Little Talbot Island State Park

7 March 2013

Great Husband wondered whether we’d need a ferry to get to Little Talbot Island State Park, north of Jacksonville. As it turned out, highway A1A brought us here without complication. This is another gem in the Florida State Park system! As we pulled into the campground, we couldn’t help but ooh and ahh over the Spanish moss and yucca. Without any experts to ask, we’ve decided this yucca might be the variety called “Spanish bayonet.” We can’t let such a good name go to waste.

Little Talbot State Park has its own five miles of beach on the Atlantic, where I enjoyed collecting even more ocean treasure (shells). It is something I’ve always wanted to do since I was a kid. We watched the pelicans diving from great heights for fish dinners, and I briefly caught sight of a dolphin in the distant water. We’re still wearing winter coats to the beach, but we are thankful that the chilly weather means we’re nearly alone out there. Today we heard the local seasons described not as Spring, Summer, etc., but as “the mosquito season, the no-see-em season, the red bug season, and the cold season.” We keep saying it is worth it to be here in the cold season to avoid the bug pests and have the beaches to ourselves.

The highlight of today was seeing Kingsley Plantation, part of the Timucuan Preserve, run by the National Park Service. What a fascinating place! The plantation owner’s house and the slave quarters are still in existence. The most famous of the property owners here was Zephaniah Kingsley, who bought a 13-year-old slave girl from Senegal and made her one of his three “wives.” She went on to become a plantation owner herself and owned her own slaves! And that is just scratching the surface of this amazing story, including the changing face of slavery as Florida moved from Spanish control to become part of the United States.

We learn so much from the interpretive talks given by National Park Service rangers. Here is one example from today which tied together discussion of the plantation crops with the horrific impact on the slaves. Besides raising “sea island cotton”, which is a tall plant that produces long-fibered cotton, plantations in this area also produced indigo dye to sell to Europe. By nature, indigo plants have a putrid smell, but they were combined with stale human urine to make an even worse brew. Because of the noxious work, slaves who made the indigo dyes typically died within seven years.

At low tide this morning we drove to The Bluffs of Big Talbot Island and then
 walked to the Boneyard Beach to see “the silvered skeletons” of fallen trees
 weathering in the sand. 

Kingsley Plantation
Slave quarters are in an arc of 25 buildings, all made of “tabby” which is concrete and seashells.

Kingsley Plantation

Kingsley Plantation
The plantation house and its separate kitchen (kitchen on the left)

Kingsley Plantation
Each slave house was two small rooms, one with a brick fireplace and chimney.
This picture shows the tabby construction.

Spanish moss and “Spanish bayonet”
 in our campsite

Salt marsh seen from our campground