Way Down Upon the Suwannee River

Apparently, the Suwannee River was used in the song because it fit the lyrics though Stephen Foster never visited the river. They misspelled the name and dropped a syllable to make it fit better. The Suwannee River State Park has some great hiking trails. None are very long (the longest is less than a mile), but they have some interesting things to see.

Old Columbus Cemetery (Columbus was the town name) is supposed to be one of Florida’s oldest cemeteries but the earliest date I saw was 1865. I’ve definitely seen earlier than that in Pensacola. But the cemetery had several unidentified gravestones that look like someone decided to mark graves where the stones were missing so those stones may be from an earlier time. This grave was unusual with conch shells lined up on the ground. In researching this, it appears to be a Southern folk custom to use shells like conch shells on a gravesite. The reasons seem to be many; a reminder that we all come from the sea, a way to keep the spirit within the grave, or simply as decoration.

This is a paddle-wheel shaft from a 19^th century steamboat along with a part of a sawmill that was located here.

Earthworks built during the Civil War to protect a railroad bridge.

All the rocks in this area are limestone. The limestone looks like a sponge in many places. There are also a lot of cedars in the area so the water is dark from cedar tannins while the edges of the water is light from white limestone underneath.

One of the trails takes you to Balanced Rock. Unfortunately, the rock fell during storms this year so now it is listed as the site where Balanced Rock used to be. The signs said the fallen rock can be seen when the river was low, but the water is too high now. Here's a picture of the rock from the internet along with what it looks like now.

This waterfall is from a spring beside the river. The flow was very strong. Besides the waterfall, the sound of jumping sturgeon could be heard. These fish were big (2-4 feet) and jumped high. When I first heard one jump, I thought another big rock and fallen into the river. Loud!