By Starr Munro Riverbend News The Florida Folk Festival is an annual event that takes place at Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park, in White Springs. But this year was the…
Category: History
Ellaville: from boomtown to ghost town
By Starr Munro Riverbend News In the spirit of Halloween, here’s a ghost story for small towns everywhere along the Suwannee River’s banks to get spooked by. The history behind the birth…
The perilous cave exploration of Convict Springs
By Starr Munro Riverbend News On the South side of the Suwannee River, Northeast of Mayo in Lafayette County, lies Jim Hollis’s Suwannee River Rendezvous. Inside that resort/campground lies Convict Springs, a…
The Big Shoals of the past
By Starr Munro Riverbend News America has led the way for a lot of new ideas, but one pioneering action from this country was how ahead of the times it was when…
Florida pines and the old timber industry
By Cole Davis Riverbend News Hamilton and its surrounding counties have long been recognized for their natural beauty and this is in no small part due to the Florida pine. With that…
The duel that got Hamilton County’s namesake killed
By Cole Davis Riverbend News On a July morning in 1804, two giants of American political life walked out onto the field in Weehawken, N.J. to have a duel and only one…
Remembering Suwannee
The Steamboat “Madison” on the Suwannee The deep throated whistle of the paddle wheelers created the most vivid of the legends which surround the Suwannee River. For 75 years the steamboat was…
American architecture and the Old Hamilton County Jail
By Cole Davis Riverbend News Keeping with the theme of past articles about the historical buildings of our North Florida counties, this piece will go into the architectural significance of the Old…
Remembering Suwannee
J.D. Henry reflecting on Live Oak’s past – 1976 Susan Coleman Fennell Contributor Born in Chipman, Tenn., J.D. Henry came to Live Oak in 1908 when he was 14 years old. He…
Who were the Timucua?
By Cole Davis Riverbend News Most Floridians are aware of the fact that the Seminole may be the most well-known Indian tribe native to the state. FSU football and John Anderson music…
Remembering Suwannee
Richard Warren Sears: founder of Sears, Roebuck and Company Susan Coleman Fennell Contributor Few people realize that Richard W. Sears, founder of the Sears and Roebuck financial empire, played a significant role…
James Tucker and the wreck of the Madison
By Cole Davis Riverbend News It’s no secret that the Suwannee River has fostered plenty intriguing stories over its long history. For years, the tale of the piratical Lafitte Brothers of New…
Stephen Foster, the Suwannee River and the Erasure of Americana
By Cole Davis Riverbend News The tune is as popular as the river is travelled. Stephen Foster’s 1851 “Old Folks at Home” or “Suwannee River” (as it is more colloquially known today)…
What’s in a name? Lafayette County
By Cole Davis Riverbend News When one thinks of counties in North Florida that have to be pronounced correctly to be considered, a local one thinks of Lafayette County. In fact, the…