Jackson Blue Springs sees surge in visitation!

 

Attendance Up by 50% at Jackson Blue Springs

Marianna, Florida - One of Jackson County's busiest tourist attractions is having another record year. Jackson Blue Springs - the county's second most visited spot behind Florida Caverns State Park - is drawing guests at a rate 50% higher than last year. And last year's visitation doubled that of the previous year.

The statistics are courtesy of Taylor Elliot from Coldwater Outfitters, the private company that now manages the springs for the Jackson County Board of County Commissioners. 

Two Egg TV's Kyla Clifton and Maison Dickson Fulton visited Jackson Blue Springs in August 2024 for a closer look at what is bringing the park such success!

Check out this video to learn about other great springs in West Florida:

Adventures at Coheelee Creek Falls near Blakely, Georgia!

Rachael & Kyla explore the Waterfalls of Early County, Georgia: Part 1

It is difficult to imagine that in the midst of the peanut fields of Southwest Georgia and Southeast Alabama there is a cluster of waterfalls unlike any that you will find elsewhere south of the Blue Ridge Mountains!

Two Egg TV gave you a glimpse of a handful of these falls three years ago in our series Waterfalls of the Wiregrass. What we found then sparked our curiosity and we have been revisiting some of those sites and hunting for more ever since!

What have we found? 

Rachael Cox and Kyla Clifton get things going with an adventurous revisit to one of our favorites, the multitiered falls along Coheelee Creek on Early County, Georgia!

Coheelee Creek Falls and Big Coheelee Creek Falls run all in a row down Coheelee Creek starting at the Coheelee Creek Covered Bridge, which can be seen at the Fannie Askew Williams Park in Early County, Georgia.

To reach the park from downtown Blakely Georgia:

Take Highway 62 (Columbia Highway) 10.2 miles west to Hilton and turn right (west) onto Old River Road (look for the Coheelee Creek Covered Bridge sign).

To reach the park from downtown Columbia, Alabama (17.9 miles east of Dothan via AL 52):

Take AL 52 East 1.0 miles to the Chattahoochee River. The highway becomes GA 62 East/Columbia Highway at the river. From the bridge, continue another 2.4 miles and turn left onto Old River Road (Look for the Coheelee Creek Covered Bridge sign).

From either direction:

Cross the railroad tracks and continue for 1.8 miles - passing the historic Hilton Methodist Church (organized in 1850) - on Old River Road. DO NOT turn into Coheelee Creek Park, but instead continue straight ahead across the modern bridge over Coheelee Creek. Just past the creek, turn left onto a graded dirt road. The entrance to Fannie Askew Williams Park will be straight ahead on the dirt road. Do not confuse the park entrance with an ornamental iron entrance on your right.

Once you enter the park and stop, check out the historic bridge and interpretive markers! The first of the waterfalls is very near the bridge. The others are a few hundred yards down the creek.

Map to help you find Coheelee Creek Falls!

Stunning Archaeological Discovery made in Chattahoochee, Florida

 

Nicolls' Outpost interpretive panel
at River Landing Park in
Chattahoochee, Florida.

Archaeologists find complete War of 1812 fort in a Chattahoochee Park!

Advanced technology deployed for the first time in North America has produced stunning results in Chattahoochee, Florida. A team of scientists led by Dr. Mary Glowacki, PhD, of Pre-Columbian Archaeological Research Group, Inc., a 501(c)3 nonprofit contracted by the City of Chattahoochee, have revealed the entire outline of Nicolls' Outpost or "Fort Apalachicola". 

As explained in Dale Cox's book Nicolls' Outpost: A War of 1812 Fort at Chattahoochee, Florida, the fort was built by the British in 1814-1815. It was to serve as a "jumping off" point for one wing of a planned invasion of the State of Georgia. Lt. Col. Edward Nicolls of His Majesty's Royal Marines would lead a column from the head of the Apalachicola River up the Flint River against the Georgia frontier and the state capital in Milledgeville, while a second British force advanced up the coast from Cumberland Island to Savannah. 

The War of 1812 ended as Nicolls was assembling a column that included thousands of British Royal and Colonial Marines; the 5th West Indian Regiment from Jamaica; and Seminole, Miccosukee, Yuchi, and Red Stick Creek warriors in late February 1815. The Colonial Marines were composed largely of free Black men who had self-liberated from slavery, while the Native Americans had spent months training in light infantry tactics at Nicolls' Outpost and its sister post, the Fort at Prospect Bluff (later called "Negro Fort" by American officials).

Outline of the fort at
River Landing Park in
Chattahoochee as determined
by the new project.

The end of the war cancelled a looming a battle with an outgunned U.S. force under Col. Benjamin Hawkins that was camped a few miles above the forks of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers (today's Lake Seminole) in what is now Seminole County, Georgia. Each side saluted the other and Hawkins withdrew his fighters with relief. 

The role of Nicolls' Outpost, however, was not yet over. Col. Nicolls assembled a large gathering of American Indian leaders there for an important council on March 10, 1815. Important chiefs and warriors representing most of the towns of today's Seminole Tribe of Florida and Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida marked a treaty that day requesting continued independent relations with Great Britain. More significantly, the document represented the first time that so many representatives of towns that eventually became part of today's federally recognized Seminole and Miccosukee Tribes committed to remain free and independent in Florida, and to mutually defend each other if attacked. 

The exact date on which the fort was evacuated by the British is not known, but Lt. Col. Nicolls reported to a Spanish officer that a handful of soldiers were still there as late as April 1815. The British withdrew from the Apalachicola River in late May, so the evacuation date was probably around the end of April or beginning of May 1815.

The fort was later mentioned in U.S. Army reports as the site where Seminole, Miccosukee, and Maroon (self-liberated Black fighters) forces achieved the first Native American victory of the Seminole Wars during the Scott Battle on November 30, 1817.

To learn more about the archaeological discovery and the remarkable technology that made it possible, enjoy this video from Two Egg TV:

 

Also of interest is this acclaimed Two Egg TV documentary on the Fort at Prospect Bluff, sister post to Nicolls' Outpost:

"Concentrate them on the Apalachicola River"

Apalachicola River at Chattahoochee,
Florida.

Andrew Jackson's plan for a Seminole homeland on the Apalachicola River

by Dale Cox

Chattahoochee, Florida - The Seminole Tribe of Florida and Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida have survived generations of war and are today synonymous with the Big Cypress and Everglades regions of South Florida. 

Their greatest tribulation began when the United States assumed control of Florida in 1821. Battered from the opening years of the Seminole War, the Seminole and Miccosukee were scattered and unsettled. Large and long-settled towns including Ekanachatte, Holms' Town, Tallahassee Talofa, and Miccosukee were in ashes. Newer but important communities including Boleck's (Bowleg's) Town and the large maroon (self-liberated and free Black) settlement under Nero had been destroyed. Fields cleared through years of labor lay fallow or were already occupied by new American settlers. Orchards and fish weirs lay untended. [1]

The new "owners" of Florida did not intend to continue a treaty signed years earlier by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and Spain. It declared that only lands so far inland as the tidal influence on the rivers and creeks (or such as were transferred by treaty) should be open for settlement. All the rest of the interior belonged to the Native Americans, with the restriction that they could not sell or otherwise dispose of these lands without the consent of the King of Spain.

Since the United States clearly did not plan to abide by this agreement, four new schools of thought grew among the whites over what should be done with the Indians. The first called for the complete relocation of all Native Americans from Florida to the Creek Nation in Alabama and Georgia, despite the fact that the Treaty of Fort Jackson had just reduced Creek lands by more than 22 million acres. It also ended any claims that the Muscogee had to Florida by cutting them off from it. [2]

Early 19th-century painting of American Indians
catching and smoking sturgeon in the Apalachicola
River across from Aspalaga Bluff.
University of West Florida

A second option called for the mass removal - at government expense - of all of the American Indians in Florida to new homes west of the Mississippi River. Actually proposed by Thomas Jefferson for all Native people east of the Mississippi, this idea seemed logical to white thinkers who could not conceive that the Seminole and Miccosukee would not readily give up their lands if offered the opportunity to do so. 

The third option, supported by a bevy of early Florida leaders, suggested the drawing of an imaginary line across the peninsula at some point well below areas coveted for white settlement. All of the Indians would voluntarily remove [i.e., be forced] below the line. Despite their claims that the new "reservation" included vast areas of good land, there is plenty of evidence that promoters of the scheme knew that the region was sickly, swampy, and sandy.

Andrew Jackson
(Later in life.)
Library of Congress

The fourth option, proposed by none other than Andrew Jackson himself, is perhaps the most intriguing of all. Since it is the only one of the four that proposed leaving a large area of their original homeland in Seminole and Miccosukee hands - not to mention a significant area of rich agricultural and timber land - you might be interested in learning more about it. [3]

Jackson was acting as military governor of Florida when he proposed the idea of creating a massive land-stake for the Seminole and Miccosukee on the Apalachicola River. He viewed them as distinctly separate from the Muscogee or Creek Red Sticks that had come down into Florida during and following the Creek War of 1813-1814. These latter individuals, Jackson felt, should be required to return to the Creek Nation in Alabama and Georgia. The Seminole and Miccosukee, he suggested, should be left with good lands:

...As to those who have been born and raised within the Floridas, it is absolutely necessary that they should be collected at one point, and secured in their settlements by act of Congress, in case they cannot be prevailed upon to unite with the Creek nation, to which they originally belonged: this latter course is very desirable for their own safety, as well as dictated to us by sound policy. [4]

The general turned governor proposed that Congress provide an annuity to assist in the survival of the Indians and that efforts be made to encourage them to "embrace an agricultural life." Of course, Miccosukee, Ekanachatte, and other towns were noted for their massive fields and herds of cattle, horses, and other livestock until Jackson and his forces destroyed them during the fighting of 1817-1818. 

...Should the Indians prefer continuing within the Floridas, it will be expedient, for the safety of our frontier on the seacoast, to concentrate them on the Appalachicola river, immediately adjoining the southern boundary of Georgia and Alabama, on both sides of the river, and downward, so as to include a sufficient area for them. By this means a sufficient white population may be interposed between them and the seaboard, and afford a settlement strong enough to cover and protect St. Augustine and Pensacola, as well as the peninsula of Florida. [5]

Unlike anyone else proposing options for where the Native inhabitants of Florida should go, Jackson surprisingly held one distinction - he actually discussed his idea with some of the people for whom recommended leaving lands on the Apalachicola River:

...[Y]ou will see that the difficulty of collecting the native Indians of the Floridas to the point on the Apalachicola will not be great. They are rejoiced to hear that a country will be allowed [them] to live in at all - such have been their apprehensions of their future fate since the transfer of their country to the United States, excited, no doubt, by mischievous advisers; and they will be still more so to find that they will be fostered and protected by the American Government. [6]

19th-century paddlewheel steamer preparing to head
down the Chattahoochee and Apalachicola Rivers.

Jackson proposed that Congress immediately designate the large area for the Seminole and Miccosukee, instead of waiting for a treaty to be negotiated. He felt it made more sense to reserve these lands in Florida from the beginning before they could be settled, also pointing out that if the Indians concentrated on lands of their own, surveying the rest of the new territory would be easier. [7]

Jackson did not mention that he was personally familiar with the lands along the upper Apalachicola River because he had seen them himself during the spring of 1818. They were some of the richest in Florida and the area that he envisioned as a permanent home for the Seminole and Miccosukee included today's Jackson, Gadsden, and at least the northern halves of Calhoun and Liberty Counties.

By 1860, Jackson and Gadsden would prove to be among the most agriculturally productive counties in the state. According to census data collected that year, the two counties were among the seven most productive in Florida, with farms valued at more than $2.7 million dollars ($101.6 billion today). [8]

History, of course, shows that Andrew Jackson's recommendation for a Seminole and Miccosukee nation on the upper Apalachicola River was not accepted. The Treaty of Moultrie Creek (1823) instead condemned the vast majority of Native Americans in Florida to difficult lives on new lands in the central and southern reaches of the territory. Desperation for game and resentment at seeing white settlers occupying better lands nearby led to cattle raids and confrontations. Tensions rose.

Fort Gibson, Oklahoma
Where army officers tricked the
Seminole exploring party.

Trickery followed as an exploring party of Seminoles went west to look at proposed new lands in what is now Oklahoma. Before their leaders and warriors in Florida could even consider the matter, the U.S. Government claimed that these explorers had agreed for the entire tribe to go west. They said that they had not and the Seminole and Miccosukee people in Florida told U.S. officials that the explorers lacked such authority in the first place. The United States turned deaf ears to this position and fighting exploded. Men, women, and children died by the thousands. 

The U.S. Government likewise moved against the Muscogee (Creek) people in Alabama. Claiming that its powerful army could not protect them from settlers intruding on Creek lands and unscrupulous land speculators determined to swindle them at every turn, officials told the Creeks that they could either go west at federal expense or remain behind and live on under the laws of the states on small individual plots as required by the Indian Removal Act of of 1830.  That act, championed by Andrew Jackson himself, led to the forced removal of most Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Muscogee (Creek) by 1837. Only the Seminole and Miccosukee held out in significant numbers.

What might have happened had the U.S. Government accepted Andrew Jackson's 1821 recommendation that a large area of land be titled to the Florida tribes on the upper Apalachicola River? 

Sylvania Marker in Jackson County
The lands proposed for the Seminole
and Miccosukee instead became
home to some of the largest bastions
of slavery in Antebellum Florida.

It is an interesting thought to ponder. They still would have received annual payments from the U.S. Government as they did on the much poorer lands later assigned them in Central and South Florida under the Treaty of Moultrie Creek, but they would have owned by legal title - not just moral right and treaty - most if not all of four agriculturally or timber rich North Florida counties. 

The most important navigable waterway connecting a vast agricultural region of Alabama and Georgia to the Gulf of Mexico passed right through the center of these lands. In fact, the City of Apalachicola which soon developed at the mouth of the Apalachicola River was one of the three busiest ports anywhere on the Gulf prior to the Civil War.

With richer farms and some of Florida's top timberlands, the story of the Seminole and Miccosukee people from 1821 to 1835 might have developed in a much different way. Jackson likely would have regretted giving legal title to so much prime Florida real estate (prime in the 19th-century, that is) to them. Land given by treaty, as all Native Americans know, is easy to take away. Land given by legal title, however, is not so easy to take.

From his expansionist perspective, Andrew Jackson clearly rethought the wisdom of giving legal title for large areas of land to Indian nations before he pushed the Indian Removal Act of 1830. By then the concept was to title small pieces of land to individual Native American heads of households. These could more readily be swept up by land speculators and swindlers. Not so when an entire tribe owns all of its land by title in one giant block.

Andrew Jackson was no longer a powerful general in 1821, however, and had not started his rise to the Presidency. The country's political leaders found it easy to ignore his suggestion. His proposed home for the Seminole and Miccosukee people instead became part of the Territory of Florida's third county when Jackson County was created and named for him on August 12, 1822. At that time Jackson County extended from the Choctawhatchee River to the Suwannee.

One can only wonder whether he remembered his idea for a Seminole and Miccosukee homeland on the Apalachicola at all nine years later when the Indian Removal Act of 1830 became law.

To learn more about the years before and immediately after Jackson County was established, please consider my book: The History of Jackson County, Florida: The Early Years.

References

[1] For a history of the beginning of the Seminole War era, please see Fowltown: Neamathla, Tutalosi Talofa & the first battle of the Seminole Wars by this writer.

[2] These various options are discussed in numerous letters of time.

[3] Gov. Andrew Jackson to Sec. of State John Quincy Adams, Oct. 16, 1821, H. Doc. No. 513, 17th Congress, 1st Session.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Census of Agriculture, Florida 1860, USDA Census of Agriculture Historical Archive.

"By the Advice of the Indians"

A sketch of Econchattimico's
town drawn in 1838.

Rufus Ballard's farm at Econchattimico's Reserve

by Dale Cox

Jackson County, Florida - American Indians and white settlers were not on the best of terms in Florida in the spring of 1838. U.S. soldiers and state troops fought bloody battles against Seminole and Miccosukee warriors in Central and South Florida, while Creek bands from Alabama proved equally elusive and deadly for white forces west of the Suwannee. 

Caught in the middle were the Apalachicolas. Called Seminoles by some historians and Lower Creeks by others, these Indians had lived along the lower Chattahoochee and Apalachicola Rivers since at least the 1760s. Treated with by the United States Government as a separate tribe at this stage of their history, they were concentrated by 1838 on two reservations in today's Jackson County. The two tracts were all that remained of four reserves established for the followers of the chiefs Econchattimico, Yellow Hair, Vacapachasse, John Blunt, Davey, Cochrane, and Neamathla under the terms of an amendment to the Treaty of Moultrie Creek in 1823.

Signature page of the Treaty of Pope's
Store (near today's Sneads).
National Archives

Blunt and his followers along with those of Davey and Cochrane gave up their lands by signing the Pope's Store Treaty in 1833 ahead of their voluntary relocation to Texas. Some of Yellow Hair's and Vacapachasse's people went with them. 

Econchattimico and John Walker - the latter chief replacing the deceased Yellow Hair - traded some of their lands for peace with their white neighbors before major fighting erupted in Florida in December 1835. It did not do them much good.

As tensions increased, slavecatchers and land speculators prowled around the edges of the two remaining reserves. The former hoped to drag away Black Apalachicolas to sell into slavery. The latter looked for opportunities to convince white neighbors that Econchattimico and John Walker intended violence. The presence of these interlopers caused real problems. 

Even as white neighbors of the reservations marched onto Indian lands and disarmed Econchattimico while slavecatchers dragged away free Black Apalachicolas to sell into slavery, the Native people living on the reserves engaged in a remarkable act of mercy. They extended a helping hand to a white man who was being treated horribly by his own people. [1]

The individual's name was Rufus Ballard. He was not a wealthy man and he was getting along in years - at least for that day and age - and after living in Florida for more than one decade he had been stiffed by the powerful Apalachicola Land Company. If you are not familiar with the Apalachicola Land Company, it owned the lands previously known as the Forbes Purchase. Those same lands comprise much of today's Apalachicola National Forest:

[Y]our memorialist came to this Territory in the year 1828, with a view to amend his fortunes, and provide a competency for old age, availing himself of the liberal laws of the liberal laws of the United States in regard to frontier settlers; and. . . it was a proceeding attending with much privation and hardship, in consequence partly of the wildness of the country, being far remote from civilization, and its occupancy by several tribes of Indians. [2]

American Indian chief as
seen on the Apalachicola River
during the early 1800s.
University of West Florida

Among those "tribes of Indians" was the band of Pascofv (Pascofa), a Creek war chief who came with his people from Alabama to Florida in 1836-1837 after they were attacked by a band of white allows while waiting in a concentration camp to travel the "Trail of Tears" to what is now Oklahoma. Attacked again at the Battle of Hobdy's Bridge as they made their way south to Florida, Pascofv's followers now occupied hidden camps between the Apalachicola and Ochlockonee Rivers from which they carried on a bloody war for survival with white troops.

Ballard, however, had a worse enemy - the Apalachicola Land Company:

And your memorialist would further respectfully represent that that not knowing of any adverse claim, he originally settled on the Forbes' Purchase, the lines then not being run out: and that by the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, he found that after years of hard labor he was compelled again to enter the wilderness and make unto himself a new home. [3]

The home and small farm that Rufus Ballard lost to the Apalachicola Land Company was not a big one. He had hacked a clearing from the wilderness and built a little cabin by his own labor and it was there that he and his wife, Emily, started raising a family of six children. The company did not care and he could not afford the elevated price that it asked for the land that he had improved with his own sweat and blood.

Homeless and unsure of where to go or what to do with his family, Ballard received an unexpected invitation. Econchattimico and his people wanted these poor white people to come and make their home on their reserve:

...[B]eing thus ousted, by the advice and invitation of those who had known him many years, he was induced, in May 1838, to settle on the reserve of lands provided for the Indian Chief Econchattomico, and his tribe, beleiving that it would soon be abandoned by them, as, in fact, it was in the Fall of that year: Your Memorialist made this settlement by the advice of the Indians, and no objection has ever been made on that account. [4]

Rufus Ballard's 1844
Petition for Relief.
State Archives of Florida/
Memory Collection

From this document deep in the State Archives of Florida emerges a remarkable story. Econchattimico and his people knew that their days in the land of their ancestors were numbered. Despite the promises afforded them by the U.S. Government under the Treaty of Moultrie Creek and the amendment to the Treaty of Pope's Store, they would soon be forced to leave their Florida homes. Soldiers were coming with muskets and bayonets to enforce the will of the white people that they be driven west of the Mississippi.

And yet, as their greatest tribulation loomed before them, the Red Ground chief and his followers invited a poverty-stricken family of homeless white friends to come and live with them.

The Apalachicolas of Econchattimico and John Walker were "removed" from their own land by future U.S. President Zachary Taylor's troops a few months later. The Ballard family watched as their American Indian friends were driven aboard the steamboat Rodney to begin the long Trail of Tears to what is now Oklahoma. 

The family continued to farm the 12-acres given it by Econchattimico and slowly reestablished itself. One more crisis developed when the former chief's lands were surveyed prior to being opened for public sale and it was found that the tiny Ballard farm lay in fractional section 16. Under the U.S. Government's surveying system, the 16th section of each township was to be reserved for sales to benefit educational purposes. Ballard and his family once again were found to be living illegally on lands they could not claim.

Section 16, Township 5 North, Range 7 West
in Econchattimico's Reserve
showing the site of Ballard's Farm (labeled here as
(Fryday's Field) on a land plat from 1844.

This time, Rufus Ballard was frustrated beyond reason. The lands did not even belong to the United States but to the Native American chief Econchattimico when he settled on them. Why should he be driven from his home and cast out into the wilderness once more? He was given the little farm he now possessed by its original owners and he felt entitled to keep it, no matter what a surveyor said.

Ballard petitioned Florida's Territorial Legislative Council in 1844 and this time reason prevailed. One year before Florida became a state, the Council agreed that the family could keep their 12-acres so long as they paid a preemptive fee of $1.25 per acre. After all, the government must have its due. [5]

The site of the Ballard farm is now under the waters of Lake Seminole.

References:

[1] For a history of Econchattimico's Reserve, please see Cox, Dale, The History of Jackson County, Florida: The Early Years, Bascom: Old Kitchen Books, 2008.

[2] Ballard, Rufus. Petition of Rufus Ballard Requesting Pre-Emption Rights on Land that He Settled, circa 1844. 1844 (circa). State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. <https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/348856>, accessed 8 April 2024.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Draft of an Act for the Relief of Rufus Ballard, 1844. 1844. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. <https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/348748>, accessed 8 April 2024.

Florida Caverns employees given questionable treatment by Marianna newspaper

First Lady Casey Desantis, State
Parks Director Chuck Hatcher
& Park Manager Billy Bailey
at Florida Caverns State Park
during better days.

Newspaper neglects key facts in Florida Caverns story.

Commentary by Dale Cox

Note: This is a commentary that includes quite a few facts about the controversy surrounding the severe punishment of seven employees at Florida Caverns State Park. Please take the time to read it and I think that you will learn much about what has been taking place. You will also learn about some objections I have with last week's coverage of the issue in the Jackson County Times, a local newspaper based in Marianna. By way of disclosure, I have friends on all sides of this issue and am trying to be respectful to all involved. I also believe, however, that there is right and there is wrong.

Two Egg, Florida - The editor of a weekly newspaper in Marianna failed to mention a few things when she published a somewhat disjointed article about the controversy over severe punishments handed down for seven  employees at Florida Caverns State Park last week
. 

No Illegal Acts

For example, Shelia Mader, the editor under whose byline the story appeared, did not mention that all of those employees - three of whom have worked at the beloved Marianna park for a combined sixty-four years - were cleared of any and all criminal violations of Florida law. (1) (Note: References appear at the bottom of this column).

She also did not mention that the Office of the Inspector General of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection recommended not the massive crackdown on employees at Florida Caverns State Park that has taken place in recent weeks, but simply stated:  "Based on the outcome of the investigation, as well as the analysis of archaeological materials confiscated from the park by McFadden and Frederick, we recommend that the Division ensures all Park staff are all properly trained on protecting natural and cultural resources in the Park." And yet that one sentence constitutes the entire "Recommendations" part of the 22-page report from the Inspector General's office. (2)

Perhaps most curious of all, the newspaper failed to explain why - with its own connection to one of the key people involved in the situation at the park - it was writing a supposedly unbiased story about it in the first place. After all, wouldn't a truly balanced and fair media outlet tell its readers that it was connected to people on one side of the story or the other?

A Family Matter?

The Jackson County Times failed to disclose to its readers that it has close personal ties to the Director of Florida State Parks. Chuck Hatcher is the man who made clear to employees at the park that he approved of the harsh punishments handed down against them. His father, Woody Hatcher, is the former county judge of Jackson County judge and the owner and publisher of the Jackson County Times. (3)

I asked Shelia about this:

Question: As editor of the paper and writer of the story in question, why did you not feel it necessary to disclose the relationship between the ownership of the Jackson County Times and one of the key figures (Chuck Hatcher, Director of Florida State Parks) in this matter? (4)

Answer: I received all information quoted in the paper from the State of Florida. None of the documents I received made mention of Chuck Hatcher in any capacity. Therefore, I felt there was no need to include him in the article. (5)

Park Manager Billy Bailey at a
Caverns Cultural Celebration
event enjoys speaking with
noted artist Lillie Clark.

I am not suggesting that a father who owns a newspaper would use his publication's pages to support his son in a controversial issue involving popular local park employees. I am questioning whether a writer not disclosing the connection in this particular story was a serious breach of journalistic ethics. 

This is what the Code of Ethics assembled by the Society of Professional Journalists says about the matter: "Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived. Disclose unavoidable conflicts." (6)

The same society recommends for further reading an article by journalism expert Tony Rogers, who included this on his list of recommendations for avoiding conflicts of interest:

Don't Cover Friends or Family Members. If you have a friend or relative who is in the public spotlight....you must recuse yourself from covering that person as a reporter. Readers simply won't believe that you'll be as tough on that person as you are on everyone else — and they'll probably be right. (7)

I asked Shelia if as the editor of a small town newspaper she was familiar with the SPJ's Code of Ethics and whether she believed they represented "best practices" for journalists. This is what she told me:

Answer: I am familiar with the SPJ Code of Ethics. I strive very hard to be fair to everyone involved in any story I write. That is why I waited until the Times had received all information from the state and quoted their findings and standings. (8)

She went on to state: 

 As an added note, the TIMES also published a Letter to the Editor in the same edition from a supporter of the park employees. We, in no way, voiced an opinion one way or the other in reference to the actions taken by the State. (9)

So, if the Jackson County Times was familiar with one of the best known code of ethics for journalists, and if the newspaper was familiar with all with the workings of state government, they surely must have known that this many employees at a premier Northwest Florida state park do not get severely punished without the Director of the state park service knowing about it.

Why not just fess up and admit that your newspaper has an above average family collection to the state park service director?

I do hope that all of the writers at the Jackson County Times will not just familiarize themselves with the SPJ and its Code of Ethics, but follow them. All communities need good sources of strong, independent, and fair local journalism. Newspapers should not be there to smooth things over for those with influence. They should treat everyone the same and tell all stories the same.

Innocent until proven guilty? Not in Jackson County!

Something struck me as I read the story in the Jackson County Times (or TIMES, as they prefer). I will let them battle out the capitalization and branding issue with that other TIMES in New York some day. 

Without getting too deep in the muck, it bothered me that no where in the article was there a comment, a "no comment," or even so much as a mention as a "The Times has not heard back" from any of the Florida Caverns employees named in the story.  (10)

I spent decades of my life in journalism, working my way up from the bottom (and believe me, it was the bottom) at local radio stations to managing newsrooms for some of the largest national media companies. There was always one true and fast rule above all others: No story ever ran without a serious effort to obtain all sides.

I tried to contact some of the Florida Caverns State Park employees named in the Jackson County Times story. I only heard back from Park Manager Billy Bailey in the time available before the publication of this story. He would not comment on the events of the investigation itself, but did say that he had not been contacted by the Times. (11)

I asked Shelia about this:

Answer: The allegations published were already a matter of public record. I did not contact any of the four employees involved in the issues at the Park. (12)

First, there are actually seven employees involved in the issues at the park, not four - if you do not count the employee who filed truth-challenged allegations in the first place. (13)

Second, just because an allegation is a matter of public record, a newspaper assumes that the accused no longer are entitled to defend themselves in anyway? This is America and these people were not found guilty in a court of law or even charged with a crime - in which case they would still be innocent until proven guilty. These are state employees who have been accused of crossing the lines of administrative rules at an environmental agency. 

There are many state employees in Jackson County. I hope that they all pay attention to the above answer from the Jackson County Times, because the newspaper has made clear exactly how it will treat you should you ever be accused of breaking an administrative rule of any type. It won't  bother to even contact you and give you a chance to defend yourself. A mere accusation in the public record is enough.

By the way, I also contacted Chuck Hatcher, director of Florida's state parks, to give him a chance to comment for this column. I have not heard back from him but should he answer my questions, I will happily add his comments.

Who writes what and when?

Something else also bothered me about the article. I had read and heard parts of it before, specifically on WMBB News 13 in Panama City. I asked Shelia about this:

Question: I noticed that the story published under your byline included, verbatim and unattributed, sentences and phrases from an earlier story by Cortney Evans of WMBB. I do realize that the Jackson County Times has a cooperative arrangement with WMBB, but is it your regular practice to publish under your own byline the work of another local reporter without giving that individual credit?

Answer:  The Times does share a partnership with WMBB.  The full interviews were forwarded to me and those that were published were the ones I opted to use. (14)

Fair enough, as far as it goes, but I was hoping that she would specifically address not the quotes from the recordings that WMBB made during interviews with local supporters of the park employees recently, but actual writing from her story itself. Shelia published under her own name lines lifted from the story written by Cortney Evans of WMBB. Here are a couple of examples:

Cortney Evans, WMBB: "The state completed an investigation at the park about the handling of wildlife and historical artifacts. 

Shelia Mader, Times: "The state completed an investigation at the park about the handling of wildlife and historical artifacts.

Cortney Evans, WMBB: "But, some of those heroes are now being reprimanded by the state. Cox said one of the allegations involves how they handled the rehabilitation of a baby owl.

Shelia Mader, Times: "Some of those employees are now being reprimanded by the state. One of the allegations involves the handling of the rehabilitation of a baby owl. (15)

Note that the Jackson County Times downplayed WMBB's description of the park employees as "heroes." Some of them stayed in the park through Hurricane Michael to protect it from looting. 

What really happened at Florida Caverns?

The situation at Florida Caverns State Park started when a relatively new employee decided that he did not like the way things were being done there. He started keeping notes on things ranging from how many minutes per day each of his fellow employees worked - apparently doing this while on his own work time - to the fact that some employees were rehabilitating injured or unhealthy wildlife or even picking up bottles, cans, and in two cases prehistoric artifacts they thought were endangered in a fire line in the park. He ultimately filed a complaint against several of his fellow employees and managers. (16)

This complaint was turned over to the Office of the Inspector General of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. They started an investigation at the park last fall and concluded it in February of this year.

Because the investigation involved artifacts and archaeological sites, the Office of the Inspector General also involved Dr. Paulette McFadden from the Florida Division of Historical Resources. She is the Archaeologist for State Lands. I have attempted to reach her, but she does not respond to my efforts. I am told by park employees, though, that on her first visit to the Caverns she pointed to a framed collection of what most of us would call "arrowheads" and explained that they provided a good example of why the investigation and her work were so important. She told them the collection was a great example of artifacts from the area and she wanted to assure that information about them was preserved. Park employees subsequently explained to her that it was a collection for display only that had been donated to the park by former visitors and that the artifacts actually came from Indiana. None of them were local. 

Two reports were produced by these investigations, one by Dr. McFadden and the other by Inspector General Candie Fowler.

The reports revealed that the original complaint was less than accurate. Animals had not been removed from the park, as he had stated, nor were artifacts being as routinely collected as alleged. 

In fact, a baby owl and baby opossum had been rehabilitated by Park Manager Billy Bailey and returned to the wild in the park. Apparently, this is against the rules of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Two grass snakes had been used by park employees in interpretive programs with park visitors. This was also against state environmental rules. No laws were broken. No criminal acts were committed. 

A few park employees picked up old bottles and cans from trash piles around the closed Florida Caverns Golf Course (which the state plans to bulldoze and replace with a new RV park type campground). It appears that bulldozing the historic golf course is not an issue, but picking up old bottles and cans from trash piles near it is a violation of rules regarding historic artifacts. None of these artifacts ever left the park. Nothing was sold. No digging was done. No laws were broken. No criminal acts were committed.

Finally, new fire lines were plowed by the Division of Forestry when a prescribed burn got out of control in the park. While inspecting the fire lines after the fire, Park Manager Bailey and other employees noticed chert (flint) chips and a few other artifacts on the surface of the ground. Concerned that these might be damaged when the fire line was plowed again, they collected them and placed them in storage in the park. They were required to notify the Florida Division of Historical Resources of the newly discovered sites, which they failed to do. No artifacts were sold. No artifacts left the park. No digging was done. No laws were broken. No criminal acts were committed. (17)

While at the park, investigators seized multiple boxes of artifacts. The Jackson County Times showed a couple of these by reprinting photographs from the Inspector General's report. In fact, there have been boxes of artifacts in storage at Florida Caverns State Park for decades. A letter in my collection from Dr. A.R. Kelly of the National Park Service to Lewis G. Scoggins, Director of the Florida Park Service, written in 1946 shows that boxes of artifacts were sent to the park for storage that year:

Reference is made to your letter of inquiry to the Region One Office, National Park Service, concerning Florida Caverns archeological collections stored at Ocmulgee National Monument. Regional Director Allen, on March 19, has advised that this material has not been restored.

On March 14 to 17, consecutively, we sent the material by parcel post to Florida Caverns. There are four boxes containing the pottery which should be received by now. 

We regret that restoration of the pottery for purposes of exhibit was not completed due to the cessation of laboratory work during wartime [i.e., World War II]. (18)

These boxes of artifacts included material excavated at the park between 1930 and 1940 by archaeologists from the National Park Service. All of those artifacts have been carefully protected without issue by park employees for more than 75-years. They were never taken out of the park by anyone until the State of Florida seized them and took them to Tallahassee as part of this investigation.

These important cultural materials came from the caves and surrounding archaeological sites at Florida Caverns. Nothing wrong took place regarding them. They are now in Tallahassee and will likely never be returned to the community where they belong. Instead they will be placed in a basement in the capital city and forgotten. At Florida Caverns, they were perfectly safe and well-protected by a dedicated and conscientious team of employees that for three-quarters of a century made sure that nothing happened to them.

The Reports

I requested copies of the archaeological investigation from Dr. McFadden and the inspector general's investigation from Parks Director Hatcher under the provisions of Florida's Open Records laws. Neither of them responded to me. 

I subsequently contacted Inspector General Fuller directly and received an immediate response and within three hours a copy of the requested report. I repeated my request to Dr. McFadden for a copy of the archaeological report one week after my original, this time copying it to her boss as well, and immediately received a copy from the the Division of Historical Resources. (19)

 I still have heard nothing from Dr. McFadden or Chuck Hatcher themselves. I am also still waiting for the state to comply with public records requests for emails surrounding the investigation.

Park Manager Billy Bailey

So what happened to the seven employees at Florida Caverns State Park? I want to be a little careful here because these are good people who are trying to make the best of a bad situation. None of them have opted to go public about their situation. They are voiceless because speaking out could cost them their jobs, benefits, and more.

I will say this about park manager Billy Bailey, since the media and State of Florida press person Brian Miller chose to name him. He is a good person, a Christian, a good father to his daughters, and a gentleman. He has worked at Florida Caverns State Park for 18-years, starting off as a volunteer, and working his way up to park manager. I have known him for most of that time, am proud to call him my friend, and stand by him in this very difficult time. 

If you know me, then you know how much I care about our cultural resources. I am as familiar with the cultural resources of Florida Caverns State Park as anyone alive, more so than Dr. McFadden or anyone from Tallahassee. No one on that park staff, especially Billy Bailey, has intentionally done any significant damage to major archaeological sites at the park. In fact, removing them from the park will do more damage to the really important archaeological sites of the caves than any other single thing that could be done short of demolishing the park itself.

The claim by the state that Billy "chose" to resign is laughable. His choice was simple, resign or be fired. He "chose" to resign so that he could try to find employment with a different state agency in hopes of supporting his family. It is funny how far some people will take things when they don't want you around anymore. Billy deserves a good job even if those of us, his friends, fail in our effort to find mercy for him and the other employees from the leaders of the all powerful state.

Because park managers are "at will" employees, Billy cannot appeal his situation. He is literally without a way to defend himself even though he committed no criminal acts and the only recommendation suggested by the investigators was that he and other park employees receive additional training.

The Florida Caverns Seven and State Employees

In addition to Bailey, there are six other employees of the park caught up in this situation. I will not name them because they have chosen not to name themselves. The Jackson County Times printed parts of the Inspector General's report naming some of them while, at the same time, restricting information about the park itself and leaving out other parts of the report. I regret this because the employees themselves are trapped in a situation where they are forced to remain silent and voiceless in order to protect what remains of their careers. It strikes me as unfair to name them if they can't defend themselves.

The Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics agrees in more than one of its rules:

• Balance the public's need for information against potential harm or discomfort. Pursuit of the news is not a license for arrogance or undue intrusiveness.
• Show compassion for those who may be affected by news coverage. Use heightened sensitivity when dealing with. . . subjects who are inexperience or unable to give consent.
• Recognize that private people have a greater right to control information about themselves than public figures and others who seek power, influence, or attention. Weigh the consequences of publishing or broadcasting personal information. (20)

In this case we have a situation where a media outlet has printed allegations of broken administrative rules in an environmental agency against state employees who cannot speak up to defend themselves.

 

Conclusion - Five Questions

I know that I have written long, but this is important, especially for these seven park employees and all other state workers in Jackson County. My dad was a state employee. Here are the key questions that I hope you - and the staff and owners of the Jackson County Times - will consider:

1. Have our friends and neighbors at Florida Caverns State Park been treated fairly by all of us, by the State of Florida, and by the local newspaper?
2. Do all seven of the park employees deserve a second chance? I've been wrong more than I've been right in life and without second chances, I don't know where I would be today.
3. Should 18 or 28 years on a job at one place count for something, especially if you work for the state or county? Should dedication still mean anything?
4. Should a local newspaper be honest when it has connections to people of power on one side of a story? Should it do its best to be balanced and fair about the local news. Does everyone that it covers deserve a fair shake, regardless of how much money they have or political power they might wield?
5. When an investigation says that someone is cleared of a crime, should a news story include that fact? When the recommendation of an inspector general is for more training, is that an indictment of the employees themselves, or of their supervisors in Tallahassee?

Thank you.

References:

(1) Jackson County Times, April 4, 2024.

(2) Final Report of Investigation, II-01-07-2023-221Department of Environmental Protection, Office of Inspector General, Internal Investigation, February 16, 2024.

(3) Jackson County Times, April 4, 2024.

(4) Dale Cox to Shelia Mader, April 6, 2024.

(5) Shelia Mader to Dale Cox, April 7, 2024.

(6) SPJ Code of Ethics - Society of Professional Journalists.

(7) Tony Rogers article

(8) Shelia Mader to Dale Cox, April 7, 2024.

(9) Shelia Mader to Dale Cox, April 7, 2024.

(10) Jackson County Times, April 4, 2024.

(11) Billy Bailey, verbal confirmation to Dale Cox, April 5, 2024.

(12) Shelia Mader to Dale Cox, April 7, 2024.

(13) Confidential Source at Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Tallahassee, Florida.

(14) Shelia Mader to Dale Cox, April 7, 2024.

(15) Jackson County Times, April 4, 2024; Cortney Evans, "Community upset after employees from Florida Caverns reprimanded," WMBB, March 28, 2024. 

(16) Confidential Source at Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Tallahassee, Florida.

(17) Final Report of Investigation, II-01-07-2023-221Department of Environmental Protection, Office of Inspector General, Internal Investigation, February 16, 2024; McFadden, Dr. Paulette, and Cassandra Freeman, "Florida Caverns State Park: Analysis of Archaeological Materials Confiscated from the Park," Department of State, Division of Historical Resources, Bureau of Archaeological Resources, Public Lands Archaeology, January 10, 2024.

(18) Dr. A.R. Kelly to Lewis G. Scoggins, March 22, 1946, Park Archives, Florida Caverns State Park, Marianna, Florida (Copy in writer's personal archives).

(19) Final Report of Investigation, II-01-07-2023-221Department of Environmental Protection, Office of Inspector General, Internal Investigation, February 16, 2024; McFadden, Dr. Paulette, and Cassandra Freeman, "Florida Caverns State Park: Analysis of Archaeological Materials Confiscated from the Park," Department of State, Division of Historical Resources, Bureau of Archaeological Resources, Public Lands Archaeology, January 10, 2024.

(20) SPJ Code of Ethics - Society of Professional Journalists.