
I signed the guest book. This is something that I often forget to do at some places. After all, how else would I prove that I was actually there? ;)
The walls of the visitor center and this museum are made from wood called pecky cypress. The notable grooves are caused by stereum taxodii, which is a disease that attacks the tree's heart. When an alive, infected tree is cut, the disease stops allowing the wood to become decent lumber. When much of Florida's virgin cypress stands were cut in the early 20th century, they threw away the pecky cypress rendering it useless. Now it is "a builder's treasure."
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| Did you really go to the Forest Capital Museum State Park if you didn't take a selfie with this cray cray pine tree? |
This museum has much better exhibits than some of the other state park level museums I've visited. I don't think it's quite NPS quality but not bad. But to be fair the state parks are properly open right meow opposed to the federal government shutdown leaving parks open but not supervised.
Now think back to some 15 million years ago. What were you doing?
...Oh nothing? While the first of Florida's forests began growing? You were doing nothing?
It became a war of Forest vs Sea. When the climate fluctuates, huge ice sheets will either expand or retreat all over the planet. Florida happened because of a dropping sea level due to ice sheets exposing this land. The forests flourished for a bit until it stopped being so cold, and the ice sheets melted to flood Florida again. For just a few million years, we didn't have Florida. Maybe Mother Nature should have kept it this way.
This switch between forest and ocean occurred five times. When this sign was made, sea level was rising one inch per ten years.
About 10,000 years ago, the first Florida Man arrived. He did not have this title at the time because the Spanish had a few thousand more years to arrive and name the land. The forests provided Florida Man with food, clothing, shelter, and protection. Juan Ponce de Leon was the first European to discover the fruitful forests in 1513, and many more sailed across the big blue to follow suit. They were not very nice to the forests. The early communities used lumber for their houses and farming practices. Then the timber and turpentine industries of the 19th century depleted 27 million acres of forest, which leaves modern day Floridians with second growth timber.
1900 Turpentine Fire Still
Let's learn some turpentine lingo.
Now think back to some 15 million years ago. What were you doing?
...Oh nothing? While the first of Florida's forests began growing? You were doing nothing?
It became a war of Forest vs Sea. When the climate fluctuates, huge ice sheets will either expand or retreat all over the planet. Florida happened because of a dropping sea level due to ice sheets exposing this land. The forests flourished for a bit until it stopped being so cold, and the ice sheets melted to flood Florida again. For just a few million years, we didn't have Florida. Maybe Mother Nature should have kept it this way.
This switch between forest and ocean occurred five times. When this sign was made, sea level was rising one inch per ten years.
About 10,000 years ago, the first Florida Man arrived. He did not have this title at the time because the Spanish had a few thousand more years to arrive and name the land. The forests provided Florida Man with food, clothing, shelter, and protection. Juan Ponce de Leon was the first European to discover the fruitful forests in 1513, and many more sailed across the big blue to follow suit. They were not very nice to the forests. The early communities used lumber for their houses and farming practices. Then the timber and turpentine industries of the 19th century depleted 27 million acres of forest, which leaves modern day Floridians with second growth timber.
Naval Stores Industry
The history of naval stores supposedly dates back to Noah and his ark, however official records of the process occurred much later.
In 16th century Europe, they boiled the tapped resin from pine trees to make pitch, which they used to caulk the planking of ships. This is when the "Naval Stores" term originated. Later once they discovered the distillation process, they began producing turpentine. Turpentine was used in making paint, medicine, cosmetics, etc.
In North America, naval stores production began in Nova Scotia in 1606. The industry moved Southward along the East side of the continent. Three hundred years later in 1905, they began tapping Florida's longleaf and slash pines.
Let's learn some turpentine lingo.
- Turpentine: a volatile pungent oil distilled from gum turpentine or pine wood, used in mixing paints and varnishes and in liniment
- Bossman: the head honcho at turpentine stills
- Dip: the raw gum that is extracted from trees
- Chipping the tree: using a broad ax to remove a thin slab of bark and wood from the base of a tree
- Chips: the bark/wood axed off the tree
- Face: the exposed section of the tree where successful chips came off
- Charging: Cooking the dip in the large copper kettle
Now that we've developed some of the turpentine jargon, let's talk about the process.
- Get hired by the bossman.
- Chip the tree.
- Insert gutters into the face, then place a cup to catch the dip.
- Transfer the dip from the dip cup to a small dip barrel.
- Transfer the dip in the small dip barrel to a larger dip barrel in a mule drawn wagon.
- Unload the 500 pound dip barrel at the dip dock and casually just roll it up a wood ramp to the second level.
- Empty the barrel into the top of a copper kettle.
- Once the copper kettle is full, tighten the cap and begin charging.
- Repeat another three times for the day.
- Hope workers comp pays out when your back inevitably gives out.
The industry flourished through the early 1920s until the shift to a higher need for the timber than the resin. Turpentine production boomed again for World War II, but they used large central "turpentine distillery" plants, which put the small "cracker stills" out of business.
Nowaways, turpentine and rosin are still used, but the sources are from other products and processes. Animals no longer pull wagons because tractors exist. Steam powers the distilleries instead of firing up wood.
The Logging, Lumbering of Different Kinds of Trees
Logging camps and sawmills go hand in hand. The early era of logging first growth forest gave rise to the railroad's first main revenue. They would lay down railroad tracks to where the timber was cut. They would skid the logs to the track with oxen at first, then eventually with overhead railroad skidders. Once an area of land had been "logged", they would pick up the railroad tracks and lay them to another tract of timber. Trucks took the place of railroads eventually for logging second growth timber.
Huge bald cypress trees used to be abundant in Florida. Now, not so much. They are big - growing up to 170 feet tall and 15 foot trunk diameter. Because they are found in or right next to water, logging cypress was a whole different process. It's difficult to get a tractor, or even an animal-drawn wagon, in and out of a swamp. It was easier to build canals in the swamps where pull-boats and rafts would float down the canals to the mill. Eventually the railroad replaced the pull-boat canal system, not surprisingly. They built tracks on filled-in ground and pilings. The last stand of commerical-sized cypress was cut in Collier County. Below are some animals found in the cypress swamp communities:
There are types of cypress swamps: Cypress Dome & Cypress Swamp Forest.
-Cypress Dome is circular in shape and found in flatwoods communities with seldom water flow. When surrounding vegetation burns, animals seek refuge here.
-Cypress Swamp Forest is in lowland areas with lots of floodwater. They essentially trap the water and prevent water damage to areas further downstream. They also are great at cleansing water of sediments and pollutants.
--LIVE OAK
Live oak trees are more finicky than pine trees and require a longer, more patient process. If you try to cut fresh live oak logs, they will more than likely crack and split. If you soak them in creeks or bury them under a bunch of mud for just a few years, the logs will cut nice and easy.
Back in the 1800s, live oaks were a hot commodity. The powers of Spain, Great Britain, France, and the United States were competitive in searching for forests full of live oak trees and discovered the high abundance of them in Florida more than anywhere else in the known world. The industry where "Live Oakers" would cut and ship live oak timber to shipbuilders took off by 1830. The natural bend of the limbs was the main draw over other timbers in constructing a ship's ribs.
The USS Constitution, built in 1797, was one of the most famous live oak ships It was nicknamed "Old Ironsides" during the War of 1812 when a British sailor watched cannonballs bounce off the sides of the ship. In 1830 she was reported unseaworthy. I got to go on the (now very refurbished) ship when I was in Boston July 2017.
The Federal Government held these Northwest Florida live oak forests in reserve for the ship building industry. Using wood to build ships came to a very quick end after the Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack in 1862. Both ironclad ships were practically indestructible at the time. The government released the lands to homesteading in 1885, where people decided clearing fields to plant crops was more important than having these gorgeous forests.
More About Trees and Forests
There were more displays discussing forest ecology, damaging forest agents (such as insects and diseases), photosynthesis, tree anatomy, prescribed burns, artificial restoration, types of forest communities, layers of the forest, etc. Frankly already an overload of information already, so I won't dive in especially since I talk about some of these concepts in other posts. I thought the history of turpentine and logging was more important.
Pine Trees Have Sex Too
For a moment I thought it would be a funny idea to act out each of the six steps of pine tree birth, but then I realized it would be a really big waste of time to coordinate accurate costume, poses, and camera angle.
Forest Succession
I will touch on succession though, since it has been mentioned in some of the history above. Succession is the gradual and orderly replacement of one group of plants and animals by another.
Primary Succession is the process of vegetation growing in a place that none has ever been grown. Examples could include newly formed islands, dried up lake bottoms, and sand dunes. These places are not suitable for the growth of most plants, but strong, adaptable vegetation will find a way.
Once primary community development is disrupted (fire, lumbering, cultivation, etc.), the new growth is considered Secondary Succession. The severity of the disturbance determines the rate of the new growth. Florida only has secondary succession currently due to farming and lumbering all across the state.
The second forest that we have today is not sustainable for the future. Several task forces have been formed in the southern states to provide incentives and assistance to growing the "Third Forest". The sign in the museum is incredibly outdated stating that the estimated cost is $100 million a year and to have most of the work completed by 1985 in order to double the timber growth by 2000. I'd like to see more up-to-date figures.
Forest Products
The center of the museum displays various products made from tree materials. In the middle of the center is a mini cracker homestead, which brings me to the outdoor portion of my visit.
"Cracker" Homestead
From an entry in Urban Dictionary: "Florida was the lead cattle producing state in America, Florida cracker is from when the men were cracking their whips on the cattle to get on the ships to go to the more northern states. Descendants of Florida crackers are also considered Florida crackers. Florida cracker does not mean a man who cracked his whip on slaves or white trash."
One of Florida's best and well-known breweries is Cigar City Brewing in Tampa, FL. One of their beers is called 'Florida Cracker'. Reading the rest of this post will be better if you crack open a can.
This tour of a "Cracker" homestead gives background and an explanation to the term.
This tour of a "Cracker" homestead gives background and an explanation to the term.
"There is an old Florida, call it Cracker Florida if you will, where a distinctive way of life and attitudes persist, where houses and barns seem little changed, but this Florida exists only in pockets and seems harder to find with each passing year." - Clark I. Cross
This 1864 hand built log house 'The Whiddon house' was donated to the Florida Department of Natural Resources and also the people of Taylor County in honor of Senator L. P. Ipetei Gibson by his wife, Grace H. Gibson, in 1972.
There were two separate bedrooms. One was for the parents and a newborn baby, while the other is for Granny and the children. Once more children are born, rooms gets added to the sides of the back porch - eventually one for the boys and one for the girls.
This is the kitchen, intentionally separated from the rest of the house because of the potential of a fire. The round, double-notched pine logs of which the kitchen is constructed of would have no problem burning if the open 6-foot fireplace were to get out of hand.
Outside the house but still inside the picket fence are several structures used daily on the homestead. First up are the well and dinner bell.
Followed by the pantry house and outhouse.
Outside the house but still inside the picket fence are several structures used daily on the homestead. First up are the well and dinner bell.
Within the Split-Rail Fence, Outside the Picket Fence
The more exterior split-rail fence was made from long-leaf yellow pine with the purpose of keeping out cattle and wild hogs. The picket fence defines the house's yard and has a gate. It is made from cypress and yellow pine. There's no grass in the yard and was constantly swept to avoid fires.
Guess what? Chicken butt. Guess when? Chicken pen. Guess why? Chicken pot pie...?
Guess what? Chicken butt. Guess when? Chicken pen. Guess why? Chicken pot pie...?
Barn and Corn Crib
The barn holds hay, feed, saddles, and farm tools while the feed for the animals is stored inside the corn crib along with some of the farm plows.
Smokehouse
Need I say more?
Sugar Cane and Syrup Making
The first picture here is a cane grinder, which is accurately named due to it's purpose of grinding sugar cane. They would then cook it in the large iron kettle to make syrup.
A commercial example of a historic sugar mill is at Yulee Sugar Mill Ruins Historic State Park. This is a link to my blog post of my visit 9/30/2018.
Nature
Here are a few pretty nature pics to end with.
Roar for More!
Hurdles
I received a new wide angle lens for Christmas, and a lot of the pictures are me figuring out how and when to use it. Sadly no crazy moments of idiocy in the backcountry this time around.
Quote
"The world's forests are a shared stolen treasure that we must put back for our children's future." - Desmond Tutu
