We woke to an overcast sky with rain in the forecast for the afternoon. One of the closer state parks to us is the Dudley Farm Historic State Park. I don’t know how many types of state parks Florida has, but so far we have been to: “Regular” (un-designated/default); Preserve; Buffer (Preserve); Wilderness (Preserve); Archeological; Geological; and Wildlife/preserve. This was our first Historic(al) park and I know they have Battlefield parks. I will not be surprised to find out there are other types as well, such as Marine or Bird Sanctuary.
Located in Newberry, Florida the Dudley Farm Historic SP is NW of Williston and due west of Gainesville. We also needed to do some shopping today, so a trip to the state park in the morning (before the rain started) followed by a swing through Gainesville was our plan for the day. We were on our way by 10 AM, taking US-27/41 NNW out of Williston through Archer to Newberry where we headed west on Newberry Road (FL-26) about a mile to the park entrance.
Although there was plenty of room to park, we were surprised by the number of cars in the parking lot. The park is not open on Monday’s and Tuesday’s, but the reason for the crowd became evident when we entered the visitor center. In addition to the normal park staff and volunteers there where at least six women in period clothing working on an old large quilt and another woman weaving at a small loom. Wednesday mornings is when this happens and it added a touch of “living history” to our visit. I have posted a separate photo gallery of our visit to the Farm.
There were a few buildings by the visitor center for display and demonstration, but the main farm was a quarter mile walk through the woods on a level path. The Dudley Farm was a thriving, successful family enterprise that began before the Civil War and continued until after WW II. The farmstead, consisting of 18 buildings, equipment, and furnishings, was donated to the State in the early 1980’s along with 23 acres of the 600+ acre farm. The State later acquired an additional 232 acres and more recently another 80 acres for the visitor center, entrance road and parking lot area. This is not a “recreated” farm; all the buildings are in their original locations except for the General Store, which was moved to the farmstead from its location near the main road.
We roamed the farmstead for over an hour looking at, and going in, buildings and taking photographs. We had the place to ourselves except for some birds, chickens, turkeys, and three mules. Although the farm was “rough” by modern standards, it was interesting to try to imagine this place as a “state of the art” operation full of generations of Dudley’s and farm hands engaged in the slow but steady work of farm and domestic life. The tendency is to romanticize and envision this place as somehow idyllic. It wasn’t. The farmhouse was certainly comfortable compared to being outside, and life was good (at least for the Dudley’s), but it was no doubt a hard life.
By the time we were done touring the farmstead the overcast had lowered almost to a ground cloud and it had started misting. Although we lacked bright sunlight, blue skies, and intense colors, the soft, even, subdued light was ideal for making lower contrast images and seemed somehow appropriate in mood to the empty, gray, weathered buildings of this now quiet farmstead, preserved so that we might glimpse a moment back in time.
If the Dudley Farm HSP was the past, Gainesville is definitely the here and now. As we got to I-75 on FL-26 we encountered heavy traffic. We had not been to this part of Gainesville yet, but now we know where the major shopping area is located! You name it, it’s here. Conveniently for us the Office Max, Michaels, Trader Joe’s, and PetSmart were all in the same mega shopping center (one of many). Trader Joe’s had a quite a selection of house brand wines for $2.99/bottle (750 mL) so we bought several. I hope they are to our liking, because I sure like the price. They did not, however, have a house brand moscato 🙁 A final stop at the Kangaroo filling station for fuel and we were on our way back to WCRVResort.
Linda made one of our favorite dishes for dinner; whole wheat capellini (angel hair) pasta with garlic, onions, mushrooms (two kinds), sun-dried tomatoes, and basil lightly sautéed in olive oil; simple, but absolutely delicious.