Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center - White Springs, FL

Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park

White Springs, FL (north of Lake City)

Nightly from November 30-December 30, the Festival of Lights displays more than five million lights throughout the park.  The event is named a Top 20 Event in the southeastern United States.  Unique holiday light displays include majestic oak trees decorated with thousands of lights, an antebellum Museum dressed in full holiday splendor, a gingerbread village, a candy cane forest, and Santa’s runway.

Museum

 

Memorial Carillon

Model Train Exhibit

Lights

Gingerbread Village

 

Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge-Georgia

Okefenokee NWR

The refuge has several entrances.  These pictures are from the entrance south of Folkston, GA.

The Chesser Island Homestead was built by the Chesser family in 1927 and is an example of how swamp settlers lived in this harsh environment. Although sugar cane and cane syrup were the family’s cash crop, they also hunted, kept livestock and beehives, and had a substantial garden. Swamp settlers were self-sufficient and industrious people and used many of the plants growing in the area. Saw-toothed palmetto palms were used for making woven fans and hats, and the stalks were lashed together to make brooms. Turpentining was also lucrative. The resin of pines was collected until the tree could no longer be tapped, when it would then be harvested for lumber.



Skunkie Acres - White Springs, FL

Skunkie Acres is a non-profit animal refuge.

 

 

Olustee Battlefied Historic State Park

Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park

near Lake City, FL

 

This state park commemorates the site of Florida's largest Civil War battle, which took place February 20, 1864. More than 10,000 cavalry, infantry and artillery troops fought a five-hour battle in a pine forest near Olustee. A re-enactment is held every year in February.