Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Ocala National Forest
    Ocala National Forest
    Ocala National Forest
    Ebook187 pages51 minutes

    Ocala National Forest

    By Dr. Rob Norman and Gene Gallant

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    The Ocala National Forest, founded on November 24, 1908, by Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, is the oldest national forest in the eastern continental United States. The forest is one of central Florida's last remaining expanses of forested lands with magnificent palms, towering live oaks, and the largest sand pine scrub population in the world. The Ocala National Forest contains major springs, including Salt Springs, Silver Glen, Alexander, and Juniper Run. In addition to several wilderness areas for visitors seeking primitive conditions and solitude, the forest has visitor centers, nature trails, and a section of the Florida Trail. Images of America: Ocala National Forest is filled with fascinating stories and exciting facts on the history of the steamboats, logging, trails, movie sets (including The Yearling, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings), Cracker cowboys, modern conservation efforts, and more.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439641392
    Ocala National Forest
    Author

    Dr. Rob Norman

    Dr. Rob Norman has written and edited 28 books and has written for 10 years for Discover magazine. Norman and Gene Gallant have spent many years exploring, photographing, and writing about the Ocala National Forest. Photographs for this publication come from the Florida Memory Archives, the Ocala Public Library, the Silver River Museum, and private collections.

    Related to Ocala National Forest

    Related ebooks

    Travel For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      How Sharks Became so Scary

      Jun 3, 2017

      SUMMER HASN’T EVEN OFFICIALLY BEGUN and sightings of great white sharks in shallow waters have already forced beach closures on both U.S. coasts. In a post-Jaws world, it seems only natural that shark warnings should send swimmers running. But that h

      1 min read

    • Article

      Two Slain Men Were Drug Traffickers

      Jan 10, 2021

      THE two men who were shot, beheaded and set alight had worked for alleged drug lord Yaganathan Pillay, also known as Teddy Mafia, until they switched loyalties. This was according to a witness to this week’s triple killing in Shallcross, Durban, whic

      2 min read

    • Article

      NOW & FOREVER

      Nov 28, 2022

      NOW & FOREVER
      13 min read

    • Article

      The Sands of Time

      Dec 1, 2021

      The Sands of Time
      5 min read

    • Article

      Bookshelf

      Aug 3, 2020

      Bookshelf
      7 min read

    • Article

      Season's Greetings

      Sep 21, 2023

      Season's Greetings
      33 min read

    • Article

      Wild at Heart

      Mar 19, 2024

      Wild at Heart
      8 min read

    • Article

      Courage Before The Thaw

      Mar 5, 2018

      Courage Before The Thaw
      18 min read

    • Article

      Breakaway COUNTRY

      May 2, 2019

      Breakaway COUNTRY
      7 min read

    • Article

      Canyon To canyon

      Sep 23, 2021

      Canyon To canyon
      6 min read

    • Article

      Eternal Springs

      Jan 26, 2023

      Eternal Springs
      9 min read

    • Article

      Forest Cartography

      Mar 4, 2021

      Forest Cartography
      4 min read

    • Article

      Champions Of Conservation

      Sep 19, 2022

      Champions Of Conservation
      19 min read

    • Article

      The Canyon Grand

      Mar 20, 2020

      The Canyon Grand
      4 min read

    • Article

      Sand And Fire

      Jun 8, 2023

      Sand And Fire
      7 min read

    • Article

      Sand And Fire

      Jun 8, 2023

      Sand And Fire
      7 min read

    • Article

      Marvel Of The Ozarks

      Jul 25, 2023

      Marvel Of The Ozarks
      2 min read

    • Article

      These Unearthly Plains

      Oct 23, 2019

      These Unearthly Plains
      8 min read

    • Article

      FLIGHT of The SPOONBILLS

      Dec 19, 2022

      FLIGHT of The SPOONBILLS
      14 min read

    • Article

      Underwater Legends

      Oct 1, 2022

      Underwater Legends
      17 min read

    • Article

      Death Of The Gods

      Dec 27, 2018

      Death Of The Gods
      20 min read

    • Article

      Home in Appalachia

      Jun 17, 2020

      Home in Appalachia
      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Ocala National Forest

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Ocala National Forest - Dr. Rob Norman

      book.

      INTRODUCTION

      And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

      —Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan

      To take on a project as big and vast as the Ocala National Forest is monumental. I look at the forest as the stage of an enormous and ever-changing ecological theatre onto which untold numbers of lives have come and gone. My questions include the following: What makes up the stage? How do characters come and go on this stage? How and why has this happened?

      Major river arteries, primarily north and south with the Ocklawaha fed by the Silver Springs run and the St. Johns River, have allowed visitors to enter here. Now highway interstates allow major interactions along both margins of the forest and more forays inside the forest. Today the Ocala National Forest—a popular recreation area for canoeing, swimming, camping, hiking, picnicking, and hunting—receives more visitors than any other national forest in the Sunshine State. Millions of visitors annually escape to this forest, which is one of Central Florida’s last remaining traces of forested land.

      Ocala National Forest is the oldest national forest east of the Mississippi River and the southernmost in the nation. On November 24, 1908, Pres. Theodore Roosevelt signed the original proclamation establishing the Ocala National Forest, reserving it from public domain lands. The forest has numerous threatened and endangered species, and management is geared to protect and perpetuate these species. The sand pine scrub is the largest in the world. Juniper Springs Recreation Area, dedicated in 1936, has been in continuous use since its dedication.

      The following is a partial quote from the proclamation: Do proclaim that there are hereby reserved from settlement or entry and set apart as a public reservation, for the use and benefit of the people, all the tracts of land, in the State of Florida, shown as the Ocala National Forest. This proclamation in 1908 reserved this land for the use and benefit of the people. On July 16, 1938, Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Ocala National Forest boundary.

      What are the origins of the word Ocala? Some say it is a Timucuan-Indian term meaning fair land or big hammock. More generally accepted is that Ocala is believed to have come from the name of a Native American chief called Ocali, who was in the area around 1539. The history of the First Peoples settling in the forest is as indefinite as the boundaries of the land.

      Imagine being in the forest 10 million years ago during the Pliocene and Miocene eras. You take a walk. With each step forward, you may see giant raccoons and scores of other ungulates or hoofed animals. When you get deeper into the woods, you may think you were walking around today. The cypress, conifers, magnolias, and palms have a similar appearance now, as they did when the giraffe-camels ate freely from the tall branches and giant vegetarian sloths hugged the trees. Above you fly anhingas, grebes, and dragonflies, and you may spot an armadillo that looks like the greatest-grandfather to one of today’s ground sniffers.

      You will, however, never spot a dinosaur; the great peninsula of Florida was underwater when they thundered across other lands. During these periods of submersion, mollusks and fish swept in from the sea, leaving a legacy of countless shells and bones when they perished. The calcium content of the marine life was the primary ingredient of the limestone foundation that is millions of years old. The rising and cracking of the limestone crust formed the ridges running down the center of the peninsula. Relic dunes appeared following submersion.

      Keep walking—Ocala’s ridges, being slightly higher than the coastal regions, were the first to dry out, which became an island of refuge for semiaquatic creatures and other animals. Even the remnants of beached whales are still discovered. Following the retreat of the glaciers, the vegetation returned. Acidic water crept into the limestone, creating subterranean caves and fissures. Empty spaces were soon filled with rainwater, which helped to erode the rock, and the new woods, made of a collection of sand, twigs, and leaves, took shape and filled in the openings. As the water lowered, new caves were carved as well as curved passages. With the passing of time, the rain pushed bones, fossils, shells, soil, and leaves down into the lower caves, carrying liquid organic acid to dissolve the underlying bedrocks. Sinkholes were formed in the upper caves.

      Look around—snowy egrets flaunt their breeding plumage and high-step through the aquatic vegetation, showing off the bright yellow feet that give them the nickname of little golden slippers. Turkey vultures perch on the top fronds of cabbage watching the neighborhood, and ibis, cormorants, and osprey join storks, herons, and anhingas in the competition for fish. Bass break the water’s surface in search of food. Sandhill cranes fly overhead, deer graze in the shallows, and alligators line the river and lakes like ancient sentinels. Coots, with their unmistakable white bills and plaintive calls, common moorhens, and lesser scaups mingle and feed. You will observe that the forest and surrounding area supports an abundance of wildlife.

      In her wonderful book Forest in the Sand, Marjory Bartlett Sanger writes, Every forest has its own story to tell. It tells of the years it has seen and its beginnings and how it has grown old with the earth. It tells of the plants and animals living in it, its sunshine and winds and rains, its seasons and cuttings and dyings and renewals. Like the ocean, the forest is in a state of constant movement, rising and falling, growing and diminishing, never at rest.

      One

      HISTORY OF THE FOREST

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1