Another unique piece of Florida history for our Florida's Special Places campaign - Bulow Plantation Ruins State Park. Thanks again to former Florida Audubon President Clay Henderson for adding another wonderful entry:
If the new standard for keeping our state parks open is they must make money, then Bulow State Park will always be a happy failure. There is such intrinsic beauty in Bulow because it is a museum piece of Florida history and landscape with solitude is its greatest value. On my visit to the ruins, to Fairchild Oak, and along the trail to Boardman Pond, I saw not another living human. It was so quiet all that I could really do was quietly reflect on those many famous spirits who made it such a special place.
Bulow State Park is one of the great living museum pieces of our state park system. Just making the trip there is a step back in time. The entrance to Bulow Ruins is Old Kings Road the oldest road in Florida built in the 18th Century to connect the peninsula to the colonies to the north. The approach to Bulow Creek from the south is along the Old Dixie Highway, a narrow tunnel of tree canopy which was the first highway in the state.
Charles Bulow began his sugar plantation here in 1821 which grew to be the largest in Florida. In 1831, John James Audubon visited the plantation and immortalized it in his painting of the Greater Yellowlegs as part of his Birds of America series. The Plantation was burned at the outbreak of the Second Seminole War in 1835 and all that remains are the massive coquina ruins.
Bulow Ruins and even Audubon's art are part of the recent history of the site. Archaeological evidence tells us that native Timucuans camped along the banks of Bulow Creek for over 1500 years before Europeans arrived. Just off Old Dixie Highway is the majestic Fairchild Oak, a live oak which has stood as a sentinel for 400 years. It is certainly one of the most impressive specimens in the South and named for famed botanist David Fairchild, a Trustee of the National Geographic Society who advocated to save the tree.
A narrow canopy road connects Old Dixie with the coast which crosses maritime hammock and coastal marsh. It's called Walter Boardman Lane, named for the pioneer conservationist who led the efforts to conserve so many of the unique sites along Bulow Creek.
A small trail leads to the Boardman Pond, where one can sit in silence and watch wood ducks and wading birds so grateful that such a special place could be preserved for their quiet enjoyment and ours.
If the new standard for keeping our state parks open is they must make money, then Bulow State Park will always be a happy failure. There is such intrinsic beauty in Bulow because it is a museum piece of Florida history and landscape with solitude is its greatest value. On my visit to the ruins, to Fairchild Oak, and along the trail to Boardman Pond, I saw not another living human. It was so quiet all that I could really do was quietly reflect on those many famous spirits who made it such a special place.
Bulow State Park is one of the great living museum pieces of our state park system. Just making the trip there is a step back in time. The entrance to Bulow Ruins is Old Kings Road the oldest road in Florida built in the 18th Century to connect the peninsula to the colonies to the north. The approach to Bulow Creek from the south is along the Old Dixie Highway, a narrow tunnel of tree canopy which was the first highway in the state.
Charles Bulow began his sugar plantation here in 1821 which grew to be the largest in Florida. In 1831 John James Audubon visited the plantation and immortalized it in his painting of the Greater Yellowlegs as part of his Birds of America series. The Plantation was burned at the outbreak of the Second Seminole War in 1835 and all that remains are the massive coquina ruins.
Bulow Ruins and even Audubon's art are part of the recent history of the site. Archaeological evidence tells us that native Timucuans camped along the banks of Bulow Creek for over 1500 years before Europeans arrived. Just off Old Dixie Highway is the majestic Fairchild Oak, a live oak which has stood as a sentinel for 400 years. It is certainly one of the most impressive specimens in the South and named for famed botanist David Fairchild, a Trustee of the National Geographic Society who advocated to save the tree.
A narrow canopy road connects Old Dixie with the coast which crosses maritime hammock and coastal marsh. It's called Walter Boardman Lane, named for the pioneer conservationist who led the efforts to conserve so many of the unique sites along Bulow Creek. A small trail leads to the Boardman Pond, where one can sit in silence and watch wood ducks and wading birds so grateful that such a special place could be preserved for their quiet enjoyment and ours.
