A Special 2021 Holiday Series, Part #1:
The
First Steamboat on Lake George
Arrival Friday, May 30, 1834
The small steam vessel Florida was certainly
not the first boat to cruise St. Johns River south of Palatka, but the Florida
was, according to the Macon Georgia Messenger of June 5, 1834, the first
steam powered craft to travel as far south on the River as Lake George.
Spanish explorers had sailed the river long before
steamboats, and in 1774, Explorer William Bartram reportedly sailed the river to Lake George. Nature painter John James Audubon traveled the St. Johns
River in January 1832 searching for rare birds, writing in his diary, as I mentioned
in Chapter 16 of my First Road to Orlando (2015), that he visited “Spring
Garden Plantation, the home of Colonel Orlando Savage Rees”. Audubon even
sketched a map of his expedition into tropical Florida two years before the
steamboat Florida journeyed up the St. Johns River.
“It was announced to the public about three weeks ago,”
reported the Macon Messenger of June 5, 1834, “that the Florida
Steam Packet, under Captain Richard A. Hill, would leave Savannah for Picolata
(Palatka) and Lake George for the purpose of giving those who wished to enjoy a
trip to the latter place and of viewing the various objects of interest there
and along the St. Johns an opportunity of doing so. On Thursday last the Florida
arrived at Picolata according to arrangement, and on Friday morning she
departed thence for the Lake at 4:40 AM and passed into Lake George at 11:40
AM.”
1834 Survey of north
entrance to Lake George at Drayton’s Island
(1) Drayton Island (1,781 acres); (2) Lake George (3) Florence McLean Isle; Wm. Gardner
The steamboat Florida was reportedly the
first vessel to enter Lake George under steam power. Picolata, or Palatka as we
now know it, was at that time the southernmost St. Johns River town. But while
no actual town existed south of Palatka as of 1834, there were homesteaders who
were occupying old Spanish Land Grants.
“Drayton Island”, (#1 on the map above) said
the Messenger, “at the entrance of the lake was also visited. This is 6
or 7 miles long and from two to three wide, and the proprietor, Z Kingsley,
Esq. has selected it as a most favorable position for the growth of the China
Orange.” Zephaniah Kingsley (1765-1843), a Bristol, England native, settled at
Fort George Island near Jacksonville, but by 1834 also owned the 1,700 acres Drayton
Island.
“The party on board the boat was small but interesting and appeared desirous to add each other’s enjoyment during the 3 days trip. Lake George was found to be about 15 miles long and 7 broad and its average depth of water about 10 feet. The party went on shore at several places on the east side of the Lake, visited the head of it, and also afforded the gratification of viewing the Silver Spring. This is a body of water of great magnitude which bursts out a large basin of unascertained depth, running off and emptying itself into the Lake about ¾ of a mile from its source. The water is so pure that its bottom can be seen but not felt.”
The Silver Spring visited by those aboard the Florida
in 1834 was not Silver Springs as we know today, but possibly a “sulphur-spring”
identified by Webb’s Historical of 1885 as one- mile from the famous
archeological site, Mount Royal. Webb’s said Mount Royal was “on the
east bank of the St. Johns River on a bluff overlooking Little Lake George”,
stating too that “one mile back of the settlement is a famous sulphur-spring,
the water from which issues from a subterranean passage in a volume sufficient
to run a mill. Many invalids visit the spring to drink of its healing waters.”
William Bartram, in 1791, wrote of an earlier visit to
Mount Royal: "At
fifty yards from the landing place, stands a magnificent Indian Mount. About
fifteen years ago I visited this place, at which time there were no settlements
of white people, but all appeared wild and savage; yet in that uncultivated
state, it possessed an almost inexpressible extent of old fields, round about
the Mount; there was also a large Orange Grove, together with Palms and
Live Oaks extending from near the mount, along the banks, downwards all of
which has since been cleared away to make room for planting ground. But what
greatly contributed towards completing the magnificence of the scene was a
noble Indian highway, which led from the great Mount on a straight line,
three quarters of a mile, first through a point or wing of the Orange Grove and
continuing thence through an awful forest of Live Oaks, it was terminated by
Palms and Laurel Magnolias, on the verge of an oblong artificial lake, which
was on the edge of an extensive green level savanna. This grand highway was
about fifty yards wide, sank a little below the common level, and the earth
thrown up on each side, making a bank of about two feet high." (Source:
Mount Royal Archaeological Site)
Mount Royal Post
Office was established June 29, 1875, and an 1880 Putnam County map shows Mount
Royal north of Lake George. But a decade later, the South Florida Railroad said
Mount Royal was “at the southern extremity of Lake George” but also transformed
the magical place into a one-time home of “Olata, King of the Akuera, in 1564”.
And the railroad brochure of 1887 had even more to say about Mount Royal: “It
is now the golden gate to the famous Garden of Hesperides in Orange County.” The railroad was not alone in promoting Orange County of the 1880s as the mythical Greek Garden.
“What,
on St. John stream may be seen
The
Hesperides – let it be stated –
Amid
its groves, the way worn guest
Is
with good boarding houses blest,
And
having come o’er land and seas
To
find the famed Hesperides,
Here
may he, having found the goal,
Rest
easy in body, mind and soul.”
The
Song of Manitoba (1888)
By
Frank Siller, 1880s Gotha, Florida Snowbird
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This CroninBooks Holiday Series
(To be continued)
