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 the 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.
Several steamboat companies traveled these waters. The Hart
Line, ran steamboats for about 25 yrs on the Ocklawaha River. |