Pirate & Heritage Days coming to Three Rivers State Park!

May event will commemorate the legacy of William Augustus Bowles!

by Dale Cox

The pirate and adventurer William Augustus Bowles
will be remembered at Pirate & Heritage Days at
Three Rivers State Park in Sneads, Florida.

The Chattahoochee River and Lake Seminole in eastern Jackson County are abundant in the history of the adventurer and pirate William Augustus Bowles. He once lived along the river, and his ships made it as far upstream as the forks of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers, where Lake Seminole is located today.

To commemorate this unprecedented era of history, Three Rivers State Park is working with the Jackson County Tourist Development Council, the City of Sneads, Jackson County Parks,  and Two Egg TV to host a brand new festival. Pirate & Heritage Days will take place at the lakefront state park on May 1 & 2, 2020.

Bowles arrived in the area during the American Revolution after he was tossed from the British military at Pensacola for a disciplinary infraction. He wandered lost in the woods of Northwest Florida until a trading party of Native Americans found him and carried him to the Perryman towns. These large Lower Creek Indian villages were near today's Parramore Landing.

Bowles enjoyed his new life there so thoroughly that he married Mary Perryman, the daughter of Chief Thomas Perryman, and was adopted by the tribe. He fought at the Battle of Pensacola, one of the most significant actions of the Revolutionary War, in 1781. America's ally Spain won the battle, however, and regained control of the city and Florida.

Bowles's pirate ships flew the "State of
 Muskogee" flag in 1799-1804.
State Archives of Florida/Memory Collection

The adventurer went briefly to his family home in Maryland and then on to the Bahamas, from where he came back to the area to open a new route for smuggled goods from the islands. Spain captured him, however, and sent him away to Cuba, Spain, and eventually the Philipines. Bowles escaped, and by 1799 was back in North Florida!

He was furious over his treatment and declared war on Spain! By this time, he called himself the Director-General of the "State of Muskogee," a mostly imaginary empire that he founded in the Florida borderlands. His followers included white adventurers from American territory and the Bahamas, Maroons (escaped slaves), and a few hundred Lower Creek, Seminole, and Miccosukee warriors.

Three Rivers State Park is on the shores of beautiful
Lake Seminole in Sneads, Florida.

To carry out his war, Bowles commissioned a flotilla of "privateer" ships that sailed from the Apalachicola River out into the Gulf of Mexico to prey on Spanish merchant ships. These pirate vessels raided dozens of ships, and their crews included Native Americans from the Perryman towns. The raids continued for about five years until he was captured again and sent away to prison in Cuba, where he died.

The story of Bowles and his pirate ships is a big part of the culture and history of Jackson County. Two different buried treasure legends originate from his activities!

Pirate & Heritage Days will feature a boat parade on Lake Seminole, food trucks, vendors, living history encampments, live music, storytelling, and much more! Everything will take place lakefront at beautiful Three Rivers State Park, with the boat parade launching at Sneads Park and passing the festival grounds.

More details are coming soon, but mark your calendars for the afternoon/evening of May 1 and morning/midday of May 2! If you have a boat or even a kayak or canoe, make plans now to join the boat parade on Friday, May 1!