Today was a beautiful day to explore Florida's Gulf Coast which is about 60 mile west of us. The area for several hundred miles of coast is shallow water and small islands of shell and saw grass. The town of Cedar Key is now a small laid back resort town and fishing community, maybe 1,000 people, likely much less. A railroad laided to this port allowed ocean transport of cedar trees ,used to make pencils (Faber), in the 1800's and also provided a Confederate sea port till capture by the Yankees in 1862. By 1900, thanks to over cutting of trees and a major hurricane in 1896, the town shrank to 1500 people and doesn't appear to have grown since.
The day was brim full of interesting facts; John Muir stayed here at the end of this 1,000 mile walk from Indiana. Faber used graphite from Siberia and cypress wood from Cedar Key to make millions of pencils during the 1800's, salt water was boiled in huge kettles to obtain salt, and being the gulf coast no-see-ums still bite visitors.
No comments:
Post a Comment