Ancient River Crossings

If I ever offer a series of tours titled, “The River Fords of North Florida,” Prairie Creek and Steinhatchee River will be the featured waterways.

Funny thing about streams; when they happen to run in the same direction we are headed, we are eternally grateful for them. We build some sort of floaty contrivance (a technical industry term) load ourselves and our stuff onto it, and then let the water do the work. But if we are travelling by land and our path arrives at that same river, it is now our greatest foe. 

For the early natives of our area, Prairie Creek likely served as a convenient artery for moving themselves and their goods between Newnan’s Lake and Paynes Prairie.  During wet periods they could have paddled onto and across the prairie (lake) basin. But when it became too dry for boating yet too soggy for walking, travelers had to walk the high ground around the basin. On the east side, this would have meant and unavoidable crossing of Prairie Creek. 

If you've paddled this beautiful run, you know its flanked by broad swamps for most of its length. This made good crossing sites scarce. One site with low banks, slow flow and shallow water fit the bill better than others. It was there that the vast majority of people traveling around Paynes Prairie likely crossed Prairie Creek for thousands of years.

As with most old crossings, Prairie Creek Ford and the trail leading up to it are now overgrown and barely perceptible. But for the paddler with an old map and a keen eye (or, at least a keen guide) the ancient cut, carved by a parade of boots, hooves and squeaking wooden wheels, is still visible on the river bank.

The story was the same for early travelers along the Gulf Coast. While many coastal streams were short enough to bypass around their heads, longer ones had to be crossed. As in other environments, these fords relied on shallow water. But they had another issue—tides.   Coastal waterways rise and fall with the tides—sometimes many miles upstream. So, it was critical that any ford of a coastal stream be above the highest reach of the tide (called the “tidewater”). Driving Hwy 19/98 through the Big Bend and Gulf Hammock areas serves as a good case study. This route carries you past the head of shorter streams and along the tidewater of the longer ones.

On Steinhatchee River, the best fording conditions are found a short distance above Steinhatchee Falls. Here, a hard, level plateau of limestone (the same one that forms the cap of the falls) provided solid footing for people and, later, horses and wagons. The Falls themselves are the tidewater in normal conditions.

Now, imagine you are an archaeologist looking for artifacts of earlier cultures. What better place to look than a place where you know people not only congregated as they prepared to cross, but also spent time. If you've ever hiked in Florida, you know how hard it is to pull yourself away from any place that offers a cool swim and a re-fill of the water jugs. 

Historians are grateful for fords as well. Early explorers (and many later explorers as well) apparently hated keeping log books and chronicling their routes in journals. They often mentioned only the most striking landmarks. So, for the historian sleuthing the records in an attempt to retrace an explorers route, mention of river crossings can be invaluable. Students of Florida's First Seminole War are especially fond of the Steinhatchee ford because it was here that Andrew Jackson's Army camped before pushing on toward the Suwannee and an eventual attack on the Seminoles living there.

We know the exact location of this camp because it was described as being alongside their crossing of Steinhatchee. In a time when the Florida frontier was still largely a mystery, the Steinhatchee crossing offers a rare opportunity to scribble an "X" on our maps of Jackson's invasion.

So, if all this talk of crossing and bypassing rivers has subliminally made you actually want to get ON a river rather than bypass it (if I was an evil genius, that’s the kind of mischief I would enjoy!); or if you, like me, enjoy the sense of connection to the past that comes from visiting a place where countless Indians, settlers and soldiers stood and scratched their heads as they pondered the river; or even  if you’d simply like to paddle a beautiful waterway with as little jabbering about fords as possible, I think you’ll find everything your adventurous heart desires on this Saturdays, (8/23) Prairie Creek excursion. If that trip isn’t to your taste (maybe you prefer more open water with less chance of pull-overs)  or if you find you a have a sudden and inexplicable urge to experience the excitement of a tidewater, we’ll be doing Steinhatchee River on Sunday (8/24).