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:

"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.

New Video: Civil War in Apalachicola, Florida

Two Egg TV releases new Apalachicola video!

Two Egg TV has a new video on the Civil War in Apalachicola, Florida. It tells the story of events in the beautiful old city from 1861-1865 and takes you on a journey to some of Apalachicola's unique historic sites.

Apalachicola was the third busiest seaport on the Gulf Coast when the war began in 1861. The next four years destroyed its commerce and drove away much of its population, leaving Apalachicola as a "city between the lines."

Now streaming at the Two Egg TV channel on your Roku smart tv or other devices, at https;//youtube.com/twoeggtv or you can watch right here:

If you are interested in learning more about the Civil War from historian and author Dale Cox, please consider these books:

Econchattimico's long journey on the Trail of Tears

"They have suffered very much."

by Dale Cox

Econchattimico's Town was sketched in 1838 by a visiting
French nobleman. It stood north of today's Sneads, Florida.

Yesterday's article focused on the forced removal of Econchattimico's and John Walker's bands from their lands in Jackson County, Floria, by U.S. troops under Brig. Gen. Zachary Taylor. Please see Zachary Taylor and the Red Ground King.

Today we continue the story of this humanitarian tragedy with the departure of the Native Americans from Florida and their arrival in Oklahoma, as well as the failure of the United States government to ever pay them for their lost homes and fields.

The following is excerpted from my book: The History Of Jackson County, Florida: The Early Years.

-Excerpt-

The people from Econchattimico’s and John Walker’s reserves were joined near the mouth of the Apalachicola River by 34 refugee Creeks who had been captured following their flight from Jackson County earlier in the year. Brought from a concentration camp on Dog Island in the Gulf of Mexico, they brought the total number of men, women, and children in the group to more than 300 souls.

Dog Island is visible on the horizon in this photo taken from
top of the Crooked River Lighthouse at Carrabelle, Florida.
Creek Indian refugees were held there in 1838.

Brig. Gen. Taylor had reservations about the safety of moving more than 300 men, women, and children through the Gulf aboard the steamboat Rodney, so Daniel Boyd contracted two additional vessels, the schooners Octavia and Vesper. After a brief stop in St. Joseph (today's Port St. Joe), the entire party moved on to Pensacola:

We left Pensacola on the 29th ult. and arrived at New Orleans on the 2d inst. At New Orleans we took on board the Rodney the Indians shipped per schooner Octavia and Vespar, and next morning proceeded on our voyage and reached Natchez on the 5th. We remained at Natchez one day in order to procure supplies, and to afford the Indians an opportunity to purchase clothing which they stood very much in need of. To those who had not the means to purchase for themselves I supplied such articles as were absolutely necessary for their comfort on the voyage.

They have suffered very much from sickness. Six have died since we left Chattahoochee and more than twenty are now upon the sick list. The weather has been unusually cold for the season, which has no doubt increased the number of invalids.

The water in the Mississippi River is very low; we lay two days upon a sand bar about twenty five miles above Vicksburg. If the Arkansas River continues as low as it is reported to be at present, I will disembark the Indians at the first convenient point where transportation can be procured and proceed by land to Fort Gibson. [1]

Fortunately for the suffering men, women, and children, the Rodney was able to steam up the Arkansas River as far as Little Rock. The Native Americans transferred there to the steamboat North St. Louis to continue the trip upriver, but the second vessel ran aground at nearby Cadron, Arkansas. [2]

The Arkansas River, seen here at Van Buren,
Arkansas, was too shallow for the steamboat
carrying the Apalachicola survivors and they
had to walk through brutal winter weather.

Left with no choice but to continue overland through bitterly cold conditions, the exhausted emigrants finally reached Fort Gibson in present-day Oklahoma on January 10, 1839. A muster roll prepared that same day revealed that 272 of the original 393 survived the trip. Econchattimico and John Walker were among the survivors, but many of their followers were not. Of the African Americans or Black Seminoles who once lived under the protection of the two chiefs, only one made it to Fort Gibson. [3]

The final tally of emigrants included 126 residents of Walker’s Town, 81 from Econchattimico’s village, 34 refugee Creeks, and 32 holdovers from John Blunt’s band. The latter individuals remained behind on the Apalachicola when their chief and most of his followers left for Texas in 1834. Among the residents of Econchattimico’s town was George Perryman, a well-known figure on the early frontier and the son of former principal Seminole chief Thomas Perryman. [4]

Fort Gibson in what is now Oklahoma was the western end of
the Trail of Tears for the survivors under Econchattimico and
John Walker. 

The little group settled in the eastern edge of the Creek Nation, not far from present-day Muskogee, Oklahoma. They built cabins and started clearing lands for themselves, but their winter arrival did not help them acclimate to the new country. Many died from illness and starvation over the coming months.

Three months after they arrived in today's Muscogee (Creek) Nation, the emigrants submitted a list of claims to the government seeking reimbursement for the value of the property they left behind in Florida. Their claims totaled $3,042.80. The amount may not seem significant but is worth $84,403.67 today (excluding interest). The losses included dozens of cabins, corn cribs, sheds, and acres of crops and fruit orchards. The government also still owed $15,000 to them for giving up their lands and moving west.  The money was still owed 22 years later when the War Between the States or Civil War broke out in 1861. [5]

The new Confederate government entered separate negotiations with the Apalachicolas, treating them as a sixth "civilized tribe" alongside the Creeks, Seminoles, Cherokees, Choctaws, and Chickasaws. The Confederates secured a separate treaty with them by promising to pay the long overdue claim at the end of the war in exchange for their support and military service. The Apalachicola warriors finally took up arms against the United States, turning out to fight the government that they had tried so long to appease:

The Apalachicola warriors fought on the Confederate side in a
number of engagements west of the Mississippi, including the
bloody Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas.

…The said Apalachicola band remained loyal to the United States, and maintained their peace and friendship unbroken; but in the year 1837 they were induced, by the urgent solicitation of the emigrating agent of the United States, to remove from the country occupied by them in Florida to the Indian country west of Arkansas, leaving the lands…and a large number of horses, mules, cattle, hogs, wagons, and other articles which they could not collect together and carry with them, and which the said emigrating agent persuaded them to leave in his charge, on his promise that the owners should be paid the value of all such their property in money by the agent of the United States on their arrival in the country provided for them on the west side of the Mississippi. [6] 

The Apalachicola chiefs and warriors fought on the side of the Confederacy in numerous battles across the modern states of Arkansas and Oklahoma. They never received the money they were promised. The collapse of the Confederate government ended any remaining hope.

The Apalachicola served in the Creek regiments raised in the Indian Nations during the war and were among the last Confederate soldiers anywhere to give up their arms. Their war finally ended when their commander, Brig. Gen. Stand Watie became the last Confederate general to surrender on June 23, 1865.

-End of Excerpt-

The sites of Econchattamico's and John Walker's reservations in Jackson County are unmarked. Walker's lands were along the Apalachicola River just east of present-day Sneads, Florida. Econchattimico's grounds were north of Sneads along today's River Road. Significant portions of both parcels remain in the hands of the Federal and state governments today.

To learn more about the Trail of Tears in Jackson County, Florida, please consider:

References:

[1] Daniel Boyd to C.A. Harris, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, November 11, 1838.

[2] Arkansas Gazette, November 28, 1838.

[3] J.R. Stephenson, “Muster Roll of a Company Seminole who have emigrated West of the Mississippi River,” January 10, 1839.

[4] Ibid.

[5] J.R. Stephenson to T.H. Crawford, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, March 6, 1839.

[6] Supplementary Article to Treaty between the Confederate States of America and the Creek Nation, July 10, 1861.

Zachary Taylor and the Red Ground King

An Incident of the Trail of Tears

by Dale Cox

Zachary Taylor in 1844.
Library of Congress

The name of Andrew Jackson is most closely associated with the Trail of Tears and the movement of troops through the Apalachicola River valley by a future President. It was not Jackson, however, but Zachary Taylor, who actually implemented the policy of "Indian Removal" in the region. He later became the 12th President of the United States.

Taylor (1784-1850) was an officer of long service when he reached Florida in 1837. He still was a colonel when he led troops at the Battle of Okeechobee on Christmas Day of that year. His service there led the government to elevate him to the rank of brevet brigadier general.

Taylor assumed command of all United States forces in Florida in May 1838. He arrived at Chattahoochee in October of that year to oversee the forced removal of the remaining bands of Apalachicola Creek or Seminole Indians who lived on lands given to them in Jackson County. 

The following is excerpted from my book The History Of Jackson County, Florida: The Early Years:

-Excerpt-

Summer houses at Econchattimico's Town on the
Chattahoochee River in Jackson County, Florida.
Comte de Castelnau, 1838.

One of the last accounts of the Native Americans in Jackson County was written during the summer of 1838 by a visiting French nobleman, the Comte de Castlenau. He described Econchattimico ("Red Ground King") as an old man, “bent with age." The chief's ears and the tip of his nose were missing, cut off as punishment for committing adultery. Creek law specified that the cropping of the ears or nose was the proper punishment for the crime, which was a significant breach of the rules of personal conduct by which chief and warriors were expected to abide.

By April 3, 1838, it was widely reported in newspapers around the South that Econchattimico and John Walker had agreed to relocate to the new lands west of the Mississippi. Neither chief wanted to go, but they really had little choice. Walker’s generous offer to let Coahadjo’s refugees stay with him had depleted his village’s food supply, and hunger became a severe issue for his people. Their situation was exacerbated when most of the refugee Creeks fled into the swamps and began attacking isolated farms and settlements. The pressure on the government to remove the last of the Apalachicola bands increased, as did rumors that they were planning to join the war effort:

A Creek warrior of the Apalachicola bands sketched from
 life on the Apalachicola River in 1838.
University of West Florida

The Indians on the Apalachicola river, (Conchatimico’s tribe and those lower down the river) entered some time ago, into a treaty stipulation, to leave Florida on the 20th of this month. Fears are now entertained that they will not move at the time appointed. They are to be paid the money to which the treaty entitles them, on the 15th. The acting governor, in order to prevent them from dispersing, has assembled a force of 300 men, half from Jackson, and half from Gadsden county, to be in readiness to keep them in check. There is also to be one company of regulars present. The removal of the Indians is a duty which has been assigned to Lieut. Boyd, of the army. [1]

There is no evidence that Econchattimico and Walker were planning to take to the woods, but the government reacted to the rumors with considerable force. Colonel Zachary Taylor, now holding the field rank of brigadier general, moved north with a command of regular troops to oversee the removal operation. The Tallahassee Floridian reported his passage through that city in mid-October, accompanied by two companies of dragoons. He also had with him, according to the newspaper, “a chief of the Tallahassees, the son of Neamathla, and his negro interpreter.” 

Taylor and his troops were soon at Econchattimico’s town, where they were joined by Captain E. Backus and a second body of soldiers from the 6th U.S. Infantry. The steamboat Rodney was brought up the Apalachicola River, and on October 20, 1838, the men women and children of the two villages were placed aboard:

Aspalaga in Gadsden County as shown in an 1834 painting.
Notice the Native Americans smoking fish on the near or
Jackson County shore.
University of West Florida

Two companies of mounted men, one of dragoons under the command of Lieut. Lowton, the other infantry commanded by Capt. Backus, crossed the Apalachicola river and were posted in the immediate vicinity of the Indian towns a few days previous to the expiration of the time stipulated in the treaty for the removal of the Indians, the 20th inst. We learn that every preparation had been made by the Indians to take to the woods. Provisions and ammunition were in readiness, and but for the presence of a well disciplined and determined force, and certain nightly amusements got up by the officers and two friendly chiefs of the Tallahassees brought on by General Taylor, their plans would doubtless have been put in execution. On Saturday last they were embarked, to the number of two hundred and eighty men, women, and children, on board the steam boats Izard and Rodney, for their destination in the far west. [2]

By the 21st, the boats were at Aspalaga, where Taylor dispatched a message informing the government that the Native Americans had been removed without incident. From there, the boat continued down the river to its confluence with the Jackson River just north of Apalachicola. Turning off into the latter stream, the Rodney steamed up to Lake Wimico and across to the depot where Florida’s earliest railroad would soon cross the narrow neck of land to the city of St. Joseph:

Zachary Taylor in uniform. He served as the
12th President of the United States in 1849-
1850, dying while in office.
National Archives

The steamer Rodney arrived yesterday at the Depot, having on board 269 of the Indians from Conchatimico and Walker’s Town, on the Apalachicola. These Indians, since the acquisition of Florida, have resided on the Apalachicola river, entirely surrounded by the whites. Their position was mutually inconvenient to both parties, and their removal highly desired by the inhabitant, and the government. They have been paid for their improvements and personal property, and on a day fixed by treaty, they embarked on the steamboat for their western home. The militia and a few regular troops had been ordered out to prevent the Indians from dispersing, or committing any depredations. Too much praise cannot be given to Mr. Daniel Boyd, the emigrating agent, who controlled the movement, for the humanity, energy, and despatch with which this emigration has been conducted. We believe that West Florida is now free from the presence of an Indian. [3]

The claim that Northwest Florida had been cleared of Native Americans was a bit premature. The former members of Coahadjo’s band remained in hiding in the swamps of the Apalachicola, Ochlockonee, and Chipola Rivers, now led by Pascofa and several of his sub-chiefs.

-End Excerpt-

I will write more about the long Trail of Tears journey of Econchattimico, Walker, and their people tomorrow.

You can read more anytime in the book, which is available in both paperback and Kindle formats:

References

[1] Pensacola Gazette, October 14, 1838.

[2] Tallahassee Floridian, October 27, 1838.

[3] St. Joseph Times, October 24, 1838.

Can you dress like a pirate?? Prove it at Pirate & Heritage Days!

Public invited to "Dress like a Pirate" for Pirate and Heritage Days!

Ready to let your inner pirate out?! Your chance is coming on May 1-2 when Three Rivers State Park hosts Pirate and Heritage Days!

The event will commemorate the life and times of the adventurer and pirate William Augustus Bowles, who once frequented the Apalachicola and Chattahoochee Rivers. His ships raided commerce on the Gulf of Mexico in 1799-1804, sailing under the flag of the "State of Muskogee."

Jackson County is rich in stories of this unique individual. Legend even holds that he left behind a vast treasure that still remains to be found somewhere along the Chattahoochee River arm of Lake Seminole. 

You might not find the lost treasure, but you can definitely get in on the fun and collect a reward of your own by participating in the "Dress Like a Pirate" contest!

Members of the public are encouraged to bring their boats out for the William Bowles Pirate Regatta up Lake Seminole from Sneads Park on Friday, May 1. Launching begins at 4 p.m., and the Regatta will set sail at 6 p.m., led by the authentic 19th-century keelboat Aux Arc (pronounced "Ozark"). Fly your pirate flags and wear your pirate best to compete for cash and prizes as the Aux Arc leads the way with her cannon thundering! Registration information is coming later this week!

After the Pirate Regatta, the fun continues at Three Rivers State Park on River Road just north of Sneads, Florida. The evening will feature live music, entertainment, food, exhibits, and living history portrayals of life in Florida during Spanish colonial times. The "Dress Like a Pirate" contest will continue as team members from Two Egg TV will identify great costumes in the crowd and award cash on the spot!

More fun is set for Saturday, May 2, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Central/10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern, as Pirate and Heritage Days at Three Rivers State Park continues. Fun planned for Saturday includes living history demonstrations, entertainment, historical lectures, exhibits, vendors, food, and more. Plus, "Dress Like a Pirate" competition will continue with Two Egg TV passing out more instant cash and prizes to best dressed members of the public!

Pirate and Heritage Days at Three Rivers State Park is supported by Florida State Parks, the Jackson County Tourist Development Council, Jackson County Public Works, Two Egg TV, the Town of Sneads, and more! Additional sponsors will be announced soon.

A keelboat sails down the Apalachicola River

Lt. Richard W. Scott's last command leaves Fort Scott.

by Dale Cox

The 38-foot keelboat Aux Arc ("Ozark") underway on the
Flint River arm of Lake Seminole in 2017.

As U.S. troops attacked Fowltown on November 21, 1817 (please see First Blood at Fowltown),  igniting a war that would continue more than 40-years, a major disaster was building on Florida's Apalachicola River.

The march of the 4th and 7th Regiments from Camp or Fort Montgomery north of Mobile to Fort Scott had necessitated the transport of supplies, ordnance, ammunition, uniforms, and other necessities by ship on the Gulf of Mexico. Maj. Gen. Edmund P. Gaines contracted sailing vessels for this purpose, sending them out from Mobile in two flotillas.

The first of these, escorted by 1st Lt. Richard W. Scott and a detachment of the 7th Infantry, reached Fort Scott without significant incident. The second was guarded by a larger force under Brevet Maj. Peter Muhlenberg of the 4th U.S. Infantry. It reached the mouth of the Apalachicola River as the main bodies of the two regiments were marching across present-day Alabama.

The Aux Arc recreates the keelboats that carried tons of
cargoes on America's rivers in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Anticipating the arrival of Muhlenberg's three ships, Gen. Gaines ordered Lt. Scott to take a detachment of 40 men and go back down the Apalachicola to meet them. The lieutenant had already navigated the river, and his experience, Gaines assumed, would prove helpful to the major. 

Scott, a Virginia-born officer with experience in the War of 1812, did not know that the general planned to attack Fowltown and provoke a war. In truth, Gaines himself probably did not expect his raid to ignite the fiery response that it did. Either way, he gave the lieutenant no indication of his plans, simply ending advise that Muhlenberg use the junior officer's detachment to help bring up the supply ships.

Many keelboats, as the Aux Arc demonstrates, were propelled
by either oars or sail. The vessel will be on the Apalachicola
River at Chattahoochee, Florida, for the Scott 1817 Seminole
War Battle Reenactment on December 6-8, 2019.

Lt. Scott's command left Fort Scott aboard a keelboat. These shallow-draft vessels were the workhorses of America's rivers long before inventor Robert Fulton took the steamboat New Orleans down the Mississippi River in the winter of 1811-1812. They continued to operate on rivers throughout the country for decades to come.

A good example of a keelboat is the Aux Arc (pronounced "Ozark"), the Arkansas-based vessel that will take part in this year's Scott 1817 Seminole War Battle Reenactment on December 6-8. Fitted with a mast and sail and a small cabin, the Aux Arc is 38-feet long but draws only about 12-inches of water. Even when loaded with a full crew and a cargo weighing several tons, she still draws only 13-inches or so.

At least one account indicates that Lt. Scott's keelboat carried
a swivel cannon like this one on the Aux Arc. You can see it
fire at the Scott 1817 Seminole War Battle Reenactment.

Like the Aux Arc, Scott's keelboat was also equipped with oars and could be rowed up or downriver by her crew when the wind failed. They could cover remarkable distances in short periods when going downstream. One keelboat leaving Fort Gaines, for example, traveled some 60-miles down the Chattahoochee River in a single night. Going upriver, of course, was much slower.

Scott's boat was somewhere on the Apalachicola when the Maj. Gen. Gaines sat down on November 22, 1817, to order a second attack on Fowltown. Maj. David E. Twiggs and his men had returned to Fort Scott the night before with news of their failure to capture Neamathla. The general decided to try again, this time from a different direction with a more significant force.

The task this time was assigned to Lt. Col. Matthew Arbuckle, who was given more than 300 men and a detachment of artillery. He was also ordered to carry wagons and bring away as much corn as possible from the log cribs in the Native American town. Food supplies were running short at Fort Scott, and Gaines hoped to supplement his own stocks by raiding those of the Creeks.

Fighting at Fowltown resumed the next morning.

div> Editor's Note: This article is part of a series that helps explain the background of the annual Scott 1817 Seminole War Battle Reenactment. This year's event is coming up in two weeks on December 6-8, 2019. Please visit Scott1817.com for more information.

For a quick 30-second look at what to expect at the annual reenactment, please click play:

Scott 1817 Education Day bringing nearly 1,000 students to Chattahoochee!

Unforgettable experiences await at Living History event!

by Rachael Conrad

Students learn about the lives of Creek Indian women.

An incredible array of elementary, middle, high, and home school groups will flood the banks of the Apalachicola River on Friday, December 6, for Education Day at the Scott 1817 Seminole War Battle Reenactment.

The annual event commemorates the First Seminole War of 1817-1818 and takes place this year at historic River Landing Park in Chattahoochee, Florida. The park is the site of the first U.S. defeat of the Seminole Wars and is a stop on Florida's official Seminole Wars Trail.

Education Day provides a remarkable opportunity for students to learn about life in the region during the days when the border dividing Florida, Georgia, and Alabama was still a battleground of empires. What is now Florida was then a colony of Spain. Southwest Georgia and Southeast Alabama were claimed by the United States. Still, the claims of both nations intruded on those of the Creek (Muscogee), Miccosukee, Seminole, and other Native American nations.

The Creek Indian warrior Blue Heron instructs a group of
students in the traditional Native American stickball game.

Students will learn about these turbulent days by meeting an array of individuals who "come through time" to speak to them and demonstrate weapons, crafts, food, games, and more.

They will visit the camps of Creek and Seminole Indians, meet Black Seminole warriors, play the authentic Creek/Seminole stickball game, and even try their hand at carefully-instructed tomahawk throwing. Frontier hunters and their families will discuss their lives and survival, demonstrate the firing of their muskets and long rifles, and show the items they used each day. 

The Creek Prophet Josiah Francis will tell the students about the Scott battle and what took place when the fighting raged. A U.S. Army major from 1817 will describe the scene from his perspective. Then there will be an opportunity to step aboard the authentic 38-foot keelboat Aux Arc (Ozark) to see how people once traveled on the Apalachicola River. In a highlight of the day for many guests, the boat will fire off its cannon in fiery displays of sight and sound.

The 38-foot keelboat Aux Arc (pronounced "Ozark) will
be in the Apalachicola River to show students how people
and cargo traveled up and down from the Gulf 200 years ago.

A variety of exhibits on history, archaeology, nature, outdoor activities, animals, and more will also be available for them to explore. Students will even get a lesson in candle-making before they leave!

Historian and author Dale Cox conceived the annual Seminole War Battle reenactment as a way to bring a forgotten part of area history back to life. His dream included a day to help schools immerse students in the lives of historical figures in a way far more real than books or lectures. That dream will be realized on December 6. 

"I am thrilled that so many schools and classes have committed to come and be part of this fantastic free event," he said. "These students are going to learn things about our ancestors in a few short hours that they will never forget."

The Maroon or Black Seminole leader Abraham will come
back to life after 200 years to teach students about his role
in the Seminole War battle fought at River Landing Park.

Cox said that he really likes the fact that the Scott 1817 event lets students learn about people from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds. "There were Creek, Miccosukee, and Seminole Indians fighting to preserve their homes and lands," he continued. "You had Maroons - escaped slaves that many of the students have never heard of - taking up arms alongside the Native Americans and fighting for their own freedom. United States soldiers, frontier people, Spanish soldiers and settlers, people from so many different backgrounds, all coming together at once in this small corner of the world."

More than 500 students from Jackson County alone will be coming across the river to enjoy the event, and there will be many from other locations as well.

Education Day will be followed by the main public days on Saturday and Sunday (December 7 & 8). Everyone is encouraged to come out and enjoy days of living history encampments, demonstrations, pageantry, exhibits, musket and cannon firings, food, vendors, and battle reenactments. The hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. (8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Central). 

Please visit scott1817.com or www.facebook.com/scott1817 for more information.

If your home school or school group would like to attend Education Day, please email us by clicking here.

Paddlewheel Steamboats on the Chipola River

The Jackson, the Farley, and other boats made the dangerous run.

by Dale Cox

The paddlewheel steamboat Chipola operated in 1911-1926.
State Archives of Florida/Memory Collection

Paddlewheel steamboats offered transportation, communication, and opportunities to communities across Northwest Florida long before the P&A (later the L&N and today the CSX) railroad was built across the region in 1881-1883.

While it is easy to see how the boats could operate successfully on the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee, and Choctawhatchee Rivers, the idea that they navigated the narrow and twisting channels of Holmes Creek and the Chipola River seems much more far-fetched. And yet, the splash of paddlewheels and shrill whines of steam whistles were heard on these streams as well.

Holmes Creek, for example, was navigated by sternwheelers from its confluence with the Choctawhatchee up to a landing just north of Vernon. They carried cotton, timber, turpentine rosin, and other commodities down to Pensacola via the Choctawhatchee River, Choctawhatchee Bay, and Santa Rosa Sound. Vernon actually became one of the world's top shipping points for gopher tortoises, which were considered a valuable food item in the 19th and early 20th centuries. 

The Chipola River in Northwest Florida

Marianna's location on the Chipola River sparked many to dream that it too could become a commercial port. Wooden barges and pole boats carried cotton, rice, sugar, lumber, and other commodities down the river from the earliest days of settlement in Jackson County. The Natural Bridge at today's Florida Caverns State Park was an important port facility. Commerce from the upper river was offloaded there and transferred to larger boats for the trip down to Apalachicola and St. Joseph.

It was not until 1860, however, that the first powered vessel made its way up to Marianna. The boat was the paddlewheel steamer Jackson, which was built in Pittsburg especially for the Chipola River trade:

LIGHT STEAMER.—A neat little steamer—the Jackson, of Marianna, Florida—is just completed and now loading at the Monongahela wharf for the South. The Jackson was built under the superintendence of Capt. Dan Fry, her commander, for the Marianna and Appalachicola Steamboat Company and is intended to navigate the Chipola river—a river never before navigated by steamboat.—She is of light draught, trimming on less than twelve inches, and having a capacity to stow away five hundred bales of cotton. Her cabin is very near and furnished in true southern style and has all the late improvements in her general outfit to make her the boat for the packet trade she is intended for.—(Pittsburg Despatch, July 11, 1860).

The boat's career was short. Just months after she reached Marianna the first time, Florida seceded from the Union and joined the Confederate States of America. U.S. warships blockaded Apalachicola and St. Joseph Bays, prompting Confederate forces to obstruct the Apalachicola River. They also placed heavy cannon along its banks to prevent the enemy from coming upstream.

The steamboat John W. Callahan sank in the lower Chipola
River near Wewahitchka in 1927.

The Jackson stopped her runs to Marianna and was placed under the control of the Confederate army. She was lost in an accident on the lower Apalachicola River late in the war.

The Reconstruction era arrived in 1865 with no boat available to navigate the shallow and twisting channel of the Chipola. The steamers that survived the war were too big. They drew too much water, and their lengths were too long to turn the river's sharp bends. The dream of turning Marianna into a river city was dampened but did not end.

As the community recovered from the economic devastation of the War Between the States or Civil War, attention soon turned to the building a new boat christened the Farley. The sternwheel boat made her first trip up the Chipola in March of 1872:

ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST STEAMER - The little steamer "Farley," built expressly to run on the Chipola river and points on the Chattahoochee and Flint made her first trip up to Marianna on the 16th ult., and created the wildest enthusiasm among the citizens. The Courier of the following Thursday is filled with accounts of pic-nics, dances, and all sorts of jubilees in her honor. - The ladies presented the Captain with a handsome flag for his little craft. "The Farley will no doubt prove a great convenience to the people of Jackson - (Tallahassee Weekly Floridian, April 2, 1872).

The Farley brought commercial river traffic back to Marianna for the first time in ten years. Like the Jackson before her, she could only travel the river during the winter and spring when water levels were high. Promoters, however, dreamed of opening the river year-round and appealed to the War Department which sent Thomas Robinson, Assistant Engineer, to inspect the Chipola and make recommendations:

The John W. Callahan, Jr. was the last commercial
paddlewheel steamer to operate on the Chipola River. She is
seen here passing beneath Victory Bridge at Chattahoochee
on its dedication day in 1922.

The Chipola River, flowing southward from Marianna to the “Dead Lakes,” an estimated distance of 65 miles, is a stream of 2½ feet per second, surface velocity (with the water 5 feet above low), a general depth of 5 feet at low water, and a width ranging from 60 to 200 feet. The obstructions are bridges, shoals, overhanging trees, and logs and snags in the channel. - (Report of Thomas Robinson, Assistant Engineer, included in Annual Report of the Secretary of War, Washington, DC, 1889, Page 1418).

Robinson placed the cost of the river at $48,300. The obstructions he found included the Marianna road and railroad bridges, a road bridge 14-miles south of Marianna, and six rock shoals. The largest of these was Calhoun County's well-known Look and Tremble Shoals:

This last shoal goes by the name of “Look and Tremble,” and is the chief impediment of the stream at low water. At a 5-foot stage of water no signs of the shoal are visible. To clear a low-water channel of 3 feet in depth and 60 feet in width through all of these shoals, I estimate that 8,000 cubic yards of rock must be removed, at an approximate cost of $22,000. - (Ibid.).

Look and Tremble is popular with outdoor enthusiasts today, but it was a severe hindrance to navigation in 1888. The bridges at Marianna were not replaced. Landings were at Turner's Landing on Spring Creek and at today's Hinson Conservation and Recreation Area just south of the railroad trestle remained in use.

The shoals, however, were cut. Channels deep enough and wide enough for small paddlewheel steamers to pass through were cut into the rock. The Look and Tremble cut is still visible on the east side of the rapids.

Another view of the John W. Callahan, Jr.

The steamer Chipola made her presence on the river in 1886. Able to carry 32-tons of cargo plus passengers, she navigated the narrow channel for three years before sinking at Magnolia Landing in 1889.

Other boats operated in the late 19th and early 20th-centuries. One of these was also named the Chipola and was launched at Apalachicola in 1911. The sternwheel boat operated until she struck a snag and sank in the lower river in 1926. She never made it as far up as Marianna.

Paddlewheel boats continued to operate on the Chipola River until the 1930s, but getting them up to Marianna remained a significant problem. The Annual Report of the Secretary of War for 1925, for example, includes discussion of an appropriation to open a 3-foot channel all the way from Dead Lakes to Marianna:

The improvement between the foot of the Dead Lakes and Look and Tremble Shoals is absolutely essential to a section of the State which is not provided with other means of transportation. Below Look and Tremble Shoals improvement has made it possible to maintain regular transportation throughout the entire year. No benefit has been derived from the expenditure above Look and Tremble Shoals. - (Annual Report of the Secretary of War, Washington, DC, 1925, pp. 715-716).

Service never was restored to Marianna, and the last commercial paddlewheel steamer to operate on the Chipola was the John W. Callahan, Jr. The boat remained in service until the early 1930s after her sister vessel - the John W. Callahan - sank near Wewahitchka in 1927. The Callahan, Jr. never came above the Dead Lakes so far as is known.

The emergence of modern trucks and highways ended the need for the boats, and they faded away into the mists of time.

Burning of the City of Eufaula at Neal's Landing, FL

Floating palace destroyed by fire.

by Dale Cox

The paddlewheel steamer City of Eufaula burned at
Neals Landing on February 11, 1921.
The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.

Somewhere beneath the mud and water at Neals Landing rest the charred remains of one of the most elegant paddlewheel steamers ever to navigate the Chattahoochee River.

The City of Eufaula was a beautiful boat owned by the Planters and Merchants' Steamboat Company of Columbus, Georgia. The famed boatbuilder Sam J. Johnson built her hull at Apalachicola, signing the construction contract in August 1912. Launched and christened with champagne, the hull was towed to Columbus where construction of the decks, staterooms and other amenities was completed.

Powered by a sternwheel, the steamboat could carry more than 50 passengers and crew in addition to nearly 250 tons of cargo:

The City of Eufaula, built-in Columbus, had been in the river trade on the Chattahoochee between Columbus and lower river points for several years and the shrieking of its whistle had become a sound familiar to the ears of the people living along the course of the stream. - Columbus Ledger, February 13, 1921.

The City of Eufaula at a landing on the Chattahoochee River.
Dale Cox Collection

The boat operated successfully a little over eight years before disaster struck at Neals Landing on February 11, 1921. She was edged up to the steep riverbank taking on additional cargo when the crew noticed a smell of smoke:

No injuries were reported as a result of the disastrous blaze, but the fire had gained such headway and developed so rapidly until efforts to save the boat were fruitless, according to information brought to Columbus. A high river and a strong wind apparently encouraged the flames and soon after the discovery was made the vessel was almost enveloped, it was said. The City of Eufaula was bound for Columbus, but was laden with a comparatively light cargo, additional cargo was being taken at Neal’s Landing when the fire broke out. It was stated that the crew made a strong but vain effort to extinguish the fire, despite the headway of the flames and the disadvantage caused by the brisk wind. - Columbus Ledger, February 13, 1921.

The City of Eufaula is seen here taking on cargo. She was
doing the same at Neals Landing when the fire erupted.

The massive blaze was not the first for Neals Landing. The steamboat Eagle burned there in a fatal fire on January 29, 1854, and General Harrison suffered a boiler explosion near the landing that killed three men in 1842. Please click here to read more about the deadly sinking of the Eagle.

Perhaps the stretch of water was cursed by the Native Americans of Ekanachatte ("Red Ground")? The Muscogee (Creek) town stood on the site of Neal's Landing from circa 1763 to 1818. The extensive village was burned to the ground during the First Seminole War, and white settlers rushed in to claim the fertile fields and townsite.

The river landing is now part of Neals Landing Park, a recreation area off State Road 2 at the west end of the Chattahoochee River bridge. An interpretive panel near the boat ramp provides more information on the history of the site.

This map will help you find it: