In order to take advantage of a ranger-led tour at Dudley Farm, last week we moved our Adventure Friday to Saturday. Florida has a variety of state parks many focus on various ecosystems with their plants and wildlife, but some are sites of historical significance, this is one such park.
The park gets its name from the Dudley Family who first arrived in Florida in 1852 after moving from South Carolina. While surveying in the area and working as a school board member, P.B.H. Dudley learned that a nearby piece of real estate would most likely be a crossroads for two major roads in the area, and so he chose to purchase land and move in 1859. This is where the Dudley Farm stands today. The family initially lived in a two room dog trot cabin on the property, which grew to include 962 acres and 30 slaves. As well as being completely self-sufficient, they grew a large amount of cotton as a cash crop, even owning a large cotton gin in Gainesville at the time.
During the Civil War, P.B.H. Dudley served as a Captain for the Confederacy. After returning home to find the land devalued, cotton no longer king, and with a need to now pay his labor force, he needed to overhaul the farm. So they expanded into cattle and even cut a 12 mile road through the countryside in order to move their cattle to market in Gainesville.
When Captain Dudley died in 1881, his only living son Ben took over the Dudley Farm. Shortly after his wife's mother passed away and so they took in her seven siblings. This necessitated building a five room, two story house with an outdoor kitchen over the next couple of years. Some of the siblings married, but several lived out their lives at the farm. Over the next several years their farming continued while Ben now the father of 12 children, started a few side businesses. They added a cane grinding facility and general store to the property. As they became a hub on the roads both leading to Gainesville and what is now Alachua, they even added a post office to the general store for the area residents.
When Ben died in 1918, his wife Fannie continued running the farm with three of her sons Ralph, Harvey, and Frank. During her time, the Dudley Farm became known for her beautiful ornamental gardens with neighbors coming for Sunday afternoon strolls. Eventually cotton prices fell so far that the farm began growing tobacco as their main cash crop. Tennants continued moving away from the farm and the Great Depression sunk in, but the family merely began to mechanize farming and downsizing. They traded two mules for their first John Deere tractor, later adding other machinery to the farm. Over time most of the family moved off the farm, but Ralph continued farming until his death in 1967.
At this point the remaining 24 acres of the farm passed into the hands of Myrtle, who was the youngest of the Dudley children. She continued running the farm with a small cattle operation and crops. Her mother had often wished that the family's heritage could be preserved and so in 1983, she gifted the grounds to the Florida State Park Service. Immediately rangers were dispatched to learn all they could from Miss Myrtle, and begin the work of preserving the farm grounds as well as family artifacts and heirlooms. They also purchased an additional 232 acres that previously belong to the family.
After Myrtle passed away in 1996 at the age of 94 the park service officially opened the farm as the Dudley Farm Historic State Park. To this day it serves as a living history exhibit as the grounds are still worked, kitchens still cooked in, laundry still washed, and fiber crafts still produced. There are also year round activities such as the annual cane grinding.
We enjoyed walking the grounds with a volunteer ranger learning about the family and their time on the farm. He was great at fielding questions from the kids and sharing all sorts of tidbits both about the family and the greater historical events going on at the time. This really helped the kids to cement this place and time in their minds as we've been studying the Progressive Era, the Great Depression, and World War I in the last couple of months. The kids of course opted to buy a stick of sugar cane and more apple butter from the store before we split off from our friendly tour group.
We used the opportunity to turn in an assignment for the cultural section of our Junior Ranger Program. Now that the kids have completed their core packet and received their junior ranger badges, they have to earn three stamps in four different categories (for a total of 12 park stamps), to complete the program. Each assignment encourages them to think about the value of the state park system and interact with exhibits on site. So after watching the 12 minute welcome video about the park and viewing exhibits in the Visitor Center, we were able to complete the final question on their page to get their first stamp. One interesting exhibit we found was a yo-yo quilt top, which we've discussed before and the kids are suppose to try their hand at next week in history.
While at the park we sought out four geocaches on the property. One of them was the official state geocache which let the kids mark another step on their way to earning their state geocaching coin. It was also the first series geocache that we have done, and it was incredibly fun. The kids thought it made geocaching feel even more like a scavenger hunt, and they hope we find more of that kind in the future. A series geocache leads you to a clue which sends you somewhere else, before revealing the geocache. This series had two clues, for three total stops, with the last stop being where the geocache was actually hidden. The first clue was incredibly difficult to find, but it was well worth it.
Every Saturday from 10-2 a group of volunteer musicians also get together to pick and grin at the park as well. So after collecting our Junior Ranger Stamp and having our geocaching fun, we stopped by to listen to them play. They quickly invited the kids to sing and make request, and seemed to enjoy us as much as we enjoyed them. They even took the time to share some basic percussion instruments like maracas and allow the kids to join them. We stayed until they finished up and then we had lunch.
After lunch we decided to stop by the San Felasco Hammock Preserve State Park, which is practically next door. We found another geocache and then took the Moonshine Creek Trail, which measures right at a mile in distance. It actually has a little bit of an elevation change and was a very pretty walk, following a small creek. We might have taken the slightly longer Creek Sink Trail if we had more time. It might be a place to visit again in the future since somewhere on the grounds are the remains of the 17th century spanish mission, San Francisco de Potano.
All in all we had a great day, and would recommend visiting both spots! If you'd like to make a trip to Dudley Farm Historic State Park the address is 18730 W. Newberry Road, Newberry, Florida. It is open Wednesday through Sunday from 9 to 5, with the homestead closing at 4. Entrance to the park is $5 for a car load of up to 8 people. The San Felasco Preserve State Park is located at 13201 San Felasco Parkway, Alachua, Florida. It is open from 8 am to sunset, everyday. Entrance to the Park is $4 for a car load of up to 8 people.
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