Silver Springs State Park, Silver Springs, Florida
Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ~ Matthew 11:28
HAPPY 8th BIRTHDAY TO OUR NUMBER THREE GRANDSON, MAX!!! Max’s personality is almost the spitting image of our youngest son, Kyle. In fact, the things Max does and says often prompt me to call him Kyle, which usually prompts him to give me the evil eye. Haha! It’s all in jest. But unfortunately for Max, that means I’m onto all his tricks. 😊 He’s a terrific, and terrifically smart guy!
We proclaimed today to be our day of rest, even though it’s not Sunday.
We were pretty wiped out from the past two days (even sleeping in until after 6:30!), but not so much that we had to stay home all day. About mid-morning, I announced that I needed to walk some, so we headed down the sink hole trail near our site.
The trail circled a good-sized sink hole that’s obviously been here awhile, but there’s no information about it. However, there were some other small information signs along the way. I took pictures of a couple.
They have one of these snakes in an enclosure by the glass-bottom boats.
Maybe we’ll check it out tomorrow!
We’ve arrived at the viewing spot for the sinkhole.
Look at the size of those palm fronds!
See Blaine in there?
The video offers the sounds of the sinkhole. : )
Pretty here, but you’d never know it was a sink hole.
From the trail, you can see a big dip in the terrain, but everything’s grown in by now.
Don’t want to see one of those in the wild . . .
Definitely don’t want to see one of these along the trail!
And now we know how their venom works.
These mounds are all over the trails around here.
They aren’t ants, so what are they?
Blaine brushed one off and discovered this little hole.
So what is it?
Florida Deep Digger Scarab Beetles
Deep Diggers are unique insects because they are Winter breeders. From November through March, you can see their mounds in sparse sandy lawns throughout our service area, especially in sandhill type habitats. Strangely enough, they do not occur in the Panhandle, though.
During mating season, the female digs a burrow that goes straight down to depths between four and ten feet. I bet you’re thinking, that’s incredible! At the end of the burrow, she constructs a cell at a 90° angle. She then packs the cell with organic debris such as leaf litter, acorns and pine straw. She will lay one egg in the cell. The larva will feed off the debris until it’s all consumed and then enter into the pupal stage. It takes nearly one year to complete its life cycle! Now that’s profound, hence its scientific name, Peltotrupes profundus. ~ flapest.com
We ended up back by the museum, after passing what appeared to be a mini cooper car show. Cute! And there were a lot of them! They were also preparing to eat catered BBQ, and that was almost enough for us to go out and by one of those tiny cars so we could eat! It’s been quite a while since we’ve had good BBQ! (And no, Blaine, the pork chops you grilled the other night, although very good, don’t count!)
The museum here is only open to the public on Saturday and Sunday because it’s actually “the Silver River Museum and Environmental Education Center and is a program of the Marion County Public School system, and as such, Monday-Friday it’s reserved for school kids on field trips who come from all over.
The museum began in 1987 when a Christa McAullife Fellowship (you may remember Christa was the teacher/astronaut who died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986) was awarded to research the development of a museum and environmental education center within the public school system.
The idea was met with strong support from the community. Local citizens, businesses, civic groups, the Marion County School Board, the Florida Legislature, the St. Johns River Water Management District, and other state agencies all helped to fund the museum. In 1991, the Silver River Museum and Environmental Education Center opened its doors to the students of Marion County.
The initial complex consisted of the museum and classroom buildings. Through the years a second wing to the museum, lunch pavilion, research library, late 1800’s Pioneer “Cracker” Settlement, and a circa 1930 one-room schoolhouse used by African-American students during segregation were added. This year we are excited to announce our wood-fired pottery kiln is complete and two log cabins are soon to be constructed.
We paid $2/person and were surprised how large and nice it was. They really have a good collection, and people (volunteers or paid staff, we’re not sure) who are not only available to answer questions, but make it a point to share unsolicited information with you.
One of the buildings in the “Cracker Homestead” area.
When school kids are here, they have costumed interpreters.
We walked around a bit, but nothing was open.
This display had a button you push and it lights up the “water” in the Floridan Aquifer.
Wow! Can you imagine?!?
Here it is!
This is a very old dugout canoe, but that’s all the sign said other than, ‘keep your mitts off it!”
I’m kidding, it didn’t really say that. It said ‘Please Don’t Touch’. : )
This is what we’ve been kayaking on.
They have several interactive displays. This one was pretty cool!
You may not be able to read this newspaper article, but it’s from 1994.
There’s no corrals for those monkeys yet. : )
It’s interesting how many things were filmed here!
Remember “The Creature from the Black Lagoon”? : )
It’s hard to tell because of the glare, but these three people are sitting underwater. That’s how clear it is!
Whoa! Interesting!
This is the redesigned facilities of Silver Springs, post 1955.
This is about the Florida “Crackers”.
Some examples of their equipment.
Interesting, but it doesn’t tell you how many trees they had to work to get a certain amount of turpentine.
I would’ve liked to know that.
Harvesting sap for turpentine.
Here’s some of their equipment.
This was an interesting picture. It’s the passengers on a steam ship posing for a picture.
Don’t have a year, but most likely in the late 1800’s.
Hey! Remember Jackson and the “Trail of Tears” and the Seminole Indian leader who was captured and held prisoner at Fort Moultrie? We visited Fort Moultrie last year where we heard about him for the first time.
I love it when things come together like this!
This was a great painting!
And we were told that the artist is the husband of one of the Park Volunteers.
It’s incredible!
This is it!
And it’s huge!
Home to more relaxation, attempting to get caught up on the blog and Blaine, the budding pastry chef, baked a chocolate cake.
Cravings, ya know?
But then, later in the afternoon, Blaine somehow gathered up a burst of energy and took off on his bike.
He was gone for over an hour. And I didn’t mind a bit.
He left me with the cake! 😊
And we got snow pictures from our youngest son! Looks like they had a marvelous time! More snow is on the way for Northeast Ohio!
