lots of tall and ancient Sabal palmetto, St. Francis ghost town hike

[Eric in Orlando]

Sunday was a perfect sunny, cool 70F degree day. My girlfriend and I went on a 10 mile hike on the St. Francis trail. This trail is in the far southeastern section of the Ocala National Forest on the southwest side of the St. John's River. This is just west of DeLand and about 35 miles NW of Orlando.

St. Francis is now a ghost town but was a pioneer boom town in the late 1870's through the 1890's. It was started in 1875 and quickly grew. It had a large wharf for steamships to stop along the St. John's River. Lots of citrus was grown and sent out here as was watermelons and cabbages. Lots of large, virgin cypress was logged and sent out.

The town contained the large wharf, a packinghouse, general store, grand hotel, sanitarium, stable, houses and cottages. In 1880 the railroad came down into central Florida but went through DeLand on the other side of the river. This impacted the town as the demand to ship on steamships declined. But the town was still thriving. In the winter of 1894-95 a horrible freeze killed out the citrus groves and the town rapidly declined. The post office closed in 1909. In the 1920's a hurricane devastated what was left and the last resident left in the 1940's when the Federal Government acquired the land for the Ocala National Forest.

The trail winds through quite a few Florida ecosystems and travels to the point on the river where the town once stood. Most of the trail is through moist hammock or swampy land so there are so many Sabal palmetto and huge numbers of extremely tall and old palms.

This is the Paisley-St. Francis Road. It is part of the trail but dates back to the 1870s when it was used by ox cart teams traveling between St. Francis and Paisley.

the only remnant left of the town of St. Francis, a piling from the wharf on the St. John's River. It looks to be a Sabal palmetto log.

the St. John's River looking southwest

[Eric in Orlando]

a "dwarf" Sabal palmetto

and now photos of the many tall and ancient Sabal palmetto and the thick palm forest

[Eric in Orlando]

[Eric in Orlando]

[Eric in Orlando]

[Palm Killer]

Wow thanks for posting such beautiful pics. What a great example of fan palms creating a very tropical look.

[Dr. George]

Thanks for taking the hike - I enjoyed it, particularly seeing stately mature palms in their natural habitat.

Trail still must get a reasonable amount of foot traffic to keep from getting reclaimed by the forest.

See any critters along the way?

gmp

[Xerarch]

Lol, only a Floridian could call 70 degrees in January or February "cool". Great pics though, even though Sabals are so common and therefore considered less desireable by some in the south, they really are beautiful.

[Jason in Orlando]

Thanks for sharing those photos Eric. That trail is where the S. palmettos are that have the strange vertically aligned boots.

Jason

[Eric in Orlando]

Wow thanks for posting such beautiful pics. What a great example of fan palms creating a very tropical look.

Old wild Sabal palmetto growing in masses of varying heights is a very tropical scene. They grow so dense and lush.

[Eric in Orlando]

Thanks for taking the hike - I enjoyed it, particularly seeing stately mature palms in their natural habitat.

Trail still must get a reasonable amount of foot traffic to keep from getting reclaimed by the forest.

See any critters along the way?

gmp

We didn't see anything but some songbirds, hawk, osprey and owls. It was cool in the shade so reptiles weren't active. But no alligators out sunning themselves. I was also looking foward to seeing some black bears, deer or maybe a fox or bobcat but nothing.

On the plus side we saw no humans either. We were out there about 6 hours and only saw some guys on the river in a boat fishing.

[Eric in Orlando]

Lol, only a Floridian could call 70 degrees in January or February "cool". Great pics though, even though Sabals are so common and therefore considered less desireable by some in the south, they really are beautiful.

It was cool in the morning, it had been down in the low to mid 40s. But it was sunny so warmed up quick. It was still cool back in the dense woods i the shade.

[Eric in Orlando]

Thanks for sharing those photos Eric. That trail is where the S. palmettos are that have the strange vertically aligned boots.

Jason

I didn't see any vertical booted ones but did see so many super tall specimens. These are easily probably at least 100 to maybe 150 years old.

Also saw lots of nice trunked Serenoa repens, green form and some with blue coloring. I will post those photos in a seperate post.

[JakeK]

Thanks for sharing. It's easy to get enamoured by all the palms with unique traits and qualities, and relegate others to just ordinary like the Sabal palmetto, but when you see pictures like yours it reminds me that even Sabal palmettos are beautiful palms.

[Alberto]

Thanks for this nice habitat photos!

[NApalm]

WOW! Amazing how quickly the forest reclaims the town. Last person moved out 70 odd years ago and all that's left is a jetty post!

[edric]

Great article Eric, I will post some of these photos in Palmpedia, thanks, Ed

[Eric in Orlando]

Thanks for sharing. It's easy to get enamoured by all the palms with unique traits and qualities, and relegate others to just ordinary like the Sabal palmetto, but when you see pictures like yours it reminds me that even Sabal palmettos are beautiful palms.

They are so often used and abused in landscapes you forget how nice wild groves of Sabal palmetto are.

[Eric in Orlando]

Thanks for this nice habitat photos!

You are very welcome!!!

[Eric in Orlando]

WOW! Amazing how quickly the forest reclaims the town. Last person moved out 70 odd years ago and all that's left is a jetty post!

Back then foundations weren't really used. The buildings were built mainly of cypress. So once the town had been abandoned people from surrounding areas "recycled" the valuable lumber. It doesn't take long in Florida for the wilderness to reclaim land.

[Eric in Orlando]

Great article Eric, I will post some of these photos in Palmpedia, thanks, Ed

Sure thing Ed, use whichever ones you like. Glad you enjoyed it !

[iamjv]

Great shots and information on this historical site !

[bubba]

The Ocala National Forrest is an overlooked treasure. I have never been to St, Francis but those tall Sabals are sensational. Not too far from Batram's Astor. Back in the day, I remember some interesting "coed camp outs". First time I saw a flying squirrel or perhaps a flying beaver. Still not certain.

[Jubaea]

Thanks for posting some more habitat photos. They must like it there with all the young palms poping up on the edge of the trail.

[Moose]

Thanks Eric! Nice Florida history with beautiful "old Florida" photos.

The result of the urban sprawl - many areas like these are gone forever.