Parks and Rec: The Origins of Three Gainesville Parks Stor y and Photos by Zahra K han
Standing on a path trimmed with wiry grass, you stare out across the dark water and watch as it ripples in the subtle breeze. The wind caresses your back as it passes you, determined to show you more of the preserve’s beauty before the day’s light fades away. The blades of cattail grass sway in its cool touch and whisper against each other, secrets that are unfathomably old, back to when these wetlands were first created. It’s a wonder, you think, how natural gems like this came to exist, how they came to be protected. The sun dips below the horizon as it bleeds its farewell colors into the sky and you smile. It’s a good way to spend the day. Gainesville’s natural treasures aren’t secrets at all – they are divided into 30 public nature parks. Whether you’ve visited some or all, the history of how they came to exist in the community may surprise you.
Morningside Nature Center There are histories embedded in the foundation in each of Gainesville’s parks, and Morningside Nature Center is the city’s first municipal nature park, according to Sally Wazny, Nature Center Education Supervisor for Gainesville’s Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Department. It’s also the only park that incorporates its past in its present. The Living History Farm on the property immortalizes the everyday life of 1870. Set in a specific year rather than a decade, the center offers a unique seasonal experience to witness costumed volunteers operate the farm as they would’ve between the Civil War and the Reconstruction Era, according to Wazny. In the late 1800s, the land was used for turpentining and hosting naval stores. Government ownership of pieces of the land exchanged hands until 1964 when the city bought 278 acres intended for its current 32 The Origins Is sue
recreational purpose. In the '70s, the farm expanded to include an 1840s single-family cabin with a kitchen, a schoolhouse and an heirloom garden and barn with crops and animals native to the area and the period, according to Wazny. Other structures were built to match the preexisting dwellings that originated from North Central Florida. An example would be the Half Moon Schoolhouse from Half Moon, Florida, keeping in line with the original architecture and locality of the buildings. If not for the acquisition of these structures for the farm, Wazny said, they would have likely disintegrated to hovels where they originally stood, unrestored and uncared for.
Sweetwater Wetlands Preserve Water connects everything we do, from being the source of life to connecting lands and enabling travel and recreation. Sweetwater Wetlands Preserve is no exception. Its wetlands are home to alligators, deer and about 250 bird species, according to the Sweetwater Wetlands Park website. But preserving vital ecosystems wasn’t always the city’s priority. According to the website, in the 1930s, ranchers dug a ditch to drain part of Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park to expand dry land for cattle grazing. This caused the dehydration of over 1,300 acres of wetlands. The ditch merged Sweetwater Branch Creek to a lake that is connected to the Floridian Aquifer that provides the city with water. Eventually, it was infiltrated with an excess of nitrogen from urban runoff, effectively making it unusable. In response to new state regulations, city entities engineered a way to fix multiple problems with a single solution: Sweetwater Wetlands Preserve. The preserve serves as a natural water filtration system and an economically friendly way to restore water to the lost wetlands in Paynes Prairie and it’s
all available to the public. Ironically, Sweetwater gets its name from the Sweetwater creek, serendipitously named before the subsequent natural water purifying system, according to Geoff Parks, Nature Operations Supervisor of Gainesville’s Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Department. This is unlike San Felasco Park, which is traced back to American Indians of the area mispronouncing “San Francisco,” according to the Florida State Parks website.
San Felasco Park When a landowner was federally charged with drug trafficking and attempted murder in the early 1980s, he fled the area and abandoned his land, which is now known as San Felasco Park. Sometime before the fugitive landowner, the preserve was utilized by American Indians for thousands of years. Artifacts discovered at the site indicate that people occupied the land since at least 8,000 B.C., according to the Florida State Parks website. The land was transferred a few times among federal departments until it was put up for auction when Gainesville community members feared for its future, according to Parks. “A lot of these things were acquired from ordinary people thinking it was a good idea,” Parks said. “So people advocating for a piece of land being protected like San Felasco... it is a park because people went to the senator and said, ‘look this is going to be on the market, we’d love to protect it.’” Now a 7,360-acre preserve, San Felasco is home to rare mature forests and serves as an exquisite example of one of the few closed-canopy woodlands remaining in the state. The nature park serves the public with a picnic and education pavilion, playground, restrooms and boardwalk trail, according to the Florida State Parks website. “Ordinary people,” Parks said, “if they set their minds to it and work together, can do things like that, to protect our water quality and to provide recreational opportunities for our children and our families and ourselves.”
Gainesville’s Nature Parks The parks are located as far east as Gum Root Park at 7300 NE 27th Ave., and as far west as Split Rock Conservation Area two area codes over at Southwest 20th Avenue, according to the City of Gainesville Nature Parks map.
Here is a list of municipal parks you can go visit at your leisure: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
29th Road Nature Park Alfred A. Ring Park Bivens Arm Nature Park Boulware Springs Nature Park Broken Arrow Bluff Nature Park Clear Lake Nature Park Cofrin Nature Park Colclough Pond Nature Park Cone Park Southwest Duval Park Flatwoods Conservation Area Forest Park Four Creeks Preserve Green Acres Park Greentree Gum Root Park Hogtown Creek Floodplain Hogtown Creek Headwaters Nature Park John Mahon Nature Park Loblolly Woods Nature Park NW 34th Street Palm Point Nature Park Possum Creek Park Split Rock Conservation Area Springtree Park Sugarfoot Prairie Conservation Area Terwilliger Pond Conservation Area The Origins Is sue 33
