Monday, June 20, 2011

Florida through Bartram's Eyes

While drafting my plan for my first paper my mind began to wander and I found myself wondering, "What exactly did Florida look like when Bartram was here exploring?"

I discovered this picture on the Manatee Springs State park website:



The website claims that Manatee Springs looks much like it did when Bartram traveled through the area:

"When naturalist William Bartram visited Manatee Springs in the late 1700s, he said the place was astonishing [ . . .] Two centuries later, much of that beauty remains. 'Two hundred years is not very long for nature' said Bill Maphis, who was the park manager. 'The same basic features are here, with the exception of the concrete to provide the visitor access to the water.'"

Here is the link to the website if anyone wants to visit: http://floridatraveler.com/manatee-springs-state-park/
Posted by Blake at 3:15 PM
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1 comment:

  1. Jay Jay StroupJune 21, 2011 at 2:53 PM

    Blake,

    This post reminds me of the conversation we had about the creation of parks and nature preserves, especially how Henri Lefebvre would disapprove because it artificially separated nature from natural space/time (or something like that). I think we ended up agreeing that while the motivations of Theodore Roosevelt for creating/adding to the national park system were not so great, thank goodness it happened when it did. Otherwise, those national parks would have been eradicated, built upon, bulldozed over to make way for tourist traps and shopping malls.

    Also, I found the Florida State Park website for Manatee Springs State Park: http://floridastateparks.org/manateesprings/default.cfm

    -Jay Jay

    PS: The picture makes the park look so peaceful and inviting!

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