FFG_Vol5_No1_WEB

SPOOKY October 1 9th Annual HISTORY COMES ALIVE at the Dunedin Historic Cemetery. Six citizens of Dunedin, who now rest at the cemetery, will be portrayed by volunteer reenac-tors in order to tell visitors about early Dunedin. The cemetery is located off of Main Street (SR 580), on Keene Road (CR 1) south of Virginia Street. $1.00 admission fee includes parking, program, and refreshments. For more info call 727-736-1176.

From the sublime to the slimey at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

OPENING Sept. 24 – Jan. 2, 2006. GAINESVILLE. T. John Moran’s “Journal of Light: A Photographers Search for the Soul of Florida” traveling exhibit from The exhibit features more than 50 color photo-graphs of Florida wildlife and environments with an emphasis on Florida waters.

OPENING Sept. 24, GAINESVILLEIN SEARCH OF GIANT SQUID

What’s bigger than a school bus and battles sperm whales? Who has the world’s largest eye and blue blood? Discover the underwater world of the giant squid. For more info call 352-864-2000.

Just a few of the many reasons to read theFlorida Frontier Gazette.

Subscribe today.

This publication has been financed in part with historic preserva-tion grant assistance provided by the Bureau of Historic Preser-vation, Division of Historical Resources, Florida Department of State, assisted by the Florida Historical Commission. However, the contents and opinions do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Florida Department of State, nor does the mention of trade names or commercial products constitute endorsement or recommendation by the Florida Department of State.

CONTENTS

Page2. COVER STORY - Symphony of Smoke and Fire: The Pottery of J. Martin Haythorn

5. HISTORIC PRESERVATION - Belleair’s “White Queen of the Gulf”

6. POET’S CORNER Chic-a-si and the Healing Spring

7. FEATURE - The Lost City of the Tocobaga

8. PONDERINGS - On Arrowhead

9. CRACKER TALES - Life on the Bayou

10. COMMUNITY SPIRIT PARTNER - Pinellas County’s Heritage Village

12. COMMUNITY SPIRIT PARTNER - Orange County Regional History Center

13. THROUGH WOMEN’S EYES - Frills, Flounces and Fripperies

18 - 19. CENTERFOLD - A Day in Florida History

21. FEATURE - A Reenactor’s Check List

22. TALES - Works Stone

26. JOHNNY’S CORNER - The Brick Oven

24. MAMMA’S KITCHEN - Camp Cookin’ the Old Fashioned Way

30. BOOKS & EDITORIAL

31 - 35. EVENTS & EXHIBITS 5pagesoffun-filledweekends.

35 - 36. COMMUITY SPIRIT PARTNERS

The Florida Frontier Gazette is published quartely by the Historic Florida Mlitia Inc.

Volume 5 Number 1Fall 2005

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Florida Frontier Gazette5409 21st Ave. S. Gulfport, FL 33707

(727)321-7845 E-mail: [email protected]

QUIZ

Read the stories in this issue of FLORIDA FRONTIER GAZETTE.Then answere this quiz. (For those of you who prefer to just look at the pictures, we have provided the answers at the bottom of the page).

1. Marty Haythorn reproduces the ancient ceramic art of the ______ ______.

2. The Beleview Biltmore had ___ gables when it was built.

3. The Belleview Biltmore had its own police and fire departments.

4. Pedro Menendez went to Tocobaga to?5. The soldiers and settlers at Fort Brooke were

plagued by diseases and ______.6. Nearly ______ were employed in making the

popular cashmere shawl.7. It took ______ bricks to build the oven and it

only weighs ______ tons.8. Hot coals are place ______ the Dutch oven.

ANSWERS 1. Mound Builders, 2. 67, 3. police and fire, 4. make peace, 5 fleas, 6. 5000, 7. 900, 8. under and on top of.

STAFF

Grant Administrator: George WatsonEditor: Elizabeth NeilyGraphics: Hermann TrappmanProof Reader: Lester R. Dailey Proof Reader/Writer: Jude Bagattiplus our Special Volunteers feature writers, artists, and photographers without whom this magazine would not be possible.

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COVER STORY by Marty & Lindajo Haythorn, Thomasville, GA

Flames climb high into the sky, illuminating the night, creating illusions of spirits in the twists and curls of smoke. Whistling and crackling pecan branches burn, lending a soothing music to the air. A listening ear can hear the chants and calls of America’s First People as times past merge with the present through the artistic pottery work of J. Martin (Marty) Haythorn.

later in Havana, Cuba. In 1925 he won an unprecedented three Grand Prix awards at the International Decorative Arts Exhibition in Paris. Through his association with Dr. Edgar Banks and Dr. Hale Smith, Ivan eventually came to Tallahassee, an exile from Cuba, and began reproducing Southeastern Indian artifacts.

Symphony of Smoke and Fire The Pottery of J. Martin Haythorn

America’s first people were artists. Long before the arrival of Europeans they created excep-tional works of art from stone, clay, shell, antler, fibers, and other natural materials. They felt a deep sense of reverence for and connection with not only the vis-ible, material world, but with a spiritual world as well. For them, all of creation was sacred. This was expressed and reflected in the artwork they created. It is through an appreciation of this perspective that Marty has been called to the central mission of his life: preserv-ing, promoting and reviving that Southeastern artistic tradition.

Marty’s heritage is both Native American and Euro-pean. His interest in Native American pottery began as a child when his family traveled throughout the Southwest. There he met Maria Martinez and other exceptional Native American potters and began a lifelong passion for pottery making. He has produced and taught pottery for over 30 years. During the mid-seventies he met ethnographic artist Ivan Gundrum in Tallahassee and worked closely with him producing museum quality reproductions of Southeastern Native American pottery.

Ivan was born in 1892 in the small Croatian town of Oriovac. He was classically trained in art schools since the age of 10. He worked at the Acropolis, the Hermitage Mu-seum in Saint Petersburg (Lenin-grad), Russia and directed his own decorative arts business in Vienna, Austria and

With Ivan’s guidance, Marty perfected his ability to work from shards or documents to reproduce and replicate the art of the Mound Builders, and has trained other artists to work with him. By experimenting with indigenous clays and pre-Columbian production techniques such as pit-firing, stone burnishing and etching, Marty has added a new dimen-sion to his reproductions. His work has an aesthetic quality that makes them nearly indistinguishable from the originals.

When the form and surface design on any missing por-tion of an original artifact is obvious, Marty reproduces a whole vessel, faithfully recreated the missing portions. These vessels, referred to as reproductions, are similar in form and appearance to the original pieces, as they may have looked when first created by Native Americans. When

AnassemblageofMarty’spotteryinthepit-fire.

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the form and surface design on missing portions of an artifact is unknown, Marty recreates them as replicas or interpretive pieces. Replicas are produced to resemble artifacts as they appear after excavation, with missing portions absent. These pieces include effigy heads and partial vessels. Interpretive pieces are whole vessels that have had missing portions com-pleted by artistic license. These are Marty’s best guess as to what the original piece may have looked like. Examples of interpretive pieces include recreations of the wooden artifacts discovered by the Pepper-Hearst expedition at Key Marco, Florida, led by Frank Cushing. These pieces are reproduced in clay by Marty and painted by his wife Lindajo to resem-ble the originals as they may have looked when the Calusa Indians first made them. Traces of color are evident in the watercolors done by Wells Sawyer at the time of the excava-tions. However, after centuries beneath the coastal muck, the precise coloring and patterns are unknown.

He has won numerous awards throughout the Southeast. “Seascape Emerging” was awarded Best of Show in Tifton, Georgia and First Place in Valdosta Georgia.

Marty’s newest works involve the techniques of etch-ing or deep carving. Etching is done on a highly burnished piece after it has been fired. A design is drawn on the piece in pencil, and then etched with a dremel, electric etcher and dental tools. Deep carving is done when the piece is leather-hard, before firing. Often, a variety of clays are used on a single piece giving it a much-desired contrast of colors. Etching and deep carving give a more refined and intricate quality to a piece than the pre-Columbian technique of incising.

In recent years Marty has joined a handful of artists who have been researching and reviving the Native Ameri-can artistic traditions of this region. In June of 2004 and 2005, Moundville Archaeological Park in Alabama, under the leadership of Betsy Gilbert, hosted Fusing Red Earth,

a gathering of ceramic artists, both native and non-native, doing traditional, contemporary and replication work. Museum personnel, archaeologists, scholars, tribal members and students joined them in sharing knowledge of the art, technology and evolution of ceramics in the Southeast. Marty attended, not only as a featured artist, but also as a panelist for sev-eral discussions. Program features included open discussions, panel presentations, view-ing institutional collections of prehistoric and historic indigenous ceramic and public days

While Marty continues to expand the work begun by Ivan, he also designs and produces original, one-of-a-kind, contemporary works of art. He wants not only to show what Native Americans of the Southeast created in the past through his reproductions, but also to contribute to a revival of the Southeastern tradition. His contemporary pieces are wheel-thrown, coil-built and/or hand sculpted. They often incorporate pre-Columbian forms, design elements and production techniques. Some are stone-burnished or embellished with beads, fiber or shell gorgets. Most are pit-fired using indigenous clays, but contemporary techniques such as Raku firing or hair firing are also used.

where artists demonstrated and exhibited their works. Moundville will host a third gathering, while other gath-erings are being planned in conjunction with a traveling exhibit, tentatively slated for opening at the Wiregrass Museum, Dothan Alabama, in the winter of 2007.

Above, Marty Haythorn carefully carves out holes in an owl ef-figypot.

Burnishing gives some pottery designs a smooth sheen.

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The exhibit will display and interpret Southeastern Native American ceramic art forms from the earliest pottery found on the North American continent to the modern works being created today. Because the cultural art world focuses primar-ily on the indigenous art of the Southwest, a major exhibit goal is to create a national awareness of the excellence of these ceramic works through time.

Native American cultural heritage is important not only to Native Americans, but to all people of this planet. In understanding and appreciating their artwork we are given a glimpse of the heart and soul of humanity. We see ourselves in a new light and we are reminded of deeper truths about who we are. Marty’s work, the Fusing Red Earth gatherings and the upcoming traveling exhibit are all dedicated to the contribution that Native American artwork has given us all.

Marty’s work can be viewed at many galleries and museums in the Southeast, as well as on his web-site www.ancienthands.com, designed by his son Brian Haythorn.

Contact information: Marty HaythornAncient Hands

P.O. Box 52Thomasville, GA 31792

email: [email protected]: www.ancienthands.com

Phone: 229-227-0101For information about

❇ ❇ ❇ ❇ ❇ ❇ ❇ ❇ ❇ ❇ ❇ ❇ ❇ ❇

HumanandBirdEffigyPots

Fusing Red Earth or the traveling exhibit, contact: Betsy Gilbert, Edu-

cation Outreach CoordinatorMoundville Archaeological Park

P.O. Box 870340Tuscaloosa, AL 35487

email: [email protected]: 205-371-2234

Moundville website: http//Moundville.ua.edu

Acollectionoffinishedpottery,basedonSoutheast Indian designs.

Martywithoneofhisfinelycraftedbowls.

Photos courtesy of Ancient Hands. Cover photo courtesy of Neily Trappman Studio.

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Like an aging movie star, the Belleview Biltmore Resort & Spa has seen better days. The windowsills are rumored to have termites, and blue plastic tarps still cover the roof damage from last year’s hurricanes. But it doesn’t take much imagination to see why this magnificent edifice was once called the “White Queen of the Gulf.” It was part of the parallel chains of hotels built in the1890s by the rival railroad magnates known as the “Two Henrys,” Flagler on Florida’s east coast and Plant on its west coast, and it is the only surviving one still being used as a hotel. Construction started in 1895, and the Belleview opened on January 15, 1897. There were barely enough superlatives in the dictionary to describe the 820,000-square-foot structure. It had two miles of corridors, 67 roof gables and 1,700 windows. Only after some enterprising salesman, years later, pulled off the biggest sales job in the history of aluminum siding was the need for frequent 1,000-gallon paint jobs eliminated. Even today, the 244-room hotel is believed to be the largest in-habited wooden structure in the world. Guests didn’t come for a week or a month, but for the entire season. It was not

The Belleview had its own police department, fire depart-ment and post office, which it shared with the town that was growing up around the hotel. Today, Belleair is an upscale enclave of approximately 4,100 residents including Terry Bollea, better known as wrestling superstar Hulk Hogan. In 1919, the Belleview was sold to John McEntee Bow-man, who added the name of his Biltmore chain to its name. But the Great Depression of the 1930s took a toll on all the grand hotels of Florida. During World War II, the Belleview Biltmore was used as overflow housing for Army Air Corps trainees at Mac-Dill Field in Tampa. With its windows that faced the water painted black, it housed as many as 3,000 men at a time.

by Lester R. Dailey, Largo

Belleair’s “White Queen of the Gulf” faces an uncertain future

Historic Preservation

unusual to see 15 private rail-road cars lined up on the hotel’s rail siding. From there, the luggage for the guests and their servants was taken into the ho-tel’s basement on narrow-gauge railroad tracks. The guest list reads like a Who’s Who of the 20th century. It includes U.S. presidents Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush; inventors Thomas Edison and Henry Ford; baseball legends Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio; British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the Duke of Windsor. With the popularity of bicycling at the turn of the 20th century, the hotel had a wooden velodrome where six-day bike races and other international cycling events were held. By the start of World War I, the original 9-hole golf course with sand greens was replaced by two 18-hole courses with the only grass greens in Florida.

After the war, the hotel never really got back on its feet and went through a series of owners. In the 1990s, Mido Develop-ment, a Japanese ownership group, added a pyramid-shaped glass entry, similar to the one at the Louvre, to the lobby. Recently, the current owner, Urdang & Associates, a Penn-sylvania-based pension fund manager, signed a contract to sell the 160-acre hotel grounds and golf course to DiBartolo Development, which wants to build condos on it, and ap-plied for a demolition permit from the town of Bellair. The

The Belleview Biltmore, circa 1950, courtesy of BELLEAIR BEE

soft setting lights seep up along the mangrove treesand pink in steps that line the shaping skyas tides run slowly in for Nu-wa’s scout

each gentle, water wave lands softly left against the rising sea, and forward thruststhe oaken boat and braves to sugar sand

the tallest brave pulls in his wooden oar and hears the spirit breeze turn leaves in songsthat greet each red man’s heart with peace

the islet glows around the setting sun.

Tall-scout takes native boats along the shoreacrossaninletfreetofindthehawk’ssoftnestin spring’s warm winds on trees that bud in hues goldflowers,brightandbold,reachbluingskieswith clouds that seem beyond the shining, restless, amber rise of reaching morning light

Nu-wa’s men seek rocks that run the beach near nests.white egret and blue heron feathers fall soft on sandwhere nature’s dress proliferates a sacred site

cyprus trees blend upward arms with hawking nestsoffeatherbedsforbabesinhungerfits,and nature’s fowls in feeding frenzy shriek

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permitting process is going slowly, partly because of the amount of asbestos in the building, but there seems to no law pre-venting the destruction of the historic structure. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979, but that is little more than an inventory of historic sites that offers no real protection. Likewise,

The Belleview Biltmore, circa 2005, by Chary Southmayd courtesy of BELLEAIR BEE

its recent inclusion on the National Trust for Historic Places list of America’s eleven most endangered historic sites is largely symbolic. A grassroots movement to save the Bel-leview Biltmore has recently split into two factions. One group, dubbed the “purists,” wants to preserve the entire property exactly as it is and feels that the other group is too cozy with a developer who wants to save part of the hotel property and develop the rest.

Nobody knows what the future holds for Henry B. Plant’s “White Queen of the Gulf.” But if you want to be able to tell your grandchildren that you once stayed in the historic Belleview Biltmore, now might be a good time to make the reservations.

Chic-a-si and the Healing Springby Jim Sole, Largo ©

the islet glows around the setting sun.the healing spring arises from the larger rocks

Nu-wa’s men pack healing, sulfur tans with white,softfeatherpuffsandgoldenflowerfoldinto warm water springs of spirit breathing urns

the Nu-wa chief, best friend of Chic-a-si,in passing to Tocobaga’s drying landwith sacred, spirit dance and feather tufts,

gives honor to the ailing Chic-a-si,so thin and sick in withering, warm deathatfirsthisspiritfalls,thenspinslikewind

thebreezefliesuptowaitinghawksandflowslike leaden clouds search trees and land for restbefore they drop their spirit mist to earth

birds shriek and Nu-wa calls to Chic-a-sias coils return three times to gust the groundandflappalmettoleavesofchickeehuts

then Chic-a-si drifts down to O-ca-la and drinks, again, from Nu-wa’s sulfur springs until the spirits mend his beating heart

across the water waves to sugar sandthe littered Chic-a-si and tribal friendsnow drink from healing springs and spirit mist

the islet glows around the setting sun.the healing spring arises from the larger rocks.indian rocks warm beaches breath a gentle sea.

POET’S CORNER

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How do you look for a lost a lost city, especially if modern development covers it? I started with all the written material from the earliest Spanish invaders. Then, I went to the modern archaeology books. I listened to yarns from local folks. Armed with all that, I took out some maps of the area. What was I looking for? I was searching for the ancient city of Tocobaga. This place, this Tampa Bay, is an amazing place. It’s filled with the stories of the people who lived here before us. Evidence of our really ancient human history extends back at

least 12,000 years ago. Maximo Park in south St. Petersburg has almost 12,000 years of continuous human history. On the Odgen map, first printed in 1879, you can see Maximo Point listed. Through a magnifying glass, it looks like there was a mound there. Following the coastline east and north, we come to downtown St. Petersburg. In 1879, there was no downtown much less a St. Petersburg. Close to a feature named Booker Creek, you can see the ancient citadel of the native people who lived here. The map shows six temple mounds, four of which are surrounded by a berm enclosing about forty acres. Continuing north, to the head of the bay, we can make out a tiny mound next to the writing “Phillipis Pt.”

Letters may be areas of archaeologial interest.

Numbers indicate height in feet above sea level.

Map based on U.S.G.S. maps and Coastal Chart No. 177, Circa 1879.

The Lost City of the Tocobaga

Feature Story by Hermann Trappman, Gulfport

The map below indicates that there was probably a large Tocobaga city in present day Safety Harbor.

This is the place I was looking for. Archae-ologist define it as the Safety Harbor Culture. In 1527, the Spanish governor of Florida, Pedro Menendez, came here on a very special mission. He came to make peace. He came with the Honored Man of the Calusa, a nation to the south. The Calusa of Charlotte Harbor and the ten-thousand Islands were at war with the people of Tampa Bay. The governor had lost a son in a shipwreck somewhere along Florida’s west coast. He hoped that the Tocobagas had found the young man. The Tocobagas were a large state which extended from the northern fringes of Charlotte Harbor, through Tampa Bay, to just north of Crystal River. Their capital city in 1567 was at the northern end of Tampa Bay. Menéndez slipped in to the bay under the cloak of darkness with six ships under his command. There was no moon. Indians always kept alert guard dogs. Were the dogs restless? The ships were almost noiseless. Did officers caution their crews to be quiet? Was the scent of the Spanish ships being blown toward the east? I imagine an early riser stumbling out into the gray-violet of the early dawn. There against the horizon, he saw a strange image. Six dark ships lay at anchor, their sails furled, their masts a new dark forest. He raised the alarm. A city crier rushed from the “Honored Man’s” home, blowing an alarm on his horse conch trumpet. The warning is picked up by other quarters of a sprawling city. A sudden con©2005

“I landed on two spots this afternoon and picked up a dozen.You would say it had rained arrowheads for they lie all over the surface of America. The lie in the meeting house cellar, and they lie in the distant cow pasture. They are sown like grain...over the earth. Each one, yields me a thought... It is humanity inscribed on the face of the earth. It is a foot print...rather a mind print...left every-where... They are not fossil bones, but, as it were, fos-sil thoughts forever reminding me of the mind that shaped them. I am on the trail of mind.” - Henry David Thoreau (1817-1852)

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fusion. Families running with what they could carry. Their best escape by water cut off by the Spanish ships, they make for the forest on the high bluffs behind the city. Babies cry in the panic. Youngsters who can make it on their own are caught up in the chaos. Tampa Bay has been a target for conquistadors in 1528 and again in 1539. Fray Barbastro died somewhere along its shores in 1549. A revenge killing. Anger and fear of the Spanish ran deep in these waters. But just where was Tocobaga? Maps can be a confusion of information. What I needed was something which would simplify the images, and target the most likely settlement sites. I scanned United States Geological Survey maps into the computer. The five foot contour levels are shaded in a gray scale. In other words for every five feet in height, a slightly lighter gray is used to fill in the contours. The finished map revealed an amazingly detailed black and while image of the landscape. Features stand out. When I finished, I was looking at a fascinating image. Most people like to have a steady source of fresh water close at hand. Vance Perkey, the Park Ranger at Philippe Park, told me that their may have been two springs close to the mound. One has been channeled and now feeds into the bay underground. The other is merely a wet spot to the west-south-west of the mound. It’s close to the location where, Pinellas pioneer, Odet Philippe’s is believed to have settled. However, a city worthy of the visit from the Governor of La Florida may have required more water. Bishop Creek is to the north of Philippe Park. To the south are Mullet and Alligator Creek. If there were real population areas, they should be close by these Creeks. The gray-scale map shows some other very interesting features. The topography of downtown Safety Harbor looks like the spiral of a Lightning whelk. The Tocobaga used the

lightning whelk as a sacred vessel for their ritual “black drink.” ceremonies. Could a feature as large as an entire downtown been significant to the ancient people? Would they have even noticed its shape. The feature is 25 feet high at its crest, and that’s a significant elevation when there’s a hurricane and most of the landscape is close to sea level. It’s important not to leap to conclusions here. To the west and southwest are two hills which reach to 50 feet. One crest looks like an upside-down “T” on the U.S.G.S. map. That’s odd. Was it shaped that way recently? Could it be a modern ball field? All in all, I’ve spotted about 13 interesting landscape features scattered throughout the area of Safety Harbor. Armed with the map, it’s time to go and look at the actual locations. Photographing the area will give a real sense of place. I may be able to pinpoint where modern develop-ment has changed the ancient terrain. I invited my wife along to shoot photos of the cityscape. The photographs gave us everything we’re hoping for. Even with the construction, which appears to have happened from the 1930s through the 60s, there is little of the significant kind of landscaping we tend to do now. This looks good. With fresh water streams all around it and a spring right on its shore, I’d bet that downtown Safety Harbor is the real city of Tocobaga, close to where Menéndez landed, and the site of a lost Spanish colony. If the lost Spanish colony built their village on the low ground to the north of the main city, it would explain why their food reserves spoiled. I would guess that the Tocobaga city sprawled north to Philippe Park, where the remains of a temple mound are today, and south to the south side of Alligator Lake. Now it’s time to get help and to think about grants to begin the archaeological search. Finding a lost city is a task that cantake long time and requires many heads and hands.

I have been reading/studying Thoreau here of late and came across a passage that just made my day. You might have already read this but I figured I would pass it on anyway.I actually found this in a book of essays and poems by Loren Eiseley. The book is is entitled “The Star Thrower”. The following quote from Thoreau comes from the chapter entitled; Walden: Thoreau’s Unfinished Business. This is Thoreau’s take on arrowheads.

On Arrowheads

PONDERINGS

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by Ben DeHart, The Cracker Tenor

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I grew up in Florida’s panhandle, on the horizon between the mouths of two rivers, the Black and Yellow Water Rivers. As a little girl, very protected in the embrace of a little bayou (pronounced: by-yo), I learned Mother Natures secret’s from the whisper of the water against the shore, the wind in the spreading branches of the live oaks, and from my mothers poignant observations. I played there and learned there, mostly alone, but I wasn’t lonely. As I grew up, the horizon tempted, and I moved away. It’s strange how things can call you back.

Not until I approached my 50s, did Mother Nature ever come around sufficiently fierce to threaten our blue or sometimes green cinderblock home. Built strong, and as eccentrically sure as our mother Juanita’s design, the house climbed up out of that bottom land. Black hands stacked the block so deftly, their stories became family legends, snatches of wisdom. Once, when my father,Woodrow, asked how many cinderblocks he thought he could stack

in an hour, the gentleman replied, “Sir, if there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s not to let my mouth overload my ass.”

Mother Nature’s fury has come and gone. Hurricanes’ furry swept over us. The cinderblock home was destroyed, its memories scattered among the roots and weeds. Still I find myself with homeland between the mouths of the Yellow and Blackwater rivers, wondering now, how our ancestors learned to live in this environment and how they built and from what materials? I think we too must learn to migrate or perhaps to build tall 30 foot mounds of earth to live upon.

We had a break in the fierce hurricanes between the 1920s through the 1970s, so growing up there on the bay was safe. The storms were just large enough to learn to “take what was important to you” and to understand that the rest may not be there when we returned home. I learned not to be materialistic, to be fed by and in awe of nature.

With family in Miami, we traveled. The advertisements of the road side attractions filled my young mind. When I was little, in my youthful opinion, the only truly large aspiration for a small Florida Cracker girl was to be a Weekie Wachee Mermaid. So I spent my days on the bayou learning to hold my breath for over a minute while smiling under the dark waters of Blackwater Bay. If I was fortunate enough to get a ride with older teenagers driving through the woods to the Gulf of Mexico, I would practice holding my breath over the Yellow River Swamp bridge. It was just long enough to pass the requirement for holding your breath as a future mermaid.

There were no other children around, so I practiced elaborate synchronized swimming routines, alone, in the Bay, pretending the other girls were there. The only thing to fear were loggerhead turtles, of which I was terrified! One had bitten the leg off of my once wild, turned “pet white duck.” I found him swimming in circles where the gentle waves met the sand. He pecked me on the nose one time and then died. My mother explained that because ducks’ legs were hollow that he had become waterlogged and there was nothing I could have done. Furthermore, she told me, “Child, a loggerhead can bite a grown man’s arm clean off!” Little did she know that I sized my tiny neck up to my Uncle Snap’s bicep and began a childhood fear of having my head bitten off by a loggerhead turtle. I tell this to explain the determination it took to practice my craft and to say, that for me it was fear of loggerhead turtles under the bed at night, that kept my small fingers and toes from ever extending beyond the edges of my mattress.

Cracker Tales

See Bayou page 12

Community Spirit Partner

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Have you discovered Largo’s gem? It’s setting is Pinewood Cultural Park, and shining within that multi-faceted site are the Florida Botanical Gardens, County Extension offices and Gulf Coast Museum of Art. One ultra-brilliant facet is Heritage Village, 21 acres of native pine and palmetto sheltering 28 historic structures.

events, hands-on activities and fun offered for all ages. “Our POP program, “Pieces of the Past,” presents living history with volunteer and staff interpreters who engage people in conversation and life ways of the past.” “Rope-making, laundry, blacksmithing, paper-making, weaving, cotton spinning, sewing and outdoor black kettle

PINELLAS COUNTY’S HERITAGE VILLAGEBy Jude Bagatti, Gulfport

M y d i c t i o n a r y def ines her i tage as “property or something handed down from one’s ancestors or the past, as a characteristic, culture or tradition.” Properties in this Village have not only been handed down, but handed over. All its structures have been transported to the Park from elsewhere. S u l p h u r S p r i n g s Depot, a train station, c a m e f r o m a n a r e a near Busch Gardens . T h e C o a c h m a n -M c M u l l e n L o g C a b i n , b u i l t i n t h e 1850s , i s the o ldes t exis t ing s t ructure in PinellasConstruct ion

cooking are some of the old time endeavors visitors can not only see, but experience for themselves,” she said. My mouth watered at her descriptions of Cracker cooking; black pot dinners of boiled vegetables, stews, cheese herb biscuits, and orange bread pudding.

“We have three major themes for Saturday birthday parties,” Babb explained. “Each 90-minute program offers games, crafts and a mystery adventure to one of the historic houses.” The Heritage 500 racecar theme features a 1929 Model A Ford converted to a truck, and the building of model cars. The Viva Victorian program includes paper- making and calligraphy, while sack racing and model log cabin building are part of the Pioneer Roundup program. The air-conditioned schoolhouse is the party place for these lucky kids.

o f a repl ica of the Wil l iams Park Bandstand is presently underway. In 1895 the women of St. Petersburg raised funds to build that first real public space for concerts, rallies and lectures. It’s expected the replica will serve a similar purpose in the Village after its free ice cream social opening in September. The newest acquisition to the Village is a 1930s Gulf of Mexico Sponge Warehouse, relocated from Tarpon Springs last year. When it’s fully restored, visitors will be able to either watch demonstrations or participate in the clipping, sorting and trimming of sponges. Ellen Babb, Historian and Marketing Coordinator, is herself, a glowing facet of our gem. Seventeen years with Heritage Village has not dulled her enthusiasm. She sparkles with excitement and pride for the multitude of

See Heritage page 11

Carolyn Roderer has been an interpreter for the Village for ten years. She enthusia-tially shows visitors around the Plant-Sumner House.

Right, the Williams Park Bandstand [under construction] opened to visitors at the Village’s ice cream social in September. Courtesy NTS.

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Wendy Knott-Comer on the Education Team has interpreted history at the Village for four years. Six days a week, interpreters don costumes and interact with visitors. “We choose a building and do something with the public. They watch, then we say, ‘come here and try it.’ It’s our job to bring the site to life.” To do that, visitors are coaxed (or coerced, Wendy laughed) into trying to shell black-eyed peas, make rope from sisal, seed cotton bolls, dig up the sugar cane field for replanting, plow gardens, or do hand laundry on scrub boards. No amount of coaxing would get me scrubbing laundry, but I wouldn’t mind having a go at shelling peas or plowing fields. According to Wendy, people just love to touch the past. I have to agree, providing that the touch is temporary. Don’t expect me to give up the washing machine. Well, maybe, for the right kind of gem. Take a virtual tour of the structures and rooms of Heritage Village online at www.pinellascounty.org/heritage.

Heritage continued from page 11

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Bayou continued from page 10

Heritage Mercantile was moved to Heritage Village from south St. Petersburg. Today it houses a country store, a service station and a barbershop.

11909 – 125th St. North, Largo, FL727-582-2123

Hours: Tuesday thru Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sunday, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

NTS©2005

As the only kid in our area surrounded by 24 acres with over a thousand feet of bayfront, I was the child of poor Florida Crackers. There were no toys and my older siblings were grown and gone. They had explored the land before me and had already found all the arrowheads from the Indian community that lived on the bay before us. My mother explained to me more than once that if I was bored, it was my own fault!

Once I waited an entire day for a colorful ball, that I spotted on the water’s horizon, to follow the currents and the waves to see if would come ashore to me. It did! I was thrilled. What were the chances of it landing there for me when there were miles of curved beaches for it to pick? I still remember the pink and white swirls of the kickball-sized gift that looked as if it had come from K-Mart. This was quite a treat in an area where the closest store was in Pensacola. A town I never traveled to until I was old enough to need braces.

Before I was born, there had been a ferry to Pensacola and I often dreamed of being able to travel there. However the old ferry, which was known as “The Tampa,” had burned and sunk deep in the bay in front of our house and all that was left was the old smokestack sticking up enough so that you could see it when the tide was low. Once I rodeout to it with the teenagers and there was an old dead

alligator wrapped around the smokestack. My friends, at the public school in town, had mowed-

grass lawns with sidewalks connecting their houses. I often dreamed of being able to walk over to a friend’s house to play. The closest child to me lived miles around the curving shore of the bay and I had to first breach our deep bayou to get there. Knowing the creatures that inhabited the bay: ‘gators, ‘gator gar, and loggerheads, made it tough to get the nerve to swim alone in the deep waters. But I thought myself to be a chicken for not swimming across and walking to the one child’s house that I knew of. Once across the bayou, it took a considerable amount of time to navigate the roots and swampy sections of reeds to get there. The walk was nothing compared to the nerve it took to take that first plunge into our deep bayou that separated our land from the rest of the territory. Once across it, the wandering was contemplative and gentle. Whether or not anyone was home at my friend’s house when I finally got there, was never certain. One time when they were at hame, they served me hot coffee with canned milk and I felt I’d arrived someplace fancy. I love canned milk in my coffee to this day.

Looking at the old place in ruins from two bad hurricanes pulls at my heart. The memories flood back. Memories can be sweet teachers.❊

Community Spirit Partner

As downtown Orlando bustles with the energy of a thriving urban community, an historic five-story master-piece offers residents and visitors alike fascinating insight into how this region has made its transition from a small town surrounded by citrus groves and cattle ranches to today’s community. The Orange County Regional History Center, housed in the impeccably restored 1927 county courthouse, show-cases the vast and varied artifact collections of the Histori-cal Society of Central Florida, Inc. More than just viewing historical artifacts in a gallery, The History Center brings the region’s past to life with a selection of cutting-edge interactive presentations and hands-on exhibits through four-floors of exploration. The History Center has captured the span of this re-gion’s history, dating back to the time before the first people arrived. Using state-of-the-art audio-visual technology to bring past eras to life helps replicate the environments

ous guests test a Spanish moss-filled mattress and discover the much-discussed origin of the term “Florida Cracker.” Topics of additional permanent exhibits include Cattle and Citrus, Central Florida’s first major economic enter-prises, Tourism, Transportation, Real Estate, Aviation, the impact of Walt Disney World, and Central Florida’s African-American community. From a replica World War II B-17 bomber and a two-story dome featuring over 150 unique Central Florida icons to our restored 1927 Courtroom B and the outdoor Heritage Square courtyard, a wealth of fascinating sights and experiences awaits visi-tors to the History Center. Special presentations augmenting the permanent exhibits are just the beginning of the History Center’s offerings. The Historium gift store retails memorabilia,

in which Central F lo r id ians have lived for millen-nia past. While the History Center con-tinuously unveils temporary exhibits and new presenta-tions, the facility’s permanent exhibits are its cornerstone.The Linda Chapin Orientation Theater, designed as a Florida back porch, gives an overview of the re-gion’s history as visitors relax in rockers while surrounded by the sights and sounds of Central Florida. Exhibits include Natural Environment, featuring flora, fauna, rock formations, and the opportunity to probe Winter Park’s famous sinkhole. First People takes visitors back in time to see how Paleo-Indians lived in the days before European Contact. First Contact helps visitors imagine Native Americans’ reaction and the changes in their lifeways due to the arrival of the Spanish. A recreated early 19th-century Seminole Settlement provides a look at artifacts of Florida’s most famous tribe and a replica Florida Pioneer cabin lets curi-

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books and souve-nirs. The Educa-tional Programs’ office offers a wide range of programs and activities for children of all ages and tours, work-shops and lectures for adults. Ongoing special events in-

clude a Third Thursday themed evening event and a Saturday morning Farmer’s Market staged in the lush Heritage Square courtyard.The History Center’s mission is to not just put our re-gion’s history on display but to become a vital part of its history by offering residents and visitors to Central Florida a unique affordable, educational and entertain-ment resource. The History Center has been voted “Best

Museum” for four years running, and I’m encouraged that we’re achieving our mission every day.” Conveniently located at 65 East Central Boulevard in the heart of downtown Orlando, Hours: Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, 12 noon to 5 p.m. General admission is $7, students with a valid student ID and seniors (60+) are $6.50 and children ages 3-12 are $3.50. Historical Society members and children under the age of 3 are free. Visitors receive two hours of FREE covered parking at the Orlando Public Library with paid admission (not valid for special events). Visit www.thehistorycenter.org or call (407) 836-8500.

Orange County Regional History Center by Shanon Michael Larimer, Orlando

Right, “Abraham” interprets Semi-nole War history for student visitors. Below, Lorraine Davies, the 1943 Tangerine Queen. Courtesy The History Center.

How style-conscious were women on the Florida frontier? I suppose it depended upon where they lived. Certainly the ladies of the St. Augustine “establishment” followed the latest fashions from Washington, New York and Paris, laced with a touch of their Spanish heritage. On the other hand, women under siege in Fort Brooke on Florida’s Gulf Coast, or in Noonansville, the State Capital, were more concern with staying alive than keeping up with

recalled to my mind the black-eyed houri we read of which the faithful are to be solaced in the world to come, for their trials and sufferings in this veil of tears. I never felt ennui at these balls,—although they were kept up to 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning, and sometimes till daylight.” [A houri is one of beautiful virgins of the Koranic paradise.] Motte’s words drool from the page as he waxes on about the Spanish dances, “like floating down the upon

Through Women’s Eyes

“Every generation laughs at the old fashion, but religiously follows the new.” – Henry David Thoreau.

Frills, Flounces and Fripperies, Fashions of the 1830s

by Elizabeth Neily, Gulfport

latest trends. Jacob Motte, an army doctor during the Second Seminole war, described the ladies of St. Augustine with effusive rapture. In response to an invitation to a party at the home of the “lady of Judge Smith,” he jotted in his journal, “This opportunity of sharing the blandishments of converse with the fairest specimens of creation, and of enjoying the looks of beauteous maidens with lustrous eyes and wreathed smiles, was not to be neglected.” A pass to St. Augustine offered soldiers and officers alike a welcome reprieve from the tedium of life on the frontier. For a few days they ate well, slept in real beds with a roof over their heads, and enjoyed the social life of the city. The common soldier would not, of course, be entertained at the homes of St. Augustine’s elite, but there were plenty of pubs and young ladies to entertain them.

While the belles of St. Augustine may have danced through the war, young women in other parts of the state were not fairing so well. In south Florida, William Collar’s wife and baby were felled with a single bullet during a Seminole raid at New River [North Miami]. Then on December 29, 1835 word arrived at Fort Brooke that Major Francis Dade’s command of over 100 men was wiped out on their way to Fort King. In response to the ensuing panic, Major Francis Belton ordered most of the buildings in the immediate vicinity of Fort Brooke destroyed, then withdrew the garrison and settlers into a hastily thrown up palisade of bushes. Nancy Collar Jackson, the daughter of an early Tampa settler, was among those barricaded in this make-shift fort. Years later she recalled her terror at seeing “the heads and shoulders of the Indians moving about over the bluff.”

Motte checked into the City Hotel owned by William Livingston, who boasted that his modern accommodations included, “private apartments, a well furnished bar, plenty of servants, stables, carriages, and a cistern containing 3,000 gallons of rainwater for washing, etc.” [Florida Herald, Feb 6, 1836.] Comfortably ensconced, Motte changed into “a civilized suite of clothes” and took a site-seeing stroll through the ancient city. Later he changed for the party, or as he so eloquently put it, “properly attired for the presence of beauty.” According to Motte, the St. Augustine social scene was like stepping into paradise. He was mesmerized with “strange fascination about the Minorcan beauties, which operated as a kind of fairy-spell. It always seemed as if I was in a dreamy trance at their balls. The dream always

the breath of morning.” He continues, “The dance went joyously and figures of the most lovely proportions, fit models for sculptors and painters, and arrayed in dazzling beauty, went gliding through the labyrinth mazes of the graceful Spanish dance. Myriad dark and fawn like eyes shed a pure radiance of glad light with their kindling beams; while the rich black tresses and olive complexion, sufficiently tested to the claims of Spanish descent, in strong contrast to the lighter locks and whiter skins of America’s daughters”. [Motte 1838]

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The Collar family and their neighbors sought refuge in one of the “two small cottage tents inside the emergency post. We stayed there, I think, about three weeks, and were in constant fear of death. We did not dare go out or cook a mouthful, but did very well on hard bread and water.” The families were eventually transferred onto transport ships anchored in Tampa Bay. Collar remembered that “They lived there for several months in splendor, as it seemed to them,” she commented, “after all their hardships and privations.” Measles and fevers also plagued the soldiers and settlers at Fort Brooke. Four of Nancy Collar’s younger siblings died but her mother managed to survive, despite the ministering of the fort’s doctor. [Bleeding was the favored cure at the time.] If war and disease were not enough, fleas and other biting insects were as equally a challenge. “They had taken possession of the fort and grounds,” reported one exhausted volunteer soldier. Food, too, was in short supply at the fort, made even worse when new companies of troops arrived as reinforcements. Pioneer women living on the lonely Florida outposts often found themselves widowed with, often as not, several youngsters to raise by themselves. Death was the constant companion of these courageous women—death that followed childbirth, or the kind that lurked outside their homes in the form marauding bands of Seminoles. Yet some of them survived to become the founding mothers of Tampa

and other Florida communities. While at Fort Brooke, Lieutenant Henry Prince wrote in his diary in 1837, of receiving a permit for his signature from a “Private Jackson of H comp has permission to be ‘married’ to Miss Dixon, Fort Brooke.” The Dixen family were friends and neighbors of the Collar family. If the white pioneer families suffered from the deprivations of the war, the Seminole and Black Seminole families faired much worse. Constantly pursued by the military, they found themselves hunted down like dogs, driven deeper and deeper into the Everglades. Those who were captured were piled onto ships and transported hundreds of miles away to the Oklahoma Territory. Their towns razed, they fled for their lives, deeper and deeper into the swamps and forests. Until recently, history books omitted the fact that Major Dade had lead a raid on the Black Seminole town of Pilaklikaha, [two mile east of Bushnell]. Women and children were attacked by war dogs while their menfolk were away for the day. It wasn’t incidental that Abraham, who had lost his wife in that raid, helped lead a retaliatory attack two years later—known as “the Dade massacre.” During the final years of the war, Motte reported seeing Seminole women wrapped in the cotton feed bags that once held corn for the army’s horses. This was a long way from the gorgeous Seminole patchwork dresses that we are so familiar with today. ❊

When cultures struggle with socio-political change, clothing styles often reflect that struggle. In the 1790s the constrictive, boned bodices of Marie Antoinette were joyfully cast aside in favor of the “liberating” styles favored by Josephine Boneparte. The era known as Empire period lasted for about twenty years. Bosoms poured out of filmy gowns, hair was piled in loose tendrils on the head, and shoes deteriorated to flimsy slippers. Á la ancienne reflected the ancient Greeks. Interestingly, the “Empire style” made its way back into fashion in the late 1960s, during the anti-war, hippy movement. The 1830s began a transition from the relatively laid-back styles emanating out of Revolutionary France to the very up-tight Victorian era of the second half of the 19th century. With Reconstruction came the restructuring of women’s clothing, as well. From 1810 through the 1830s, the high-waisted Empire gown began its descent toward the natural waistline. Layers of bell-shaped petticoats puffed out skirts that reached just above the ankles. [The cumbersome boned petticoat of the Southern belle would not appear until the 1850’s.] Corsets, made of soft elastic material or quilted cotton were not stiffened with stays made of bone or steel. Women were admonished “ Corsets should never be drawn so tight as to impede regular, natural breathing, as, under all circumstances, the improvement of figure is insufficient to compensate for the air of awkward restraint caused by such lacing.” ...see Wear page 16.

So what should I wear?

Plain brown tafetta with a white lace collar made for a simple day dress in the early 1830s.

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The Spanish word for chemise is “camisa.” It was worn as an un-dergarmentunderafittedbodice.Inthe1830s,itbegantoappearin Latin American countries as an outer-garment worn with a tiered skirt. It resembles the traditional styles still worn by Seminole, Panamanian and Mexican women. The neckline and sleeves were oftenembellishedwithribbon,bobbinlace,andruffles.

1835 Wedding Ensemble

Collars and cuffs of handmade lace gussied up a plain dress.

A set of tortoise shell and gold combs were used to hold hair in place. False curls were often attached to combs

Padded rolls were used to keep sleeves puffed out.

Afittedbodicewithadelicatelacecollarandathinlayer of gause made for a very feminine evening gown.

White satin gowns were worn at weddings and other formal af-fairs. A hand-embroidered net mantilla (veil) was draped over swept up hair. Stockings knit of finesilk,satinslippers,andkidglovesaccessorizedtheoutfit.Fans, hankies, and a hanky envelope finished the bride’s trousseau.

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Beaded purse.

Camisa

WEAR continued from page 14... Bodices were embellished with lace collars and cuffs. Sleeves ballooned, first above the elbow, then blow. They were stuffed with pads to keep them puffed out. Daytime fabrics included chintz and cashmere prints, while taffetas and satins were reserved for evening wear. Evening gowns were trimmed with berthas of lace or gauze. Black velvet became a popular fabric for trimmings, belts, and cuffs.

Out-of-doors, women wore small capes, called pelerines, that either matched their dress or of a contrasting color. Paisley-printed cashmere shawls and parasols were de rigueur. Cashmere shawls were so popular, that in 1831 it was estimated that nearly 5,000 crafts people were employed in making them in Europe and India. Head-coverings of the day included lovely lace veils from under which young ladies would coyly flash their eyes at passing suitors. Wide-brimmed bonnets, trimmed with a large rosette of ribbon, flowers and feathers, were also “in”. Hair was pulled back severely from the face, then coiled high on the top of the head and held in place with combs. Gold combs decorated with pearls or cameos replaced the “old-fashioned” tortoise shell combs by mid-decade. Sometimes ladies added little hairpieces to their combs to help achieve the desired effect. Cirlets of pearls, cameos, and fresh flowers

were worn over the forehead. Gold beads, pearls, or flowers were wound into the braids. Kid leather gloves were bottoned on at the wrist. White silk stockinged feet were slipped into slipper-like shoes. A fan, embroidered silk handkerchief, and a little satin or beaded bag completed the ensemble. So what should you do in order to avoid the embarrassment of being accosted by the “Period Clothing Police?” Oh, you’ll know who they are if you have ever shown up at a reenactment in the “wrong” gear? My best advise is, DO-YOUR RESEARCH! You’ll find that there are a wide variety of styles in every era to choose from. Die-hard reenactors many have two or even three outfits in their closets. Art books and illustrated histories are one of the best sources for studying clothing styles, fabrics, and accessories. The world wide web has several period clothing sites, including some that offer patterns or even ready-made items for sale. A word of caution when buying ready-made items—check first to see what percentage of synthetics are used. Because many reenactments have cooking fires, natural fabrics are prefered. Cotton, linen, wool tend to be naturally flame retardent. I can’t count the times that I’ve seen our friend, Jackie Shaffer, with a smoldering hem as she busily prepared a camp feed. Our own www.FloridaFrontier.com has several pages on 16th century Spanish styles. For other periods, www.ushist.com offers museum quality clothing, custom- made to your measurements. If in doubt about the appropriateness of fabrics or styles, it is a good bet to get the advise of a seasoned reenactor. Who knows? You may just stumble upon something so unique, so fab-u-lous, that you could become the trend-setter at your next event. ❊

Tying her bonnet under her chinShe tied her raven ringlets in;But not alone in its silken snareDid she catch her lovelyfloatinghair,For tying her bonnet under her chin,She tied a young man’s heart within.

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Aprons were often highly embellished with r ibbon f lowers , lace and embroiderey de-signs. They were worn over dresses at teas. This one even has tasseled cords for tying it on.

The Love Knot

Sketches for this story were created by Cedric W. Trout in 1907. They were taken from the History of American Costume, 1607-1870 by Elisabeth McClellan, published in 1937.

Apron

Pelerines

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I’ve got three big Civil War reenactment events coming up in February and March, and since two of them involve some degree of travel I thought it would be a good idea to give the uninitiated a glimpse into what somebody in this hobby might bring along with them for a comfortable three—or four—day stay in the field.

I should start off by saying I do not camp “campaign style,” which is to say you just bring your blanket-roll in a horse collar and sleep under the stars on the hard cold ground in all kinds of weather. That’s not for me, although it does cut down on prep time and space requirements. No, I’m afraid I need all the stuff listed below. Of course, such a

A Reenactor’s Check List

list will vary according to individual needs and tastes. This list is not in any particular order, since all the items here are more-or-less necessary and important.1. A gassed-up SUV.2. A-frame canvas tent, tent pegs, tent poles and hammer.3. Musket.4. Powder, percussion caps and blank cartridges.5. Uniform: hat, shirt, trousers, long johns, socks, extra socks, shoes, sack coat, belt, cartridge box, bayonet and bayonet scabbard, cap pouch, haversack, canteen, gum blanket/poncho and tin cup).6. Modern clothes for transit to and from the event (t-shirt, sweat pants or shorts, sneakers)7. Cooler (can be hid from sight with blankets)8. Bottled water. Lots of it. For drinking, washing and reviving people in heat-induced coma.9. Canned food, can opener and mess kit (plate, knife, spoon and fork). Plus, a variety of haversack snacks like trail mix or beef jerky, or even fresh fruit like apples, oranges, and bananas.)10. Dish rags.11. Soap and towels (Or, bring along some baby wipes. Great, if you can’t get to a hot shower).12. Musket cleaning supplies (wipes, oil, cleaning jags, etc.)13. Ice. Especially if it’s hot. Keep in cooler and stick your head in it after the fight.14. Important medications, if applicable. Spare eye glasses, too.15. Driving directions, maps and cell phone numbers of guys in the unit.

musically inclined, bring your instrument! And toss in a disposable camera for recording “magic” moments.

It may seem like a lot, but it’s really nothing compared to what other folks might bring to make themselves at home in various other events. My brother, Florida’s Cracker Tenor, has to back up a trailer whenever he goes to a mountainman rendezvous. That’s because his needs are a lot different than mine and therefore he has a lot more stuff to pack. Some folks who don’t camp authentic at all, will, of course, bring their RVs and TVs along so they can have ALL the comforts of home. Of course, planning and preparation gets more complicated when you bring your wife and kids along. You have to take care of their needs as well as your own.

My point is, living history participants don’t just magically arrive on the scene and disappear into the woodwork when it’s all over with. Going to any of these events takes planning, preparation, and attention to detail to make sure a grand time is had by all. It’s a lotta work, especially after driving for several hours, but it’s worth it.

16. Cell phone and car charger.17. Money.18. Cot, sleeping bag and extra blankets (Okay, so the sleeping bag is optional, but it adds more padding to the cot).19. Candle lantern with matches and spare candles.20. Plunder box for small items like matches, candles, musket caps, tobacco, pipe, smoking hat, musket cleaning tools, pocket knives, cartridge tubes, etc. Can be locked to keep out the curious and those bent on thievery.21. Did I mention water and ice?22. Camp chair or stool.23. Toothbrush and toothpaste.24. Last, but not least, a pee can (not a pecan). Can be any reusable plastic jug, or a jug made specifically for the purpose at hand. Excellent for those cold, rainy nights when you don’t want to bother with walking clear across camp to the nearest portalet. As a matter of good sense, an improvised pee can should be marked appropriately and kept separate from your other liquid-bearing containers.25. Oh, and one more thing. If you are

About the DeHart Brothers

Feature by Jason Z. Dehart

Courtesy Jason DeHart

Jason and his brother, Benjamin , were raised in the small farming community of Oxford,Florida, and grew up around horses and cattle. Although Benjamin later moved on to the big city, he never forgot his roots and uses them as inspiration for his music today. Check out their music, stories and friends at- www.thecrackertenor.com.

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by CHARLES BEARS ROAD

DUNNING, St. Petersburg

forKay “Kanehrahtonkeh” Falling Leaves

She Makes Words Sing

Works StoneTales

Artwork courtesy of Charles Bears Road Dunning ©2005

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The animals, as tall as trees walking, came down the valley from the north and followed the water. They marched south. They filled the valley with their coming. We live by this river.

They were not like the deer with the flattened horns that scraped the snow to eat. The deer came in waves. They were like moving forests. Their horns clapped together like breaking ice. The clapping filled my ears. They passed for days. The wolves followed them and took down the deer that dropped aside. We were like the wolves.

Those tree shakers came one sometimes two or even three at a time. Maybe they came as mothers with their children. The bulls walked alone.

We waited for them in packs.The animals–sometimes we called them “tree shakers,”

but we called them “the tall animals” as often–filled the air with their breathing. Clouds hung above them, and you could see the clouds long before you heard them. But once we heard them that was the only thing we heard. They filled our ears with their passing.

We huddled up along the ridge and hid in the long-needled trees. We stood as far away from the animals as we could, but as close as we dared, to get off shots at them. I remember my spear thrower was covered with sweat and cold. It was the time of year when leaves fall. The spear thrower was cold, but it felt like fire in my hand as I waited shaking. I could never keep from shaking. The tree shakers shook the world, and we waited.

Some of the hunters seemed foolish to me, though this was all part of the way things were done. They dared breaking their legs and ribs with the snow coming. They ran in front of the animals to change their paths, to drive them across the cliffs and into the water. They danced in front of those animals’ feet, and those spears on the tall animals’ faces came close to them. The long mouths which the animals wore came closer. I have seen them pull branches from the tallest trees with their faces, and men danced in front of them.

I waited holding my spear thrower. When they crossed the cliffs above the water those of us who stood closest to the ridge cocked our arms and threw our little spears into the animals. Then we threw more. Many spears bounced from their matted hides, but the animals as tall as trees walking felt those spears that hung there. They screamed and the mothers moved quickly to protect their children from us. The little ones were easier to kill. The bulls faced us.

The dancing worked. Our dogs danced with the men. The tall animals turned, and then they danced. They mounted their hind-legs and turned like dancers turning before the fire.

The tall animals filled the sky with their dances and ran into the sky with our spears hanging from them. Then those animals fell from the side of the cliff and flew until they were killed on the river rocks.

We have always lived by this river.The children of the animals were sometimes crushed by

their mothers, and the mothers fought to protect them. With their legs broken they screamed at us, and I have seen hunters killed then. That was the most dangerous time.

The tall animals died, and then we dared come up to them. We stabbed the animals with our little spears. Their blood sprayed like rain, and we were covered with it.

All the rest of the day we were drenched with animal blood while we cut them open. We skinned the dead animals, and we cut them into meat. We kept their skins and their heads whole. It took two men to carry one animal’s head back along the ridge to our camp.

As the day passed the blood thickened on us, and the flies came. The flies’ voices filled the river. But we sang and our singing was louder than the flies. The dogs fought over the meat we threw to them, and the dogs’ blood ran in the river with the blood of men and the tall animals’ blood.

At the end of those days when the tall animals had be-come meat and stretched skin and piles of long bones, we rested. There was a place at the head of the river. The water fell in that place. The water’s spray filled the air. The spray-ing water felt cool and drove away the flies. We stood in the falling water that came down from the rocks. We would stand there and laugh and sing. After a time the tall animals’ blood was washed away, and we were men again. The songs grew quiet and we were still.

That was how those days went.

I worked stone.On the ridge that stood above our camp there was a

channel of gray stone. It was flint. It made good tools to hunt with. We made knives and points and scrapers from the stone. The tools were sharp and good to cut with. I know they were sharp. My fingers were often cut in the early days when I was learning to break the stone as my uncle had taught me. The stone’s spirit would not listen to me. The stone taught me to be a stone worker.

But I did learn. I was not a good hunter because of my fear, but I made good tools. I learned to work the stone the way it wanted to be worked. I thought about the stone even when I wasn’t on the ridge breaking it. I dreamed of stone. Stone sang to me while I ate. When I danced the stone danced with me.

My stones were sharp, and they cut straight. Women came to me for my scrapers, though I have known a woman who made better scrapers than I. I never needed anything but the stone. The stone finally gave itself to me, but I gave myself to the stone first. I became Works Stone.

My points went through the animals’ hides. My knives cleaned meat from their leg bones. My stones fed us all. The stone sang.

the next morning. They did not know the way up the ridge. They had taken some rock for themselves – not much. But there were those of us who would not stand for it. Some of our hunters wanted the New People to give us berries and skins for what they had taken. Those men crossed the river and found the place where the New People lived.

This was not part of the Circle the way it was supposed to be.Men from our side of the river demanded the skins and

the berries. They said they would take the stones from the New People if they were not given more of what they had come for.

I was not there. I was chipping points because the three-leafed ferns were turning yellow and the nights were getting colder. We needed many sharp points for the spears to hunt the tall animals on their way through the valley.

Dances-beside-the-Fire worked with me. We were high up on the ridge, and because we were up that high we were the first to hear the calling and the threats that bounced off the river water. We have always lived by this river.

Our men grew hot. They danced in the face of the New People. It happened quickly. A spear grew wings and flew at our hunters. One from our side fell. His blood pooled in the river shallows. He died there. The New People sang their hunting songs in our hunters’ faces and drove them into the water. I believe their hands must have felt cold as they held their spear throwers, but I do not know. I was not there.

More spears flew. Two hunters on the side of the river where the New People stood joined our man in the river and died there.

Our hunters ran through the river shallows. They climbed the cliff we used to drive the tree shaking animals over. The hunters found their way home to our camp. Three more had been wounded. Two of them died after that.

Day followed day, and our men hunted the New People’s hunters. We protected our camp when the New People crossed the river. None of them dared climb onto the ridge to steal our flint, my flint. My points killed men, until there were not enough New People to hunt us.

The New People left the valley, and I have not seen them since that day. Many Circles have brought us death and new life since then. I have broken stone, and Dances-beside-the-Fire has sat here with me. Her scrapers are still better than mine ever will be–though I taught her the stone’s song.

Now, the two of us have become old people. I have heard a hard story from my brother’s son, who is a

hunter like his father was. He is one of those brave ones who dance in the face of the tall animals. These days there are not as many of the great animals with the long faces in this valley. Though still some do pass through. Our hunters now journey for days to find those animals with the long faces.

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If a man could be happy, I was a happy man. I had a place in the camp. Dances-beside-the-Fire slept beside me. She worked the stones too. I will tell you now that this time has almost passed that her scrapers were finer than mine. Her stones were so fine the light poured through them. Mine were heavier, and lasted longer, but there was never a blade as sharp as the stones Dances-beside-the-Fire had worked.

Though I am Works Stone there were days I joked with her and called her She Works Stone Better. We laughed on those days.

Life was in the Circle. The Circle brought us the tall animals and the deer with the flattened horns. The animals brought their lives to us for food.

The Circle brought snow. The snow brought hunger, though at times the snow brought the deer herds to us. Hunger brought death. At times during the short days when the snow was high old people walked out. We never saw them again. The old people had been young once. They gave up their places at the fires. I do not know if I will be able to do that.

The Circle brought the light and the time that the leaves grow again. The new leaves brought berries. We ate the berries and waited for the days to shorten and for the tall animals to pass through the valley. So our lives were. Life was in the Circle.

Life was this way. From the stories, the old ones told, I was taught that life was always this way. Life was in the Circle.

But there came one day when the Circle was snapped as a snare snaps when the trip string is tied too tight. New people came into the valley where the stone ridge ran along the river. They were different. We did not know them.

The new people came for the stone, because of the tools it became. In time they might have come for the animals too. That time did not come.

We live by this river, and at first we were content to trade stones with these New People. We were pleased to take what they offered us. We knew enough of their nods and their crawling fingers to know what they wanted, and there was not that many of them.

The ridge was full of good stone if you knew how to find it. It seemed a little thing to trade small pieces of our stone for packs of dried, pounded berries and finished skins. The berries and the skins made work light. The stone was easy to trade. It was another part of the Circle.

But those New People soon sang like the flies over the river. They sang about our ridge and our stone; and more came. These new ones were not as ready as the first who came to trade their skins and their dried, pounded berries with us for our stone.

They gave us less than before, and they asked us for more.A day came. Looking back from here I see that had no

choice but to come. One night New People crossed the river and climbed onto the ridge. We found their clumsy paths there

The Circle was broken.

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This past time of the new leaves, my brother’s son trav-elled toward the west where the sun ends. He travelled with four other brave ones. They brought meat and furs here to our camp where we have always lived. One of the hunters who travelled west did not return with the others.

Our hunters told a story of other men living in that place where the sun ends. These men stalked our brave hunters. My brother asked his son to tell us how these other men looked. We knew them by the young brave’s description. Our hunt-ers had been followed by the New People or by hunters who appeared as New People. There is no difference. We thought there were no more of them. We are wrong.

There are others. They will hunt us. They will know of our stone ridge, and they will come here to take it. We might trade with them as before. We might not. The few like my brother and Dances-beside-the-Fire and I who remember the New People will not trust these people.

I continue breaking the stones. I am still sitting here making points to kill the tall animals and the deer with the flattened horns. My fingers, though they are cold in the morning, still know their song. My points are sharp. When they become part of a spear, my points grow wings, and can

fly. I have seen them. My knives can skin the tall animals as well now as they ever could. Dances-beside-the-Fire can still make scrapers better than I can. So, we still work, and we wait. We have always lived by this river.

Once before, these New People taught us that the Circle can be broken, and that our river can be filled with blood, though new water will wash that blood away. It always has. It is part of the Circle as well.

We live here.My stone points have killed men before. We heard those

men screaming from our place up here high on this ridge. I can make these stones tools, but my stone tools can kill

men as well as they can kill animals. These knives we make can cut their skin. Dances beside the Fire will make scrapers which might be used to take men’s hair to hang in our lodges as gifts to the Circle.

We will wait.Will our children kill their children? I am old. I have

no answers for these days. I only know the song the stones taught me to sing, and I know that life happens in a Circle.

These short days are cold. We have always lived by this river.We will think on it.

This story is set in a time which scientists call the early Paleo-Indian period. That was nearly 14,000 years ago. The native people of this place believe we have been here forever. No matter which – it was an awfully long time ago. The river in the story is a tribu-tary feeding what is now called the Mohawk River. The Mohawk feeds the Hudson. In those days the Hudson and the Mohawk were branches of a great sea that extended as far north as the southern Adirondacks. The people were hunters and gatherers. Women hadn’t in-vented agriculture yet. The women worked next to the men finding enough food to feed their families. Those families lived together in small villages. On down the way those villages became tribes and nations. Often, native tribal names refer to places or simply refer to the people of a place. The name, Inuit, means “people.” The name Ganegahaga means “possessors of the flint.” Ganegahaga is the original name of the people now called the Mohawk nation. So, when I refer to the fact that Works Stone and his family have always lived by this river he simply is telling you the name of his people. These people lived where the Ganegahaga live today, though they were probably not their ancestors. The “we have always lived at this river” people called the new people who found their way to the flint ridge the “New People.” Again that is one way tribes and nations traditionally refer to each other. If you are not one of us you are on of the “others”. The New People came out of the west, or east, or south. There is a ridge in central New York where the old people worked a flint mine since the early Paleo period up until post-

contact times. The vein of flint there is a wonderful quality stone. I climbed that ridge some Springs ago with She Makes Words Sing who is Falling Leaves - Kanehrahtonkeh. We found scraps of worked stone and finished tools- some of them broken - eve-rywhere we looked. Worked Stone spent his days here with Dances beside the Fire. Looking north and west from the nearly perpendicular side of the flint ridge we saw a long receding plain along the sides of a little stream that fed the Mohawk. Though it was nearly dry then, this stream ran high with brown muddy water in the early spring feeding the Mohawk and then the Hudson. This is the place where the “ we have always lived at this river” had their camp. Though I saw the vision of this story in a place called Cherry Valley in Central New York it might have happened anywhere. It might have happened here in this place, this Island of the Flowers. The places and the people are real. I have a piece of Work Stone’s flint in my own medicine bag. It is a beautifully made simple tool. Works Stone is alive. I have felt his fingers on the stone he left for me. She Makes Words Sing is in the heart of Dances beside the Fire.

“It made me think there was a very first time that flint tools were used to kill invaders. I got taken to that time and felt the surprise of having to take up arms. Having to use the tools of everyday living to spear the flesh of someone that looks very much like yourself, but having no choice. It must have been awful. I wrote this story in the shadow of what someday may be called the September 11th War. As with Works Stone, I have answers. I believe, “Life is in the Circle.”

Words from the author.

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Johnny’s Corner

Really! I was minding my own business when this voice says, “Hon-ney, you know what I’d like to do for the camp feed? I’d like to bake some bread.”

I thought about it for a few seconds. “Well Hun, I’m sure we can find some more Dutch ovens among the camp. Maybe we’ll get a couple of larger ones,” I said.

“No… dear”, she said, “You don’t understand. I want you to build an oven for me to bake in.

I thought about it for a few seconds. She wants me to build an oven in the woods, a mile from no where and then I’ve got to tear it down, when she’s done. “Holy darn (*$#@), Hun,” I half shouted. The conversation went on for awhile about how many things could be baked in a nice oven.

Well, it seemed impossible, but that’s how good things get started sometimes.

I thought back to a trip to Plimouth Plantation a few years before and how they had built a new oven in another part of the village to accommodate the ladies who wanted a more convenient one. The old one was big and maybe it required more work or something. I can’t recall the exact reason for the new one. I asked why they weren’t using the new oven. They went on about how they made it smaller but kept the same sized door and how it wouldn’t work like the old one. They had made a mistake in not resizing the door according to some prescribed ratio.

I never really understood what all that meant, but

Hermann Trappman © 2005, courtesy NTS.

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I decided that there must be something written about it somewhere. I searched the internet and I found some books on baking. While flipping through a book on bread baking recipes, I stumbled on that ratio that I heard about. Huh! What a lucky find!

I looked at a number of designs, all the while keeping in mind that this oven needed to be portable. It needs to be what? Made of clay? On a farm with sand about twelve feet deep in most places? Or brick? They would need mortar and would be impossible to move later. What a dilemma! What a headache!! Women are a real pain. Ya know?!

I decided on the bricks. Oh dear! That could be expensive. I had a few bricks in the yard. I started to experiment with stacking bricks in a half circle over a crude form to see if they would stand up with just sand as a mortar. That was a stupid idea! It was frustrating.

After several weeks of worrying about it, I came up with another idea. Why not stager the roof bricks in a way that each layer would only close in a small portion of a brick at a time, using the next layer to counterbalance the one below? Instead of a round ceiling in the oven, there would be a stair-step, in reverse, to the top. Brilliant!

More problems. How many bricks would it take? And where in blue-blazes would I get that many? I remembered the days, many years ago when I played with ceramics. I wanted to build an oven then too. They used fire bricks. Bingo! I’ll buy some fire bricks, I thought, and maybe I can find some used bricks for a heat collector on top. I also remembered a baking oven that I had seen at the American Frontier Museum in Virginia. It was made of local stones. It was massive and would hold the heat for many hours. So, an idea was formed and it seemed more possible, now.

Back to the problem of the door ratio. I did some experiments with the one hundred fire bricks

that I purchased. I asked Jackie, “What is the largest pot that you might put in this oven? Find the biggest one you’ve got.” She didn’t really see the big picture. Silly women. She produced a medium-sized pot and insisted that was it.

I knew better. “You don’t understand”, I insisted. “This door cannot be changed once it’s built, so we have to plan for the absolute biggest thing you’ve got.” The search went on through the cupboards until we found it. It was a cookie sheet. I was surprised. It was bigger than a turkey pot. OK. That established the width. The height wasn’t too difficult. I measured the tallest pot and added a couple of inches just in case. The book says that the door needs to be 67% of the height of the oven. Let’s see. I used to know a little algebra, didn’t I? A couple of aspirins later and I had figured it out.

This might have been the first or second year that we rendezvoused on the Wilson property. I voiced the dilemma of needing some more bricks at a meeting. William Wilson suggested that I use some of his used bricks that he’d been saving for a house some day.

So there I was. . .

I built a wood platform in our camp site that we picked out some time before. Jackie requested that it not be on the ground. Did I mention what a pain these women are? Really. It was nice and sturdy. I covered it with sand to act as a buffer between the hot brick and the oven floor. It also gave me a way to level the bricks. I didn’t want bread with the leans. I do know something about baking, you know.

Jackie dropped me off at the farm that Saturday to work on the oven while she went off to take care of some other chores. I decided that I could probably bring some of the used bricks over from Williams stash that day, and use one of the fire wood carts to move them. It was only a quarter to a half a mile away. “Just a good stretch of the legs.” Seems I’ve heard that line in a movie some where. I got there with the cart and loaded some bricks. I knew I couldn’t take too many. I would never be able to pull it other wise. A long time later, I was still a long way from the camp when I saw Jackie returning to pick me up. She didn’t really know what I was up to. I motioned for her to drive closer and coached her into a position right against the cart. I signaled for her to move slowly, pushing me along until we were back at the camp. Whew! I was glad that she came along. I didn’t go back for more bricks using the cart. Later, I moved the rest of the bricks, a few at a time with our van.

Another idea came out of reading about the different methods used to test ovens for the proper temperature. I decided to use my pyrometer that I had for ceramic firing. It would survive the heat of the oven where a thermometer wouldn’t. As the oven reached the last layers of bricks, I made a hole for the thermocouple to protrude through the bricks in the center of the top near the back. That proved to be a very valuable tool.

That first oven was pretty crude looking. I built a fire in it the night before we planned to use it so that it would heat all of the bricks, inside to outside. Jackie and I sat up for hours tending that first fire. I finally stoked the fire and closed the oven door down to let it burn for the rest of the night.

The next morning I peeked into the oven and to my surprise there wasn’t a stick of wood left. Ash was all that remained. I panicked and looked at the pyrometer. “Dang!” It was setting right at 1,000 degrees! This baby was READY to use! “Jackie! We need to get something ready to bake. Now!”

We had great fun using that first oven. It baked everything that we threw into it. Bread, pies, pizza, meat and potatoes. It did it all. I was excited with success. Now really. You aren’t really surprised that I pulled it off. After all, I built a portable oven. It uses about 900 bricks and only weighs about two tons. Piece of cake.

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Mamma’s Kitchen by JACKIE SHAFFER, Havana

My husband, Johnny, and I are members of a local black powder club called, The Jefferson Longrifles. At the time we joined, I had been cooking for living history events and doing demos on primitive cook-ing all over the state for about 5 years. Little known to me, I was gaining some notoriety and acclaim in

on a remote site, and maybe it would never to be used again, that my overachieving husband would see this as a challenge that needed a champion! After all, this was not the first time I had asked for the impossible and he found a way to provide it. (He is a keeper!) And so, the “Oven” construction books started arriving in the mail, research began and it was not long before Johnny had his plan... but that’s another story. Now back to that scintillating camp feed. I had accom-plished what I had set out to do. Between the bread and pies baking in the oven and the 2 roasts on the spit, as I cooked the aroma filled the entire camp, drawing people with mouths watering to see what was in the pot. I admit the roasts looked strange as they hung on the spit. It was difficult to identify what they were under the two layers of collard I used for a heat barrier. Below are instructions for how I prepared the top round roasts and a recipe for baking a mouth watering Pear Crunch Pie in a Dutch oven.

Camp Cookin’ the Old Fashioned Way

these areas. When I was asked to provide the meat for a camp feed at our club’s annual mountainman rendezvous, I was delighted and honored. Not to be outdone and to maintain my reputation as an overachiever, I had to find something really wonderful! It had to have all the elements that I feel are important to a good meal. Of course, it had to taste good, but it also had to look, smell and make you feel good. Over the past several years we had experienced some wonderful grilled chicken, Pot-roasted venison, spit-roasted ham, wild rabbit dishes, and several other gourmet delights. While these were wonderful to eat, they had not accomplished the feat of pulling the whole camp into the joy of prepara-tion and the anticipation of dining. I wanted something that would provide a pleasurable experience to the entire camp as it cooked. Finally, the decision was made—I would spit-roast a whole top-round roast. As Johnny likes to say, “So there I was…” I casually mentioned to Johnny that this was going to be a great dish but I sure would like to be able to bake some bread to go with it. “ So what’s the problem?” he replied. “You’ve baked wonderful bread before. We’ll just round up some extra Dutch-ovens.”. “ You don’t understand,” I replied, “I would like to be able to bake in an oven!” Thus, the seed was planted. It was almost 6 months until the rendezvous when one day I observed him with paper and pencil in hand, drawing; and scheming. This was nothing new. He does this all the time, so it went relatively unnoticed. A few days later, however, I observed him in the yard stacking bricks.” What on earth is he doing?” I wondered out loud. “Why I’m planning your brick baking oven for the rendezvous,” came the answer. Of course! Why had I not realized that if I casually commented that I would like to bake in a brick oven, out in the middle of the cow paddies,

This 16th century illustration shows a baker placing bread dough in the oven with a paddle. the fact that he is wear-ing only a hide abound his waist is testiment to the heat from the oven. One of the women inthe b a c k g r o u n d needs the bread while another is leaving for the market.

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This process will also work for ham or any other large cut of meat to be spit roasted. I first prepared the meat by inserting slivers of garlic into slits in the roast. I rubbed the surface in a mixture of salt, black pepper, and pulverized onion. I took about 4 pounds of thick sliced bacon and covered the entire surfaces of the two roasts, securing it with twine and gauze cheesecloth which had been soaked in red wine. I then cover the roast in collard green leaves which were secured with twine. Collards were chosen because a friend had them in her garden, which had gone by and they were ready to be plowed under. The leaves were large and tough but that did not mater as they were simply used as a heat barrier. The large tough leaves from cabbage or turnips would have served just as well. The roasts were placed on a spit at a medium height above the coals. As cooking progressed, the greens soon dried, then burned and fell away. This was the queue to begin damping the cheesecloth with more red wine. I did this until the cheesecloth was burned away. The twine holding the cheesecloth soon burned away in places as well, but by that time, the bacon had seared in place forming one solid piece of meat. Once the bacon started to fall away (yum! a nice treat for those tending the spit), I removed it, exposing the very juicy tender surface of the two roasts. They were then moved it to a position higher above the coals. I continued to swab the surface with wine, turning the spit often in order to keep the meat from over cooking and drying out. After about 4 or 5 hours in total cooking time, the meat was ready to serve. Its lightly charred surface was well-done and the center was delicately rare. The au juice that resulted during the carving process was captured and enjoyed by the lucky few who were in the right place at the right time. There was plenty of well-done, medium, and rare meat to serve the crowd of 120 people and still have a few leftovers.

Pear Crunch cooked in a Dutch Oven.

is—high heat requires a single layer of coals that covers the bottom of the pan. Medium heat requires about that amount and slow ovens require about half of the bottom be covered. The coals should be white hot and evenly spaced in the hole. The covered oven is placed in the hole with the bale (handle) standing straight up, a few hot coals are placed on top, and then the whole thing is covered with about 1 to 1.5 _ inches of dirt. When the oven is removed, special care should be taken to remove all dirt before the lid is removed. Do not be discouraged if your first attempt is not perfect. It may take practice to get the heat just right. Remember consistent and even heat is the secret. Here’s a tip: to get the hang of the temperature, try buy-ing frozen rolls or bread rather than spending hours making bread and pies, only to have it come out poorly. Once you have the temp control down and the cooking time you can adjust your favorite recipes with great success. Prepare the Dutch oven for a medium heat. (FYI: about 350 to 375)

The Pie 1 piecrust (in a lightly greased 9-inch pie pan) 6 cups tart firm pears or apples (about 2 lbs, cored and sliced into medium thick slices) 1/2 cup sugar 2 Tbs flour (all-purpose) 3 tbs lemon juiceCoat fruit with lemon juice, and Mix the flour and sugar. Add fruit to the flour and sugar mixture, mixing until the fruit is well coated, and place in the piecrust.

The Topping 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 1/4 tsp ground ginger 1/8 tsp ground mace 1/4cup butterMix all ingredients until crumbly. Add topping to pie evenly.Place the pie on the stones in the Dutch oven, place covered oven on coals in ground. Cook as indicated above for 45 min-utes to an hour (a few minutes more if the ground is COLD). Resist the urge to peak. If you lift the lid, you loose the heat. The crunch topping should be a golden brown and the fruit should be well done but not mushy. This pie is equally good when served warm, at room temp, or chilled. Try it covered with cream.

Note: This recipe works well for apples too. When selecting fruit, select fruit which is firm to hard and which has a tart flavor. Some apples and pears are soft and do not result in good pies.

Spit Roasted Top Round Roast

The secret to baking delicate cakes, pies, and breads in a Dutch oven is to have an even constant supply of heat. I accomplish this by digging a hole the size of my Dutch oven so that the sides fit snugly against the wall of the hole. There should be enough room under the oven for a layer of hot coals and over the top of the covered oven to place about 1 inch of dirt. This provides the constant heat source. In order to keep it even, place a few stones in the bottom of the oven to support the pan in which you will bake your food. Placing the food directly on the bottom of the oven prevents air circulation and will ultimately result in a burned bottom and/or undercooked top. Hot coals are placed under and on top of the oven—the number of coals used will depend on the severity of heat required. This takes practice, but a good rule of thumb

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1491: New Revelations of the Ameicans Before Columbusby Charles C. MannRandom House 2005ISBN 1-4000-4006-X$30.00 Hardcover

higher education with the backwardness of Jim Crow. I’m older now. It soothes our sensibilities to imagine America as a vast almost empty virgin land in 1492, when the first Europeans landed. It wasn’t. Where you live, was a busy place in 1491 according to Charles C. Mann. Mann explores all sides of the arguments. He gives a brief, intelligent history of the conquest and its terrible consequences. How does one evaluate human suffering and death? In 1492, Mann attemps to bring the victims of the world’s worst holocaust the dignity of recognition. Whole nations of people we haven’t even explored were simply swept away. The Indigenous people were well protected against parasites, but terribly vulnerable to European diseases. Mann looks at historical guilt in real-world terms and considers responsibility as a possible response. Most people don’t like the idea of responsibility for the actions of the last generation much less the actions of our ancestors 500 years ago. Mann puts forth estimates of the humanity that was lost. He points to the accomplishments of those ancient people, stating that pre-Columbian America was anything but primitive. Political ideologies, environmental concepts, artistic and architectural possibilities, philosophies and religious insights, and a perspective of the cosmos, vanished without a trace. The people of Central America had invented the concept of “zero” way before Europeans did. A place holder which means nothing, but is essential in calculating numbers is one of the greatest human inventions. They had developed the most accurate calendar on the planet and were even involved with the phases of Venus. The written language had been invented in several ways in the America’s. The quipu of the Incas was a sophisticated system of writing in knots similar to modern computers. 1491 is one man’s attempt to set the record straight. The book is well written and very interesting. It’s a good read for anyone even mildly interested in the story of America.

❇ ❇ ❇ ❇ ❇ ❇ ❇ ❇ ❇ ❇ ❇ ❇ ❇ ❇ ❇

Charles Mann writes about the large Native American population of the America’s prior to the coming of Christopher Columbus. The first time I came in contact with figures like this was in The Early Spanish Main by Carl Ortwin Sauer. I grew up on Tampa Bay. It was a very different Tampa Bay than you see now. The Bay was an estuary teaming with life. Looking back, I realize that Florida’s west coast was one of the hot spots of life on this planet. In his survey of Florida in 1837, Williams, wrote this about Tampa Bay, “Fish and turtles are abundant; in the S.W. part in particular, such numerous and extensive shoals of fish are met, as almost to impede a boat in shoal water.” Because it is unthinkable today for fish to impede boat traffic, can sell conclude that the Bay always had only a few fish? As I grew up, I listened to archaeologists talk about a population of prehistoric people numbering only a few thousand. Artifact material was liberally spread throughout Pinellas. The coast was punctuated by temple mounds. What, I would ask myself, would keep the population numbers in this Eden of an estuary so low? The only thing I could come up with was that, Indian people couldn’t figure out how to reproduce. Right. For humans, that notion is right out. I grew up in the era of Jim Crow. And I knew him well. I found it hard to reconcile the intellectual community of

Bob Carr, one-time archaeologist for Miami Dade, once ask me, “How old does something have to be to be history?” History is usually thought of as the written past, every-thing else is prehistory. I thought about antiques and antique cars and answered, “I suppose it’s events that are fifty years old and older.” Bob smiled, his eyes twinkled with an under-standing I hadn’t yet reached. What I would learn, is that no matter how much study and reference the best historians do, history remains a story. Time, the stuff we measure events in, is based on our experiences,

the spin of the planet and its orbit. Some students of physics suggest that all time may be wrapped up in one moment. It turns out that history is simply your story as it spins out as you tell it. It’s the story of cause and effect. You are a player in the game—we all are—everything is. You and your story hold up a little of the fabric of the universe. What you do can be very important. Some of our writers offer views of history though their own stories. They help us return to the moment and to the wonder of our own lives.

✬

EDITORIAL THE NATURE OF HISTORY by Hermann Trappman

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BOOKS

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December 2005

Events & Exhibits

Sept 30-Oct 2 Altoona4th Annual Chisholm Trail Powwow. Host Drum: Family Drum, M.C.: Dave “WhiteWolf” Trezak, Headman: Derrick Whidden, Headlady: TBA, Special Guest Singer: Dave “WhiteWolf “Trezak. Indian frybread, Flute Playing, Story Telling, Native American Dancers in Regalia, & Tipis. Gates open at 9am. Friday - Grand Entry 7pm, Saturday - Grand entry 1pm & 7pm, Sunday Grand Entry 1pm. Location - Hwy 19 Altoona North at the Chisholm Trail Camp Grounds. For information contact Paul & Cindy Haslet at 352-669-5995 Tom Lipps 352-568-0619. E-mail - [email protected].

October 1 GainesvilleLiteracy Festival. 10AM. Annual children’s festival to promote reading and literacy. Free. Also in Oct, TBA. An Evening with Stetson Kennedy, co-sponsored with the Civic Media Center. Modest admission fee. 513 E. University Ave. For more info call 352-378-2280. October 1 Dunedin9th Annual History Comes Alive at the Dunedin Historic Cem-etery. Hosted by the Dunedin Historical Society, in cooperation with the Dunedin Cemetery Committee and the City of Dunedin, from 10AM-2PM. A special tree planting ceremony will take place at 10am with the Bay Bouquet Garden Club and the City of Dunedin. After the ceremony, visitors will be able to meet our “guests from Dunedin’s past.” Six citizens of Dunedin, who now rest at the cemetery, will be portrayed by volunteer reenactors in order to tell visitors about early Dunedin View historical scrapbooks that include family photos and Dunedin history. Materials will be available for visitors who would like to try the art of “gravestone rubbing.” The cemetery is located off of Main Street (SR 580), on Keene Road (CR 1) south of Virginia Street. $1.00 admission fee includes parking, program, and refreshments. For more info call 727-736-1176.

October 1 & 2 Fernandina BeachCivil War Fort Garrisons at Fort Clinch State Park. Saturdays 9 AM - 5 PM, Sundays 9 AM – 12 PM. Park Admission Fee is $5.00 per vehicle (limit 8 people per vehicle). Pedestrians, bicy-clists, extra passengers, passengers in vehicles with a holder of an Annual Individual Entrance permit. Park admission fee. Contact: (904) 277-7274.

October 7 & 8 ChristmasFlorida Living History Festival at Fort Christmas Historical Park & Museum. Union & Confederate Civil War Figures, Scottish & English Encampments, Early Skills Demonstrators, Meet John D. Rockefeller, Timucuan Indians, Early French Huguenots, Pine Needle Basketry, Florida Cow Hunters, Tomahawk Throwing, Soap Making, Seminole War Era, Weaving, Colonial Spanish, Musket Drills, Blacksmithing, Cannon firing, Skirmishes, Military Drills, Rope Making, Plantation Era, Flint-knapping, More!!! Educational Field Day, Friday October 28. Teachers please call for reservation! Students - $2. Public Admission: Adults - $5, Ages 3 to 17 - $3. Two miles north of SR 50, a major artery between Orlando and the Kennedy Space Center, 1300 Fort Christmas Road, Christmas (407) 568-414 http://parks.orangecountyfl.net

October 7& 8 White Springs55th Jeanie Ball and Auditions at Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park. The popular songs of Stephen Foster and the classical and operatic compositions of American music will be showcased at the 55th Jeanie Ball and Auditions on October 7th and 8th. Competitors wear 1854-style formal gowns for an evening ball and a Saturday morning audition before a panel of judges. The competition and the historically formal attire are in keeping with the theme of the event, which is named for the song Stephen Foster wrote for his wife, “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair.” The competition begins with a formal ball to honor the singers and their families on Friday evening. The Jeanie Ball is open to the public and begins at 8:30 p.m. College-age women will audition for the title of “Jeanie” in a public concert on Saturday, October 8th, begin-ning at 10:00 a.m. Admission is free with park admission of $4.00 per vehicle with up to eight passengers. Contact: 386-397-2733.

October 8 DunellonKelly’s Music at Rainbow Springs State Park. 4:30 PM - 6:30 PM. Performed by solo singer, George Koper who has a colorful history of singing all over the Florida Keys and performing in ev-erything from bars to performance theaters. He sings a wide variety of popular music including Elvis, Jimmy Buffet and many more. Bring your own chair and listen to music against the backdrop of the sparkling springs and Rainbow River.Fees: $1.00 per person park entrance fee. For more information call 352-465-8555.

October 8-9 Dade CitySilverhawk Native American Flute Gathering. Entertainment, vendors & Native food. Free admission, free parking, & free primitive camping. Fee for electricity. Saturday night Friendship Fire for flutes, drums, songs, stories, dancing, & fellowship. 12449 Withlacoochee Blvd. For more info contact Dock Green Silverhawk: at 813-754-8990. E-mail: [email protected]

October 15 De Leon SpringsPioneer Fiber Arts Guild at De Leon Springs State Park. 10:00 a.m - 2:00 p.m. Members of the guild demonstrate how it was made in the old days&& spinning, weaving, and quilting. Many beautiful fiber items of yesterday are recreated using authentic period methods, tools and materials. Regular park admission. Contact: [email protected]

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October 16 GainesvilleGiants in the Storm at the Florida Museum of Natural History. 2-3 p.m. Mark Renz will share images and ideas from his newly released book about a 500,000-year-old Florida riverbed. Find out why more than 2,000 bones and teeth of mammoths, mastodons, ground sloths, llamas, peccaries, and more were all buried in an area the size of a baseball diamond! Book signing to follow. For more info call 352-846-2000.

October 21-22 Lake City 2005 - 8th Annual Alligator Fest. Moved to Lake City Community College five miles east of downtown Lake City. Shaded sites for demonstrators & craft vendors, a covered area for stage presentations, hot showers & flush toilets, camping for participants, security, a gymnasium in case of inclement weather, & an adjacent auditorium are provided. Alligator show, a Creek bark camp & Seminole camps, brain tanning, trappers camp, blacksmith, & other period venues, period & modern arts & crafts & food. For information contact Halpatter Tustenuggee Association, PO Box 1064, Lake City, Fl 32056, or Chief Vic Vasco, 386-752-8511. Events chairman Steve Knight, 386-961-2428, Email: [email protected]

October 21-23 White Springs17th Annual Suwannee River Quilt Show and Sale at Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park. 9 AM - 5 PM. Traditional quilts, art quilts, children’s quilts, & heirloom quilts are on exhibit as quilters gather to share their work. Workshops, keynote speak-ers and demonstrations. Sponsored by the Stephen Foster CSO and Lady of the Lake Quilting Guild. For more information or to obtain an entry form, call 386-397-7009. Admission fee is $1.00. Call (386) 397-7009.

October 22 Cross CreekMusic under the Stars at Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park. 5:30 PM-7:30 PM. Annual Fundraiser! Enjoy live music from several of our favorite musical groups, house tours, a delicious Bar-B-Que dinner, and a silent auction of books, art and more! Fees: $15.00 donation. 18700 S. CR 325, Cross Creek. For more information call 352-466-3672.

October 22 Perry50th Annual Florida Forest Festival at Forest Capital Museum State Park. 8 AM - 5 PM, A living history of the late 1800’s will be performed by local volunteers at the Cracker Homestead. Enjoy live music, games, antique cars, arts, crafts and the world’s largest FREE fish fry. Bring your lawn chair. Sorry, no pets. Free. For more information call 850-584-3227.

October 22 GainesvilleBotanical Illustration at the Florida Museum of Natural History. Saturday at 10 a.m.–4:30 p.m. & Sunday at 1-4:30 p.m. Natural science illustrator Susan Trammell will lead you into the world of botanical watercolor illustration with this two-day workshop. Hone plant observation skills in the Natural Area Teaching Laboratory and learn to translate botany to brush stroke in this class for people of all skill levels. Bring a lunch on Saturday. Fee. Pre-registration is required. For more info call 352-846-2000, ext. 277.

October 21-23 Ocala National Harves Pow Wow & Festival at Silver River State Park. Grand Opening Oct 21 at 1:00pm. The White Buffalo Society presents a Harvest Pow Wow and Festival. Tribal dancing, arts & crafts, educational exhibits, Native American foods, flute music and presentations. Three full days of fall celebration. Bring a chair or blanket. Park entry fee is $4.00 per car load. Contact: White Buffalo Society 352-625-2279.

October 24-31 Key WestHAUNTED FORT at Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State ParkThe gun rooms inside Fort Taylor are turned into a maze where our visitors will encounter all things scary and goulish! Produced by nationally known magician, Magic Frank Everhart, Haunted Fort will be the ghostly encounter this Halloween in Key West! Event fee. For more info contact (305) 292-6713.

October 27 & 28 Ormond BeachFlorida Living History Festival at The Casements. Union & Confederate Civil War Figures, Scottish & English Encampments, Early Skills Demonstrators, Meet John D. Rockefeller, Timucuan Indians, Early French Huguenots, Pine Needle Basketry, Florida Cow Hunters, Tomahawk Throwing, Soap Making, Seminole War Era, Weaving, Colonial Spanish, Musket Drills, Blacksmithing, Cannon firing, Skirmishes, Military Drills, Rope Making, Plantation Era, Flint-knapping, More!!! Educational Field Day, Friday October 7. Teachers please call for reservation! Students - $2. Public Admission: Adults - $5, Ages 3 to 17 - $3. At the Casements, 25 Riverside Drive, Ormond Beach. For info call (386) 676-3216.

October 29 Zepherhills/Tampa13th Annual Spirit of the Woods/ Haunted Woods Trail at Hillsborough River State Park. 9AM - 10PM “Spirit of the Woods/Outdoor Expo,” includes numerous vendors and organizations from the local community with a goal of providing environmental education and highlighting various aspects of outdoor recreation. The 13th Annual Spirit of the Woods/ Haunted Woods Trail”. A safe alternative to trick or treating, this evening program offers fun for the whole family. Activities include: “spooky walk” on the trail, family hay rides, the Enchanted Forest, games, food. Fees: $5/person, children ages 5 and under are free. Contact the park at 813-987- 6771

November 3-4 White SpringsRural Folklife Days at Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park. 9 AM 2:30 PM. Quilting, cane grinding, syrup mak-ing, lye soap making, hand-plaited cow whips, and other farm traditions that remain part of family and community life. Ride in a horse-drawn wagon and taste homemade jellies at this family event. School groups welcome. Fees: $3.00 per person. For more info call 386-397-2733.

November 4-6 Naples17th Annual Old Florida Festival at Collier County Museum, featuring 15,000 years of Florida’s living history. Calusa Indians, Spanish Conquistadors, Revolutionary War Soldiers, Pioneer Craft

November 2005

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demos & mouth-watering Food. Friday is Children’s School Day. Saturday is Public Day. Admission $5.00 adults. 3301 Tamiami Trail East . For more information call (239) 774-8476. Email: [email protected]

November 5 Newberry2nd Annual Walk Through Time Quilt Show at Dudley Farm Historic State Park. 10 AM - 3:00 PM. Walk through time as you view quilts from yesterday through today. Stop and listen to mini lectures and watch teaching moments as music from yesterday is played. Hand quilting demonstrations will be given with an opportunity to try your hand at quilting. Sponsored by the Quilters of Alachua County Day Guild and Dudley Farm’s Domestic Skills Group. Regular park entrance fee of $4.00/vehicle. 18730 W. Newberry Rd. For more information call 352-472-1142.

November 4 - 6 Niceville18th Annual Thunderbird Interttribal Powwow. Presented by Eglin Air Force Base & the Thunderbird Intertribal Council at the Mullet Festival Grounds Hours - Friday at 7pm, Saturday - 9am to 10pm, Sunday -10am until 4pm. Friday is Children’s Day from 9am to 2pm. All area school children are invited to participate with hands-on demonstrations by the Indian Temple Mound, Jackson Guard, Petting Zoo, & Sea Crest Wolf Preserve. Native American dancers, drummers, & craft demonstrations aimed at educating the local community about Native Americans. Dancers from all over the country will compete for $3500 in prize money! For information contact - www.thunderbirdpowwow.org

November 4-6 Orlando19th Annual AIA Orlando Powwow. Friday 10am-10pm/Grand Entry at 7pm, Saturday 10am-10pm with Grand Entry at 1pm & 7pm, Sunday 10am-5pm with Grand Entry at 1pm. Friday is Kid’s Day - 10am-1pm. Saturday is Boy Scout Day- 11am-1pm. Sunday is Girl Scout Day - 11am-1pm. MC: Ken Redhawk, Arena Director: Ghostwalker, Head Lady: Crystal Woman. Headman: Herb Shepherd. Drum: TBA. Buses Welcome - Bring chairs to sit on. For info contact Peggy Wolfe @407-327-8207. Website: www.aiaofflorida.org

November 5 & 6 Fernandina BeachCivil War Fort Garrisons at Fort Clinch State Park. Soldiers will be manning the fort on Saturday 9 AM – 5 PM and Sunday 9 AM – 12 PM. Park Admission Fee is $5.00 per vehicle (limit 8 people per vehicle). Pedestrians, bicyclists, extra passengers, pas-sengers in vehicles with a holder of an Annual Individual Entrance permit. Admission Fee $1.00 per person. Single Car Occupant - $3.00 Motorcycle Fee (one or two persons) - $3.00 Admission fee allows visitors admittance to the beaches, trails, pier, and picnic area. For more info call 904-277-7274.

November 5 Sebring20th Annual Civilian Conservation Corps Festival at Highlands Hammock State Park.. 8:30 AM Festival honors the men of the CCC’s, who in the 1930’s & 40’s, voluntarily joined this civilian “army” and began to work on conservation projects throughout the United States. Their work also helped clear the way for the beginning of Florida’s state parks. Children’s activities, arts & craft

vendors, antique car show, folk music, live animal exhibits and FREE tram tours & hayrides. Contact Reserve America for your reservations 800-326-3521. Crafters/Vendors/Reenactors contact event coordinator, Dorothy Harris, at (863) 634-7695 for a vendor packet and/or additional information. Park entrance fee of $4.00 per vehicle applies for participants not registered in campground. 5931 Hammock Road. Contact park at 863-386-6094.

November 8 GainesvillePine Needle Baskets at the Florida Museum of Natural His-tory. 1-4 p.m Local fiber artist Nancy Gildersleeve will share pine needle basket weaving techniques using raffia, needles and creativity. Learn old and new methods for weaving this popular Florida basket style. $25 members, $30 non-members. Fee includes supplies. Pre-registration required. Call (352) 846-2000, ext. 277 for more information.

November 12 EllentonAnnual Gamble Plantation Car & Truck Show at Gamble Plantation Historic State Park. 9 AM - 4 PM. Hosted by the Manatee Classic Cruisers Club. This event has grown each year with over 250 vehicles last year. A variety of classic, custom, and restored autos and trucks are on display for all to enjoy. Food will be available. Admission free; mansion tours available at regular tour price. Contact the park at: (941) 723-4536

November 11-12 White SpringsSuwannee Dulcimer Retreat at Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park. Workshops, jam session and concerts with nationally recognized dulcimer players. Fees: Workshop fee TBA. Call 386-397–4462.

November 18-20 St. Petersburg5th Annual Military - Machines & Memories (formery known as Five Centuries of the Military) All military impressions from 1501 - 2005 welcome.Weapons demos, parade, encampments. Also antique machinery & tractors and tour of old Florida village. Friday is school day. Pre-register. Free to reenactors. Sutlers $20. Donations accepted from public. Contact: Mike or Bonnie Bowen 727-526-6117 or [email protected]

November 19-20 DunedinCelebration of the 35th Anniversary of Andrews Memorial Chapel in Hammock Park, 1– 4 PM both days. Admission $2. Saturday – Vintage Bridal Exhibit. 2:00 pm. Vivien Skinner Grant presentation. Sunday-Bridal Show. Also in November Space Camp for Ages 9-12. Call Dunedin Historical Society Museum 727-736-1176.

November 19 Tampa7th Annual Tampa Cigar Heritage Festival at Ybor City Museum State Park. 9:00 AM - 5:00PM. Hosted by the Ybor City Museum Society. Museum tours, cigar rolling demos, kids activities, fresh Cuban bread, Food & Beverage vendors,Cigar vendors, Fresh Market. Free, but donation suggested to benefit society. Contact 813-247-6323.

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November 24-27 OcalaThanksgiving Turkey Dance (Open Inter Tribal Dancing). Located just north of Ocala next to the I-75 Super Flea Market. Accessible from both Rt 326 & Rt 27 Exits. Host Drum - RedBird JR’s, Guest Drums - Falcon Singers and Thunder Drum Women. MC - Fred Glennon , Arena Director - Tony Young, Sr. Head Man - Daryl Baldwin , Sr. Head Lady - Angela Baldwin, Head Man & Head Lady ̂ TBA, Head Veteran - Ed Comer. Arts & Crafts Competition, Midnight Auction, Children‚s Programs, Story Telling, Native American Style Flute Music, Sunday Trade Blanket Session, & Mamma Martins Frybread. Contact Bob Achorn (352)669-4605. In Loving Memory of Nona and Sherman Chambers.

November 25-27 BellFirewalker’s Legacy Hart Springs Powwow. Host Drum - The Family Drum. Intertribal Dancing. Featuring - Honoring the Children, Paint the Pony, Craft & Food vendors. Free Admission, Free Parking. Dancers in regalia & families camp free on Friday & Saturday. Primitive camping, complete hook ups, indoor showers & restroom facilities available. Hart Springs Campground, CR 344, Bell, For more infor contact Helen Three Does Blair, 352-463-7321 or email: [email protected].

November 26 ChieflandThanksgiving Concert at Manatee Springs State Park. Free with park admission. Great music in a great setting. Bring the family and enjoy local musicians in a family setting. Bring a lunch and enjoy the day. Admission Fee $1.00 per person. 11650 N.W. 115th St. For more info call 352-493-6072.

December 2 TallahasseeCamellia Christmas 2005 at Alfred B. Maclay Gardens State Park. 6-9 PM Start the holiday season with a wonderful evening of cookies, carols and candlelight Enjoy the seasonal sounds of local musicians, hot apple cider, cookies, and a candlelit stroll through the beautiful ornamental gardens. In addition, guests can tour the historic winter home of Alfred and Louise Maclay, adorned in fine holiday greenery. Admission free but donations are welcomed. Contact: (850) 487-4556.

December 2 HomosassaChamber Christmas Tree Lighting at Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park. 5:00 p.m. Homosassa Chamber of Commerce holds its annual Christmas Tree Lighting adjacent to the Park’s Visitor Center on the first Friday evening in December to kick off the holiday season. The event includes the arrival of Santa Claus and carol singing. FREE. Contact: 352-628-5343.

December 3 GainesvilleAnnual Historic Holiday Homes Tour in downtown Gainesville. 5-8pm. $10 admission. Matheson Museum, 513 E. University Ave. 352-378-2280

December 3 & 4 Ellenton2005 Christms Open House at Gamble Plantation Historic State

Park. 10 AM-4 PM. Hosted jointly by the Florida Park Service and the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Enjoy a tour through the Mansion with lovely period decorations, ladies and gentlemen in period costume, and entertainment. Free! Contact 941-723-4536.

December 3 NewberryAnnual Cane Grinding Community Gathering at Dudley Farm Historic State Park. 9 AM. to 3 PM. Help continue the farm fam-ily tradition of grinding sugar cane and boiling can syrup, making this a unique old-time community gathering. Visitors can tour the farm and see living history and craft demonstrations. Music, auc-tion, farm products and crafts. FREE. For more information call 352-472-1142.

Dec. 3 & 4 Fernandina BeachCivil War Fort Garrisons at Fort Clinch State Park. Soldiers will be manning the fort on Saturday 9 AM – 5 PM and Sunday 9 AM – 12 PM. Park Admission Fee is $5.00 per vehicle (limit 8 people per vehicle). Pedestrians, bicyclists, extra passengers, pas-sengers in vehicles with a holder of an Annual Individual Entrance permit. Admission Fee $1.00 per person. Single Car Occupant - $3.00 Motorcycle Fee (one or two persons) - $3.00 Admission fee allows visitors admittance to the beaches, trails, pier, and picnic area. Contact: (904) 277-7274

December 6 through 10 2005 Yee Haw to KissimeeCattle Drive ‘95’ Reunion Trail Ride and 1st Annual Florida Cracker Cow Culture Frolic. The Great Florida Cattle Drive of ‘95’ was a truly grand and historic undertaking. The Cattle Drive alumni will have a chance to relive the famous event this December. Many people, horses and over 1,000 cattle participated in this event not to mention the wagons that followed. The ride will cover the same trail as the historic event did 10 years ago (Adams Ranch SR 60 west of Yee Haw to Kissimmee) only without the cattle. Limited to 1000 participants and alumni will receive preference. Veterans of the ‘95’ event will be charged $50.00 dollars and newcomers (if space available) $100.00. On the trail meals are available at an additional charge. At each night’s camp living historians will tell the tail of Florida’s rich history to the riders. Saturday public invited to join the alumni at the Florida Cracker Cow Culture Frolic. Includes cow boy poetry, story telling, music, living history, pioneer skills/crafts demonstration and artists. Evening presentations are also scheduled and will include music, stories, cowboy poetry and a “name” band yet to be secured. Contact D. J. Connor for more event information. (850.410.0956) Contact Larry Ellis for information on living history, pioneer skills, music and artist participation 407-760-1989.

December 9, 10, 11, 16, 17 & 18 Dunellon Santa over the Rainbow at Rainbow Springs State Park. 6- 8:30 PM. Santa and Mrs. Clause come up the Rainbow River on their shining, decorated ‘sleigh’ and walk up the hill to their Santa House. Live music most nights; thousands of lights. December 26 & 27 Santa Claus has gone back to the North Pole but the thousands and thousands of brightly colored lights still make a magical wonderland of the park. Fees: $1.00 park entrance fee. For more information call 352-465-8555.

December 2005

FLORIDA FRONTIER GAZETTEMEMBERSHIP SUBSCRIPTION OR RENEWAL FORM

___ INDIVIDUAL - $12.00 per year - 4 quarterly issues mailed to your home. Every little bit helps us keep it going.

___ COMMUNITY SPIRIT PARTNERS (not-for-profit) - $50.00 per year - 100 each quarterly issues to distribute to your patrons for FREE! Visitation and/or upcoming events may be promoted by purchasing ad space.

___ COMMUNITY SPIRIT BUSINESS PARTNERS - $50.00 - $500 per year. 4 quarterly listings with Business Name, Address, Phone Number, and Website. 1/4 to Full Page Ad Space available.

___ COMMUNITY SPIRIT CORPORATE PARTNERS - $500 - $10,000 per year. - Logo with Business Name, Address, Phone Number, and Website on an individual page of the magazine. 1/4 to Full Page Ad Space available in Full Color.

Name:__________________________________ or Community Spirit Partner or Business:_____________________________

Address:_______________________________________________City:_________________________State:_______Zip:_______

Phone:(_____)_________________E-mail:_____________________________Website:__________________________________

Membership $______________ Display Ad $______________ Total amount enclosed $______________

Please make checks payable to FLORIDA FRONTIERS, 5409 21st Avenue S., Gulfport, FL, 33707.

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December 17 & 18 InvernessNight of Lights at Fort Cooper State Park. 6 PM– 8:30 PM. Lights, decorations and luminaries will add a holiday touch to the park. Refreshments and entertainment will be offered. Admission is a canned good or new toy for local charity. Hosted by the Friends of Fort Cooper. FREE with one canned or dry food item. 3100 South Old Floral City Road. Call 352-726-0315.

December 18 Cross CreekFirst Fruit Picking at Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park. 10:00 AM. Help us pick fruit from the Rawling’s grove for local charities and bring some home for your family. This event is free with park admission. For more information, call 352-466-3672.

Community Spirit Partners

December 31, 2005 BushnellJanuary 1, 200625th Annual Commemorative Battle Reenactment at Dade Battlefield Historic State Park. 9AM - 5PM. Living history reenactment of the first battle of the Second Seminole War. At this site on Decemeber 28, 1835, 180 Seminole warriors ambushed Major Francis Dade and his command of 107 U.S. soldiers. Activities and food concessions both days. $5 for adults. Kids 12 and under free. Contact the Park at 352-793-4781.

See you on the trail!

THE PIRATE HAUS INN32 Treasury Street, St. Augustine, F 32084

904-808-1999 www.piratehaus.com

WILCOX NURSERY & GARDEN SHOP12501 Indian Rocks Road, Largo, FL 33744727-595-2073 www.wilcoxnursery.com

AD SPACE AVAILABLE Email: [email protected]

CUSTOM LOCATORS USA2322 Hercala Lane, HERNANDO, FL 34442

352-560-0056

DUNNELLON AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE20500 E. Pennsylvania Avenue, Dunnellon, FL 34432

1-800-830-2087 www.dunnellonchamber.org

GREAT OUTDOORS PUBLISHING CO.4747 28th Street N., St. Petersburg, FL 33714

[email protected]

AMERICAN WATERSKI EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION1251 Holy Cow Road, Polk City, FL 33868863-324-2472 www.waterskihalloffame

CENTRAL GULF COAST ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETYP.O. Box 9507, Treasure Island, FL 33740

www.fasweb.org/chapters/warmmineralsprings.htm

COLLIER COUNTY MUSEUM3301 Tamiami Trail East, Naples, FL 34112941-774-8476 www.colliermuseum.org

DUNEDIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY & MUSEUM349 Main Street, Dunedin, FL 34697 727-736-1176

www.ci.dunedin.fl.us/dunedin/historical-society

DUNNELLON AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCEPO Box 868, Dunnellon, FL 34430-0868

FLORIDA MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORYSW 34th St. & Hull Rd. Gainesville FL 32611

352-846-2000 www.flmnh.ufl.edu

GAMBLE PLANTATION PRESERVATION ALLIANCE3708 Patten Avenue, Ellenton, Florida 34222www.floridastateparks.org/gambleplantation

THE HERITAGE MUSEUM115 Westview Ave., Valparaiso, FL 32580

850-678-2615 www.heritage-museum.org

HERITAGE VILLAGE AT PINEWOOD CULTURAL PARK 11909 125th Street N., Largo, FL 33774 727-582-2123

www.pinellascounty.org/heritage/default.htm

HISTORIC FLORIDA MILITIA (Living History Groups)42 Spanish Street, St. Augustine, FL 32084

904-829-9792www.historicfloridamilitia.org

INDIAN ROCKS BEACH HISTORICAL SOCIETYP.O. Box 63, Indian Rocks Beach, FL 33785

727-593-3861 www.indian-rocks-beach.com/historical_society.html/

MATHESON MUSEUM513 E. University Avenue, Gainesville, FL 32601352-378-2280 www.mathesonmuseum.org

MUSEUM OF FLORIDA ART & CULTURE at SFCC600 West College Drive, Avon Park, FL 33825-9356

863-784-7240 www.mofac.org

NATIVE EARTH CULTURAL CENTER AT INDIAN STUFF1064 4th Street N, St. Petersburg, FL 33701727-821-8186 www.orgsites.com/fl/ourstory

ORANGE COUNTY REGIONAL HISTORY CENTER65 East Central Boulevard, Orlando, Florida 32801

407-836-8500 www.thehistorycenter.org

PANAMA CANAL MUSEUM7985 113th Street, Suite 100,Seminole, FL 33772727-394-9338 www.panamacanalmuseum.org

PAST TYMES (Living History Educators)745 N.E. 117 St., Biscayne Park, FL 33161

305-895-7317 www.pasttymeproductions.com

PENSACOLA HISTORICAL SOCIETY117 E. Government Street, Pensacola, FL 32502

850-434-5455 www.pensacolahistory.org

THE PIER AQUARIUM800 2nd Avenue NE, St. Petersburg, FL 33701 727-895-7437 www.pieraquarium.org

RANDELL RESEARCH CENTERPO Box 608, Pineland, FL 33945

239-283-2062 www.flmnh.ufl.edu/sflarch/pineland.htm

SACRED LANDS PRESERVATION & EDUCATION1620 Park Street N., St. Petersburg, FL 33710

727-347-0354 www.sacredlandspreservationandeducation.org

ST. PETERSBURG MUSEUM OF HISTORY335 Second Avenue NE, St. Peterburg, FL 33707727-894-1052 www.stpetemuseumofhistory.org

TAMPA BAY HISTORY CENTER225 S. Franklin Street, Tampa, FL 33602

813-228-0097 www.tampabayhistorycenter.org

THE TRAIL OF THE LOST TRIBESToll Free - 877-621-6805 www.trailofthelosttribes.org

WARM MINERAL SPRINGS/ LITTLE SALT SPRING ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

P.O. Box 7797, North Port, FL 34287www.fasweb.org/chapters/warmmineralsprings.htm

Community Spirit Partners

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Join the team for only $50.00 a year.

Details on page 35.