The Forgotten Coast refers to a relatively quiet, undeveloped section of coastline stretching from Mexico Beach on the Gulf of Mexico to St. Marks on the Apalachee Bay in Florida. The stretch includes: Port St. Joe, Cape San Blas, Apalachicola, Eastpoint, Carrabelle, Lanark Village, Alligator Point, Panacea, and Shell Point. We spent a week at the Coastline RV Resort in Eastpoint and explored Apalachicola, Eastpoint, Carrabelle and their barrier island, St. George Island. We also hiked in Tate’s Hell State Forest and Apalachicola National Forest. The region is home to excellent outdoor recreation opportunities, small towns, several lighthouses and historical sites. The region is known for its oyster and shrimp production.
Apalachicola or “Apalach” as it is known to locals, is a small town that was an important port hub in the cotton and timber industries. We grabbed the “Apalachicola Historic Walking Tour” guide at the visitor center and set out to tour the historic town. We learned that there used to be 50 identical three story warehouses built in the 1830’s which were used for the Port of Apalachicola, but as the port declined by the close of the 19th century, the buildings declined and most were lost to hurricanes, fires, and the lack of maintenance. Only 2 of the original buildings remain after being used as commission store, office space, saloon, and cannery storage. One of the buildings was purchased by the City of Apalachicola more than 60 years ago and has been used as a fire station, police station, jail, and City Hall.
City Hall is in one of the two remaining original 1830’s structures
The tour also includes the Dixie Theater built in 1912. There are other buildings that were originally a sponge exchange and a cotton warehouse. The Apalachicola Maritime Museum features displays on the rich history of the Gulf Coast and Apalachicola River System and offers tours and excursions in the region. The boom period of the 1830’s saw the Raney House, a Greek Revival Mansion built, which can be toured several days a week. Make sure to check out Market Street shops and restaurants. We found a great small used bookstore on Water Street. The St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge has its headquarters and visitor center near the intersection of Avenue F & 5th Street. St. Vincent is an island which can be toured via a boat shuttle.
Downtown Apalachicola
Shops and restaurants line Market street
We were too early to attend the Butts n Clucks BBQ contest, but we saw the trophies at the visitor center
Follow Market street to a T and look to the right for 479 Market Street, an elevated building that used to be the St. Vincent NWR visitor center before they moved to their current location, a fact that has not been updated on the historic walking tour guide. While looking for St. Vincent NWR, we serendipitously met Robin and Mike Vroegop who are in the process of renovating the now-shuttered Harbormaster House at Scipio Creek which will include a Heritage Center with revolving displays and views of the fishing harbor and estuary region. Their company, Florida Geotourism Associates offers kayak rentals and water-based tours, as well as workforce training and student education. They hope to have their new center up and running by March to April of 2018. Robin gave us a tour of their space and shared lots of information about the region. I am confident that their center will be worth a visit!
Site of the future heritage center at 479 Market Street, the old Harbor Master House
From the same T on Market Street, if you head left and watch for signs you will find a Nature Tour that heads out into the estuary. Part of the trail is on the old railroad bed made of scallops and part is a boardwalk. The trail is on the Great Florida Birding Trail. We spotted a pair of cardinals.
This section of nature trail is the old railroad bed
The railroad bed was made of scallop shells
The nature trail in Apalachicola
Along the nature trail
Eastpoint is just east of Apalachicola and is home to the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve (ANERR), located at 108 Island Drive. The ANERR Nature Center is open Tuesdays to Saturdays 9am-4pm and is worth the trip. It is free, offers two short boardwalk nature trails as well as indoor exhibits. Don’t miss the well done 12 minute film about the Apalachicola Estuary. The indoor exhibit hall was fantastic with 4 tanks representing the different segments of the ecosystem, wonderful murals, and an extensive shell and specimen collection.
The Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve has an excellent visitor center
Boardwalk on one of the ANERR nature trails
An Ornate Diamondback Terrapin in one of the tanks at the ANERR visitor center
Flounder camouflage well against the bottom of their habitat
Shells on exhibit at ANERR
Crooked River Lighthouse
Carrabelle is home to the Crooked River Lighthouse and a small museum. The lighthouse for this region was originally on the barrier island, Dog Island, but after the third one was destroyed less than three years after being built, the Coast Guard decided to move it to the mainland at the Crooked River location. The current lighthouse was built in 1895 and is a 103 foot iron and steel structure which was decommissioned in 1995. This is a nicely done local museum with great displays about the history of the lighthouse and its construction. The volunteer who gave us a guided tour was excellent.
Relics at the Crooked River Lighthouse
1897 Lighthouse Keeper’s Log
An old Sears and Roebuck Catalog in the Museum
St. George Island is a barrier island that is accessible by a 4 mile bridge over Apalachicola Bay. The island is 28 miles long and 1 mile wide at its widest point. When you arrive at the far side of the bridge, you are greeted by the Cape St. George Lighthouse, which is the fourth reconstruction of the historic lighthouse that was originally built on Little St. George Island in 1833. When the first lighthouse was damaged it was dismantled and reconstructed at Cape St. George in 1848. The second version was destroyed in a 1851 hurricane. Despite moving the 1852 third version further inland, in 2005 the third lighthouse collapsed due to beach erosion. Volunteers salvaged more than 22,000 original bricks from the lighthouse rubble and with extensive community support and public and private funding, rebuilt and opened the current lighthouse to the public in 2008. A replica Lighthouse Keeper’s House houses a museum and gift shop.
The St. George Island Lighthouse
St. George Island is also home to the Dr. Julian G. Bruce St George Island State Park which occupies the eastern nine miles of the island. There is a campground with electric and water hook-ups. The park offers opportunities for swimming, fishing, kayaking/canoeing and has a series of hiking trails, boardwalks and observation platforms. Bird watching is a popular activity. We spent an afternoon walking on the beach of this state park. There are numerous wood pilings in a section of the beach which are the remnants of the WWII D-Day Landing Training Site. The island was also used as a practice range for B-24 bombers from nearby Apalachicola.
We first hiked along the St. George Sound in an eastern portion of the state park
The state park’s Gulf of Mexico beach was a WW II landing site training location. Remains of pilings are spotted along that section
Crab we spotted on the sound beach
Starfish found along the beach on St. George Island
We also spotted the small horseshoe crab shells
Sand dunes on St. George Island
Hiking the Forgotten Coast: Between Eastpoint and Carrabelle are access roads to Tate’s Hell State Forest. We hiked the east and west loop trails and checked out the Dwarf Cypress Boardwalk. Head north on Highway 65 just before Eastpoint for access to the Apalachicola National Forest. We also hiked the loop at the Wright Lake Recreation Area which was about 5 miles long. There is a day use parking area with picnic tables just outside of the Wright Lake National Forest campground, which had sites that could accommodate large class A motorhomes. We enjoyed our hike which went through an area that had the under story burned in the last several years as well as through sections with dense brush. The trail travels past the Apalachicola River, cypress and pine trees, swampy areas and forest areas. This was a reasonably maintained trail which was well marked with bright blue blazes painted on trees. There was a long log crossing which had a guide wire hand rail.
This area had a fire in the last several years as evidenced by the small brush and burnt pine tree trunks
Another section of the Loop trail at Wright Lake with more mature brush
View of the Apalachicola River from the trail
The crossing log was quite long but had a flat top and hand rail
Also in Apalachicola National Forest, we stopped at the Fort Gadsden site, which had two successive forts. The first fort was built during the War of 1812 by the British and was the site of the tragic massacre of more than 300 African-Americans who held the fort under the British flag in 1816. During that skirmish, one of the early shots from a US Navy ship’s guns landed on a ammunition shed inside the fort, resulting in a massive explosion which left only 33 survivors to tell the tale. In 1818, Lt. James Gadsden oversaw construction of a new fort on the site as a US fort in the heart of Spanish territory, under the auspices of Major General Andrew Jackson. This fort, Fort Gadsden, remained in use until 1821, when Florida became a US Territory.
Fort Gadsden earthworks outline the fort
A model replica of Fort Gadsden can be viewed through small windows
Relics from Fort Gadsden
Other sites we did not have time to visit include the two other lighthouses along the Forgotten Coast, the Cape San Blas and St. Marks Lightouses, and Carrabelle’s Camp Gordon Johnston Museum which was a WWII amphibious training camp. We also did not have time to travel to St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge or St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge. We loved this region and will definitely return for future visits. This area has many outdoor recreational opportunities. The Lower Apalachicola River Corridor “Road Map to Recreation” is an excellent guide and can be picked up at the Aoalachicola visitor center.
