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Here's a list of places we explored during our southern adventures in February 3rd - 27th, 2013!

Fort Pulaski National Monument
DeSoto National Memorial
Everglades National Park
Big Cypress National Preserve
Biscayne National Park
Dry Tortugas National Park
Canaveral National Seashore
Fort Matanzas National Monument
Castillo de San Marcos National Monument
Fort Caroline National Memorial
Timucuan Ecology & Historic Preservation
Ocmulgee National Monument
Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park
Cumberland Gap National Historic Park

Walt Disney World
*Epcot
*Animal Kingdom
*Hollywood Studios
*The Magic Kingdom

NASA:  Kennedy Space Center

Today was our final "southern" travel day, going off the beaten path (Interstate 75) to travel to the Cumberland Gap National Historic Park. 

 

Cumberland Gap (elevation 1,600 ft (490 m)) is a pass through the Cumberland Mountains region of the Appalachian Mountains, at the junction of the U.S. states of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia. Famous in American history for its role as one key passageway through the lower central Appalachians, it was an important part of the Wilderness Road and is now part of the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. Long used by Native Americans, the Cumberland Gap was brought to the attention of settlers in 1750 by Dr. Thomas Walker, a Virginia physician and explorer. The path was widened by a team of loggers led by Daniel Boone, making it accessible to pioneers who used it to journey into the western frontiers of Kentucky and Tennessee.

 

 

It is estimated that between 200,000 and 300,000 migrants passed through the gap on their way into Kentucky and the Ohio Valley before 1810. Today 18,000 cars pass beneath the site daily, and 1,200,000 people visit the park on the site annually.

Journals provided first-hand stories of the difficulties
encountered by 1,000's of pioneers coming rhough
Cumberland Gap

Beautiful painting at the visitor center depicting the
pioneers heading through the gap toward the promise of
a better future

Both the North and the South needed to control the
Cumberland Gap region during the Civil War

After driving up about 4 miles of switchbacks, we reached
the Pinnacle Overlook

Our view of the Historical Cumberland Gap

Pyramid Peak...at which the Tri-States of
Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia connect

Some of the rocky scenery found at the top
of Pinnacle Peak

Now our southern adventures have come back to the northern reality of cold and snow. We had a great time exploring 4 National Parks, 8 National Monuments/Memorials/Preserves, a National Battlefield, and a National Seashore...not to mention 4 amazing days and nights at Disney World and a great day spent at Kennedy Space Center!

 

Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park brought us forward to the history of a divided country at war, just under 150 years ago. When Ulysses S. Grant assumed command of all Federal armies in March 1864, he ordered a coordinated offensive to destroy Confederate resistance and end the Civil War. The major efforts focused on eastern Virginia and northwest Georgia. Major General William T. Sherman, in charge of the Georgia offensive, commanded 100,000 soldiers,. Opposing them was Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston entrenched at Dalton, Georgia. Grant ordered Sherman to "move against Johnston's army, and to get into the interior of the enemy's country & resources (namely Atlanta, GA.) We learned that the devastating slaughter that took place here at Kennesaw Mountain, ultimately and thankfully ended in a draw...but Sherman was able to move on to his goal of taking Atlanta by September 1, 1864.

 

President Lincoln and his Northern Generals

Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his Southern Generals

Civil War Cannon and image of Southern General, Robert E. Lee

 

 

We also headed to Ocmulgee National Monument today. We didn't know what to expect, but we were pleasantly surprised by a wonderful individualized ranger tour of the monument. The Ocmulgee testifies to life from Ice Age hunters (10,000 years ago) through the Mississippian farmers who lived here 1100 years ago.

 

 

The beautiful  Visitor Center was completed in 1951 and is
listed on the National Historic Registry.

Ice Age Ocmulgee inhabitants of nearly 17,000 years ago

Spear point, the earliest artifact found here

Bows & Arrows developed

Hunters & Gatherers

Functional clay pottery used here

More refined cooking and farming tools

 

 

Mound builders were very intelligent and artistic

Display showing the huge baskets
that were used to carry earth great
distances to build the mounds

Well planned and placed roof structure
for the earthen mounts

Walkway to the Temple Mound

Entrance to the Temple Mound, directly opening to the east...
Engineered so that on February 22nd, and October 22nd,
the sun will rise in the east and the rays will pass through
the doorway to illuminate the Effigy Eagle & the Chief

Eagle Effigy within the Temple Mound, where the Chief would be seated

Fire bowl within the mound

 

There were a number of seats around
the inside circle of the Temple Mound

Corn Mound

The Dunham Farm is located at the front of the Ocmulgee
National Monument.  The farm was the site of a Civl War
Battle during Sherman's Atlanta Campaign.  A northern regiment
was sent to blow up the railroad bridge at the rear of the property;
however the Confederates were able to ward them off,
and prevent the burning of the bridge.

 

The SUNshine State left a lot to be desired this morning, as we
headed across the Napoleon Bonaparte Broward Bridge across St. John's Bay

 

 

We left Jacksonville Naval Air Station this morning in pouring rain. It was not the way we planned to complete our last day in the SUNshine State!! Jim deftly traversed the interstate highway to bring us to our only "tour" stop of the day, at the French Fort Caroline. Luckily the rain subsided long enough for us to explore Fort Caroline and the Timucuan Ecology & Historic Preserve.

Fort Caroline memorializes the short-lived French presence in sixteenth century Florida. Here we found stories of exploration, survival, religious disputes, territorial battles, and first contact between American Indians and Europeans.

French explorer Jean Ribault was impressed by the first native peoples he encountered in Florida. The Timucuans under Chief Saturiwa, who met the French at the mouth of the River of May in 1562, were one of a number of Timucua-speaking tribes who inhabited central and north Florida and southeastern Georgia. They were the final stage of a culture whose way of life had remained essentially unchanged for more than 1000 years.

In Florida, both Spain and France hoped to claim their piece of the "new world." By the time the French planted their settlement at La Caroline, Spain was entrenched in South and Central America and its sea routes through the Caribbean were well established. Spanish ships bearing gold and silver from the mines of Mexico and Peru stopped at Havana before sailing for Spain. They rode the Gulf Stream through what is now the Straits of Florida and up the southeastern coast of North America. The Spanish were uneasy about a French settlement because their treasure ships, while they followed the Florida coast, could be easy prey for suspected French raiders in their nearby haven at La Caroline.

Therefore: Phillip II of Spain sent Admiral Pedro Menendez to remove the French from Florida. Menendez established a base to the south at St. Augustine. Ribault sailed down the coast seeking to attack the Spanish, but his ships were scattered by a hurricane and beached far to the south.Seizing the opportunity, Menendez marched north with 500 soldiers to attack the weakly guarded colony. It is believed that the Spanish camped overnight nearby, and attacked early. Forty or fifty French people, including Laudonniere, escaped and sailed for France. Out of the remaining 200 people, only about 60 women and children were spared. Menendez and his soldiers marched the survivors, including France's Jean Ribault, to the area now called Matanzas. Here, on October 12, 1565 Ribault and nearly 300 other French were slaughtered. This ended France's challenge of Spain's colonization in North America.

Now, the Timucuan Ecology and Historic Preserve is a 46,000 acre protected wetland, one of the last unspoiled coastal areas on the Atlantic Coast. It also preserves historic and prehistoric sites within the area. There is archaeological evidence indicating 6,000 years of human habitation here.

France WAS here...for a brief and unsuccessful attempt to
colonize LaFlorida

Path leading to Fort Caroline

 

ATimucuan hut near Ft. Caroline

 

 

 

 

 

Entrance to the reproduction of Fort Caroline

Moat surrounding the exterior walls of Ft. Caroline

The exterior wall of the fort facing St. John Bay

 

 

Artifacts belonging to French Commander, Jean Ribault

 

Looking over the courtyard inside Fort Caroline

Shells left behind in large piles called "Shell Middens" are
the oldest cultural remains in the Timucuan Preserve.

An owl totem carved by the Timucuan

Some of the "natural" tools used by the Timucuan

A Timucuan dugout canoe