Barberville Pioneer Settlement - Discovering Yesterday Today

Barberville Pioneer Settlement – Discovering Yesterday Today

48 BETTER OFF WET | December 2022

While on the way to visit De Leon Springs, our attention was grabbed by the beautiful antique river boat out front of what we now know to be the Barberville Pioneer Settlement. Not being picky or anything but, we at Better Off Wet are normally in search of cool water related places, to tell our readers about...after all we are a water lifestyle magazine. But, as it turns out this pioneer settlement was definitely water related; being as the Astor Bridge Tender’s House is the building where the river boat that we saw sits next to, and is also now the office for the Barberville Pioneer Settlement. These are the first 2 things you see entering the property, which makes perfect sense to us, since the entire population around the area, at the time, were by proxy, if nothing else “water people”. The Astor Bridge Tenders House was built in 1926 and moved to the Settlement in 1983. The river boat we saw and admired so much or Pastime Touring Boat as the Settlement calls it, was built in 1910 and has been at the Settlement since 1998.

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50 BETTER OFF WET | December 2022

We spent the better part of a couple hours “oohing” and “aahing” at all of the extremely cool artifacts located in the many structures brought to the Barberville Pioneer Settlement site, which makes up a what is now a wonderful historical village. It is almost impossible to not place yourself back into the past, when visiting this unique place, or at least not for the B.O.W. Crew. We were going on and on the entire visit about the “what if’s” of living in a remote river area a couple hundred years ago. The general consensus is that even for all the craziness of the world today, we have it very good now. Just imagining a modern American family living in a one bedroom cabin (like in the Settlement), cooking on a wood burning stove, washing clothes on a board, making music to entertain themselves at night, and knowing that there will never be any Wi-Fi to come, brought much laughter to us. And frankly, after writing it would make for great entertainment, in our opinion. To the B.O.W. Crew, Barberville Pioneer Settlement was worth the stop and price of admission for sure! Next time you are in the area, make sure to stop and check it out for yourself.

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52 BETTER OFF WET | December 2022

A word from the folks at Barberville Pioneer Settlement: Here at the Barberville Pioneer Settlement a dedicated program of preserving artifacts, buildings and local history is ongoing. The Settlement has been a good steward of local and regional history for thirty-eight years. Many young adults, that now have children of their own, have fond memories of visiting the Settlement during field trips when they were in elementary school. The tradition continues today as school children from all over Florida grace our hallways and pathways almost daily. Our annual special events are also a tradition for both locals and tourists alike. The Fall Country Jamboree was also established in 1976. This is the largest and most famous of all of our events, attracting visitors from all walks of life and all over the world. Featuring folk music, a juried arts and crafts show, corn boil, sugarcane boil, living history demonstrations and much more. Operating hours are: Thursday - Sunday 10 am - 3 pm 1776 Lightfoot Lane Barberville, Florida 32105 Phone: 386-749-2959 www.pioneersettlement.org

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