Tuesday: The Forgotten Coast

In the afternoon the weather improved and we ventured out to the town of Apalachicola, which is at the mouth of the Apalachicola River. This is the same river that is fed by the Seminole Lake Reservoir, where we camped at Three Rivers Campground. We also visited Torreya SP, which is on the bank of the Apalachicola. This was a very important town in the 19 century. It was the start point for all the trade up river (remember 200 river boats). It was and still is also the home base for the huge seafood industry of the vast Apalachicola Estuary and Bay area. By seafood I mean loads of fish, but also scallops, oysters, crab and shrimp (prawn to us). It is still one of the prime producers of oysters (provides 10% of US oysters). The industry is largely unchanged in a hundred years, the oysters are grown in sort of iron baskets, the oystermen go out everyday in small boats to harvest them. They are brought back and small factories ‘shuck’ the oysters, where they are packed and sent off to be eaten. The town of Apalachicola also appears to be almost unchanged, a bit more touristy than it was, but structurally the same. The wide main street with its art deco style shop fronts was very reminiscent of The Walton’s meets the sea. There is still a traditional Soda Fountain shop and behind the stores you can see the masts of the larger fishing boats. You can almost smell the mothballs. Either side of Apalachicola is the only coastline of Florida that is still undeveloped (i.e. no access to the coast and large numbers of condominiums and large shops which service them). The map of the coast is a long gentle headland and it is called ‘The Big Bend’ area. Its other title, which is slightly more poignant is ‘The Forgotten Coast’, because is has not been developed, yet. That of course brings catch 22. Because it is undeveloped, the house prices (of reasonable houses) is huge, so a lot of local people cannot afford to live there. The Nearest Wal-mart is Tallahassee, 50 miles as the crow flies, but 87 miles by road. Many people want to keep it that way, though I suspect that many others would like an easier life than one based on bringing in the harvest of the bay. Still it is very pretty, we looked round John Gorrie’s House State Park(don’t tell me you don’t know who John Gorrie was), the famous (if you live in Apalachicola) inventor of the Ice Machine. Unfortunately because it was Tuesday it was closed, so we could only go round the outside. We also went round Ormond House State Park, which was also closed, but is another example of an AntiBellum House (built before the Civil War, come on keep up with the programme). We had a very nice cup of coffee in a little internet café and we enjoyed our afternoon there.