Florida
is blessed with so much natural heritage. We have waterways
and
lakes all over our beautiful state. If not for the rivers,
our
early settlers would have had a much harder time getting around.
Our Indians used dugout canoes to travel silently
along the rivers. Once the white man arrived, they began
harvesting trees and sending them down river to be processed and sent
north or across the ocean. Cedar, Oak and Cypress were made
into
rafts sometimes to float along. Some boats were polled with
long
poles to accomodate the various depths of the water. Theses could guide
logs down river also.
The more water travel was used, the more innovative our
forefathers became. They used barges to take goods down river
and
returned with goods for general stores along the river banks.
Immigrants who landed in Charleston and Savannah and
traveled south were able to travel the St. Johns river south against
the current to Palatka, Deland and Sanford. Others branched
out
into the Ocklawaha River for a more inland route to Ocala, Leesburg ,
Tavares, and Mt. Dora with the final destitation of Apopka.
Those who came into
our panhandle area made good use of the
Appalachicola River. 1827 saw the first steamboat service on the river.
In 1829 the Chipola
Canal Coumpany was chartered to build a canal or railroad across
Florida.
 Hubbard L. Hart made his way from
his native Vermont to Palatka in 1855 by way of Boston,
Savannah and
Darien, Georgia. He contracted to carry the mail from Palatka
to Tampa.
He became owner of the stage coach line which ran the mail
from each
end every Monday and Thursday. There were stops at night
along the way
to make it more accessible for those who did not travel well.
He
became interested in tourism after seeing Silver Springs. He
bought
the James Burt, a paddle- wheel steamboat and began trips
between
Palatka and Silver Springs which took 2 days.
The Hart
Line, ran steamboats for about 25 yrs on the Ocklawaha River.
This was not the only line. There were even several
captains who only had one boat but made a good living on the river.
With the coming of the railroad, river travel dwindled.
No longer was there only one fast way to get around the east
coast. It is a shame that there wasn't a place for the old
steamships. It was certainly a more beautiful, restful way of
travel.
Not many years later, the state was crisscrossed with many roads and
automobile travel replaced the railroad as the best method of travel.
Many of the railroad tracks were abandoned and overgrown.
By the end of the 20th century many tracks were removed and
local
groups maintain the rail bed for those who enjoy hiking. The
idea being to
have a complete route of these trails throughout the state.
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