REL 3938 Assignment 5: DeLeon Springs

REL 3938 Assignment 5: DeLeon Springs

            When I first found the visitor center, I noticed how the archives/information on the walls was in order from the oldest history to the most recent history of those who lived around (what is now called) DeLeon Springs.  Beginning with ancient inhabitants that date back as far as 6,000 years ago (according to a hand out the center provided) to becoming a state park in 1982, DeLeon springs is definitely a site with immense historical value.

            Before the intrusion of European explorers, there were many Native Americans who inhabited the area.  Such evidence of these people includes shell mounds, middens (garbage heaps), and tools.  While we can verify the presence of these populations, some of history cannot be verified but rather is left to speculation.  An example in the timeline of DeLeon Springs would be that in the 1500s, Ponce DeLeon came to DeLeon Springs in order to find the Fountain of Youth.  However, the museum does confess “there is no historical record or archaeological evidence to support this.”  Perhaps this “fake history” was developed in a later time period.

            DeLeon Springs was not always called DeLeon Springs – before given its current name, DeLeon Springs was known as Spring Garden.  At Spring Garden, one of the first economic growths came from producing sugar.  A man named Colonel Orlando Rees constructed, “the only water-powered sugar mill in Florida” (along with 90 slaves).  When Spring Garden began to attract tourists after the Civil War, the tourists were enticed with “a deliciously healthy combination of soda and sulfur (most likely referring to the sugar from the sugar mills).  Other original attractions to DeLeon springs, “before it got fancy” (the name of a poster that contained pictures of the Springs) include a bathhouse, a platform for diving, a swimming hole, and boating. 

            At this point in history, DeLeon Springs was a simple attraction that brought in some tourists.  Eventually, during the “Wish You Were Here” age, DeLeon springs wanted to garner even more tourists.  This is most likely where the “legend” of Ponce De Leon visiting the Springs began to be formed (as seen in old postcards and signs).  This period also introduced many unique attractions, such as Queenie, the waterskiing elephant and a high-class resort/casino. 

            The only remaining section of the DeLeon Springs Inn is the chimney, which can be seen attached to the visitor center.  Looking at this visitor center with this treasure of history attached to it brought me back to a time where swimming and birthday parties were not the only attractions that made people come to this park.  It is hard to believe the rich history that took place on these grounds, which is why we must not forget the past and do our best to help future generations understand what previous generations experienced.

REL 3938 Assignment 4: Silver Sprins History and Paradise Park

REL 3938 Assignment 4: Silver Springs History and Paradise Park

Before Disney World - before Universal Studios - before any large amusment park in Florida - there was Silver Springs: a small, attraction of "real Florida."  However, even though Silver Springs may not be the number one tourist attraction in Florida now, it sure was quite the hot spot before Florida became modernized with factors such as highways and civil rights.

On my way to Silver Springs, I had the luxury of driving south on Interstate 75.  Such a luxury is something everyone takes for granted these days since interstates and highways are necessary for transportation.  Nevertheless, people where able to travel around Florida void of highway systems. One way to travel was by water - specifically rivers if one wished to go inland.  An example of a river that help Floridians and tourists transport was Silver River.  This river runs directly into Silver Springs, giving residents and visitors a way to access this tiny treasure without a highway or major roads. Rivers (and other bodies of water) not only allowed people to enter specific places, but marine travel differed from highway travel also by the amount of places one can go.  For example on a highway one must get off an a specific exit that will take one to a specific destination.  On the other hand, one could stop at many places on a river, or one could enter the gulf and not be limited to only one stop, but rather travel up and down the coast and choose exactly where to explore.  So water travel also gave people many different options and opportunities to find many different places.  In addition to the benefit of flexibility with choosing destinaitons, If travelers had large boats, they could sleep in these large boats as opposed to a traveler on a highway who must stop and sleep in a hotel or somewhere with a roof and four walls (I am not denying people slept in their cars, but rather I am interested in the change in possibilities of what people could do with traveling on water as opposed to what most people do now with traveling on highways).

Another historical difference between Silver Springs and modern theme parks is a notorious history of segregation.  Before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Silver Springs could not be enjoyed by African Americans the same way it was enjoyed by Caucasians.  Most noteablely, African Americans were forced to attend a different park known as "Paradise Park."  When we went to Silver Springs, we were unable to find paradise park.  I believe the people of Silver Springs were trying not to advertise this racist part of history.  Even though every visitor of Silver Springs had the opportunity to swim, take boat tours, and experience the Ross Allen Reptile Institute, there was a clear separation between different skin colors.  I do wonder why the people of Silver Springs hide the remnants of Paradise Park so much.  Sure racism is not something to be proud of, but people, especially of younger generations should be informed of the unfortunate events of our past so we (we meaning humans) can do our best to not make such terrible and unnecessary mistakes in the future.

As I conclude this blog, I want to note the importance of preserving history.  Those who want to rewrite history and withhold information from others may believe they are doing good.  However, other people may want to learn mistakes, progress, and lifestyles of previous generations and people.  Such information is not only limited things such as transportation and racism, but anything that can help people of today make a better future for ourselves and future generations.

REL 3938 Assignment 3: Silver Springs

REL 3938 Assignment 3: Silver Springs

            As my classmate and I are walking through nature trails, we get tangled in a spider web and become a bit frightened.  I glance at Christian to make sure he is all right and I see a huge spider crawling up his neck and I quickly advice him “shake it off!”  Thankfully no one was hurt, but it was at this point where we knew we where most likely not in the correct area of Silver Springs.

            However not everything in this part of the park was a waste: we found a very old Wild West replica labeled “Florida Cracker Homestead.”  In comparison to Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ home (the previous park we visited) this replica emphasized a community of people as opposed to just one person’s house (since there were many other buildings besides homes, such as a church, sugar cane syrup station, blacksmith, smokehouse, etc).  Even though it was fun observing this area that was most likely representing 1800s type of living, the more well know Silver Springs was quite different.

            After concluding that we were in the wrong area, we decided to drive north to another entrance.  The moment I saw the huge sign that boasted “Silver Springs” (which faced a Wal-Mart sized parking lot), I knew that Silver Springs was going to be different than the any other state park I have ever visited.  Walking into the entrance, I felt like I was entering a sort of ghost amusement park – hardly anyone was there yet I could imagine crowds of families lined up at the ticket booths eager to explore what Silver Springs had to offer.  The whole place had a very nostalgic feeling.

            After looking around we found a tiny museum that gave us some incite as to what this forgotten treasure was like back in its prime.  Old postcards reminisced the vibes and feelings of the park’s history with their pictures of swimmers, bottom-glass boats, and crystal clear water.  The park was definitely pictured as the topic tourist attraction in Florida for its time. 

            Before we dive into the park’s prime, at the museum I learned that the river was the sight of many movies before being known as a tourist attraction.  Such movies include “The Creature of the Black Lagoon,” “Tarzan,” “The Yearling,” “James Bond movies,” and many others.  The man to thank for this popularity was Mr. Underwater, or Newt Perry.  Perry was a pioneer in the art of making underwater movies (according to the museum).  Because of his contributions to cinema, people were attracted to this area in order to actually see where such films were shot.  At this point in the park’s history it was mostly a roadside attraction.  The first attendees were military men who were doing their training in Florida.  However, as history has shown, Silver Springs did not remain a small attraction.

            As time went on, Silver Springs added onto its river attractions, including the Twin Oaks Amphitheatre (which is almost as ornate as George Washington’s Mt. Vernon), the river boats and later the Ross Allen Reptile Institute.  The people who worked at Silver Springs made small dioramas that were “used in road shows in the 1950s and 1960s” to show to people in an attempt to draw customers to visit the park.  The Ross Allen Reptile Institute was home to a world famous Herpetologist name Ross Allen.  Allen was famous for “milking venom from snakes” (according to the museum).

            Even though the park began to grow larger, there were still problems that occurred that wouldn’t have been happening today.  One of those problems was how Allen would import endangered species of snakes into the Institute – something that is “not allowed these days with international endangered species laws.”  Another problem (perhaps not seen as a problem then) was the segregation of “colored” and
“white” visitors: the colored visitors would attend a part of the park called “Paradise Park.”  This portion of the park still had ferries – still had swimming – still had bathrooms – except the “colored” visitors were unable to intermingle with the white visitors.  After the Civil Rights Act of 1964, this segregation was eliminated. 

            So now, in this point in history, since everyone can enjoy this popular park, why don’t parents bring their kids to Silver Springs these days for a summer vacation?  The answer is quite obvious: in the latter half of the 20^th century a man named Walt Disney opened a theme park in Orlando, sucking the life and attraction from Silver Springs.  Since there was very little ability to compete, Silver Springs became lost in history.

            As my classmate and I wandered around this historic attraction, we noticed how the area was just recently made into a state park around 2013.  I am glad that this park is now under the protection and care of the State and is recognized as a historic landmark, not only because it is beautiful (with its water is that almost as clear as a pool and romantic gardens) but also because one can feel the life and attractiveness that guests in the past once felt.  Sure this park may not be Florida’s number one tourist hot spot any more, but the joy and awe that so many people must have felt went entering Silver Springs 50 years ago must have been as comparable as a child entering Disney World today.

            

REL 3938 Assignment 2: Mapping Rawlings Sites

REL 3938 Assignment 2: Mapping Rawlings Sites

            Today, the Ocala National Forest is the preservation of the “world’s largest contiguous sand pine scrub forest” and “high, dry, central scrub ridges” according to the United States Department of Agriculture.  However, before government and commercial people entered the land, the inhabitants of the land adapted and lived with the land.  Such inhabitants are the very people whom Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings wanted the world to remember through her writings. 

            This area is not the most welcoming place.  According to a YouTube video by Deborah Hendrix (www.youtube.com/watch?=mW496175MYs), the forest can be described as “desert-like.” After watching the video of the forest, I believe that some may consider this landscape to be beautiful, however since everyone holds a different definition of beauty, some may not consider scrubs and trees to be as beautiful in comparison to something like the Rocky Mountains or Glacier Park (once again everyone is different, so beauty and love for this forest cannot be accurately measured since the two are quite subjective).  On the contrary, I do believe that a century ago this land would be difficult to live in.  If I were living in the late 1800s or early 1900s, perhaps I would go to this part of Florida every once in a while in order to find some peace from regular, stable life – but if this forest were my regular life I do not think life would be stable or pleasant since the area would have been so undeveloped and necessities such as food would have been hard to come by.

Nevertheless, those who were made for such conditions were able to live off the land.  One of the places where people lived in the forest was a place called Pat’s Island.  The name is somewhat deceiving since Pat’s Island is “surrounded by sandy soil and scrub” and not water (also mentioned in the same YouTube video).  The reason Pat’s Island is significant to Rawlings’ is because a boy named Calvin Long lived there and adopted a deer.  This duo later inspired Rawlings to write her Pulitzer Prize – winning novel “The Yearling,” according to floridahikes.com/yearling.  Subsequently, there is a trail near Pat’s Island that is named “The Yearling Trail.”  This section of the forest was the site of many scenes of the movie “The Yearling.”  Rawlings was actually quite particular about which areas to shoot the film because she could actually imagine herself in these spots along with the characters from her book and the events that took place, according to one of the curator’s at the Smathers Library.  Rawlings also wanted these exact sites to be used because she knew that those who saw the movie would more accurately experience what she thought.  In other words, instead of bring the audience to the places she wrote about, she brought the places she wrote about to the audience. 

Even though Rawlings did her best to have her readers experience what she thought (through literature and films), seeing and feeling these locations from first hand experience is still a completely different experience as opposed to simply looking at them (through literature of films).  A perfect example is in the NPR interview with one of the actors of “The Yearling”:  the actor elaborated on how the bear scene was first shot with city dogs (which were not fit for the scene) and then shot with more local, rough dogs.  Even though these days the scene would have been “blocked by animal rights activists,” at the time it was a peek into the lives of those who used these dogs in such a hardcore manner like the inhabitants of the local forest (for the record I watched this scene on YouTube and it is very violent: the bear would viciously bite down on the dogs’ necks and throw them around the site. I would imagine seeing something with this much animal violence on Animal Planet, but not a movie site about a young boy and a dawn). 

At this point we can conclude that not only did Rawlings live in a place that was not the most delightful, but it also containing a very unique set of local people and lifestyles.  Though at the time these people may have seemed free from laws and other bounds, that all changed when commercial people and government found reasons to interfere.  The changes that were brought about in the early 1900s began to label certain qualities of the local people as “illegal” and “lawless.”  However, from the point of view of the inhabitants (and most likely Rawlings), “everything [the inhabitants] do is necessary to sustain life in that place” (as quoted from Selected Letters of Majorie Kinnan Rawlings). The interesting thing about considering what these people do to be illegal is that just because their actions are labeled “illegal” doesn’t mean they are bad people - Rawlings continues to elaborate by saying how “old clearings have been farmed out” and “big timber is gone,” leaving the production of moonshine their only source of income. Since the prohibition of alcohol at the time mandated that production of alcohol was illegal, and the people continued to produce moonshine in order to make money, this would mean that the local people might have been committing this illegal act simply to continue to make money and live.  In essence, Rawlings did not mean illegal as a negative connotation towards the people, but rather as a fact that what the people have always done in order to make money is now against the law written by outsiders. 

So at this point I can understand how not being able to produce moonshine will inhibit the inhabitants’ income, by why didn’t they just move to a place with a better chance of making money in a different, more “legal” way?  In the same quote by Rawlings, this question was answered at the end when Rawlings confirms that the local people “would be unwilling to leave” their home.  Rawlings knew that the locals considered this land their home and to leave their home just because some outsiders said their lifestyle was bad was not going to be taken lightly.  So if one is to ask, “Is this an easy landscape to love?” obvious answer is no, however the exception to this response can be found in this time and place in history where the inhabitants of this mid-Floridian forest refused to easily leave their home and continued to break the laws all because they loved their home.