Still Gravity

Jonathan Dickinson State Park seen from the tower and old dead tree -  License our images here .          Jonathan Dickinson State Park This is a huge state park in Southeast Florida that is said to has the highest elevation south of Lake Okeechobee . Two campgrounds and plenty of trails here, including one for mountain bikes. There are canoe and kayak rentals by the river. Also tours to the home of  Trapper Nelson , the   "Tarzan of Loxahatchee".  The highest point is at the Hobe Mountain Tower. Nearby was  Camp Murphy , a radar training military school from WW2. The state park is named after Jonathan Dickinson , a Jamaican that shipwrecked here in 1696. He wrote a journal about his ordeal seen as one of the best in the genre of captivity narrative. The diary is hard to read. Get the idea from his description of the arrival to the coast after the shipwreck: I went, with one Negyo, to view the Land, and fee

During our last visit to Chekika ( map ), we found closed roads and dilapidated buildings. This was our fourth time here. Little by little, nature is coming back. Wilderness taking over what was always its property.           The closed entrance to the Grossman Hammock -  License our images here .  Everglades National Park closed indefinitely the Chekika Day Use Area in 2013. They claimed budget constraints. One year later, Chekika was on the news when a juvenile Nile crocodile was removed from the area - the animal was captured in a canal north from the Grossman Hammock. Two others were caught in 2009 and 2012 further to the east. You know the script with invasive species: they escaped or someone released them.  The Everglades already have the mighty Pythons running wild. I don’t want to imagine the River of Grass ruled by “man-eaters” crocodiles that can reach up to 17 feet. That would be madness. 

Remains of the SUMICA sawmill -  License our images here .     Visiting ghost towns reminds us that security is just an illusion. This time was a ghost town hidden in a wilderness area of Florida and not open to the public. You need permission to go to this place that was known as SUMICA - in capital letters.  The acronym meant Societe Universelle Mining Industrie, Commerce et Agriculture . That was the name of the French company that owned timber rights here in the early 20th century.  SUMICA was one of the typical sawmill towns of old Florida. These were nomadic communities that moved from place-to-place following forests to be exploited - no more trees meant no more town.  SUMICA died in the 1920s. Not much survives from the town. The foundations of the sawmill and the bed of the old railway are the biggest items. We also saw remains of other buildings scattered around.  Will pigs love the s