Forest Capital Museum State Park and Cracker Homestead
September 6th, 2008
If you really want to take a trip back to the past then this is where you want to go. We stopped in and ate lunch at one of the 3 ( all i recall? ) pavilions that are located at the park. 
The pavilions are kept clean and are well maintained from what we could see and it was a nice and peaceful as well. There’s also a playground for kids at the park so if your little ones are a bit restless you can always let them go run around and play for a little bit before the ride home. After that we headed up to the museum which was really nice and the park ranger (unfortunately we didn’t get her name though i wish we would have) was very informative and shared her enthusiasm about the park with us. It was nice to see someone who really cared about what they were doing and who would go out of their way to help visitors experience the park in a positive way.
The museum is gorgeous and loaded with Florida’s history. A trip around the museum at the price of $1 per person will teach you and your little ones how people used to live off of the land in Florida back in the mid-1800′s and into the beginning of the 20th century. The museum is dedicated to Florida’s forests and shows how beautiful and productive they are now and have been in the past. Austin really learned a lot about how life used to be in Florida at the turn of the 20th century and how they used the forests to survive. “it’s really pretty cool”, he said.
Aside from the museum there is also a “Cracker” Homestead that was built in 1864 and donated to the park by Senator Pete Gibson’s family in 1972. The yard has no grass and is swept clean to help reduce the risk of fires which were a common occurrence in the pine woods of Florida. The house itself is a “breezeway” or “dogtrot” design which was a distinctive architectural style in Florida during that time period.
The park itself isn’t that big in size but we would definitely recommend it to anyone who has kids or just wants to check out a little bit of Florida’s forests and thier history.
For more photos from Forest Capital Museum State Park and Cracker Homestead, please visit the Forest Capital Museum State Park and Cracker Homestead Photo Gallery
I recently came accross your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog.
Tim Ramsey
Comment by Tim Ramsey — September 6, 2008 @ 10:47 am
Hey Tim!
Glad to see that people enjoy reading about our adventures. When we started this it was an idea that was scratched onto a piece of paper and ever since it has become a passion of ours to share our travels with readers such as yourself. Thank you for the comment and check back soon!
Travis Ballard
Comment by admin — September 18, 2008 @ 9:11 am