A Dangerous Journey of Discovery

Modern science looks to the stars, and Florida has served as America's launching pad to the moon.  But almost two hundred years before mankind took to space, Florida was still largely an 'undiscovered country' to European explorers and American settlers.  One early scientific expedition left a vivid impression of a natural wonder in North Florida.  It was a daring  and dangerous mission, and its success reminds modern observers of the critical changes that have occurred in the fragile environment of Wakulla Springs.


Francis de La Port, Comte de Castlenau, was the first true scientist to investigate the Wakulla River and the great Wakulla Spring.  A naturalist and international traveller in the Enlightenment tradition, Castlenau toured North America from 1837 to 1841.  His explorations in Florida lasted from November 15, 1837 to March 15, 1838.  Any scientist would have been fascinated by Florida, which was still in its territorial stage.  Most of the land was unsettled by people of European extraction, and exotic wildlife was plentiful.  Castlenau's companion on this adventure was Joseph Delafield, president of the Natural History Lyceum of New York.  Delafield was also an agent of the Apalachicola Land Company, which owned the region, and thus possessed both scientific and monetary motivations for the journey.  The pair was able to muster twenty well-armed men and two boats for their trip to the source of the Wakulla River on February 18, 1838.  The guards were necessary, as Florida had become a dangerous region due to the outbreak of the second Seminole War.

The Wakulla River
State Archives of Florida

The expedition made its way up the Wakulla River, with Castlenau carefully noting the heavy growth of trees.  The banks on either side were lined with live oaks, cedars, gums, cypress, and giant magnolias.  Castlenau spotted a wide variety of birds, including cranes and ducks, and was wary of the fifteen-foot alligators.  Travel upstream was slowed by thick islands of trees, tangles of fallen logs, and the swift current.  Upon reaching the spring, Castlenau took a series of measurements and concluded that the spring was 300 feet wide and 76 feet deep, though his companions argued that it was closer to 100 feet deep in places.  The bottom of the spring was clearly visible.  Castlenau conducted a taste test and declared the water to be pure and refreshing.

Tiger Tail
State Archives of Florida

Following a busy day of research, the team camped along the river.  Someone noted a mark on a tree.  It was the symbol of Tiger Tail, a local Seminole warrior, which must have made the men uneasy.  Throughout the night their sleep was interrupted by the cries of panthers.  In the morning, one of the crew woke to an alarming predicament---a rattlesnake coiled on his bedroll.  The reptile intruder was quickly dispatched, and the expedition returned via the river to St. Marks.

Castlenau published his findings in articles in French scientific magazines in 1839 and 1842.  Since his Wakulla trip, he had learned of an attack on planters not far from the spring.  He opined that Wakulla would be an excellent site for further investigations, once the scientist could work without the fear of a Seminole emerging from the forest to take his scalp.

Castlenau's journey provided scholars with a view of a territory that must have seemed as alien to them as the landscape of Mars would seem to us.  It also reminds us of a natural world that is endangered.  Today, visitors cannot see the bottom of the Wakulla Spring, and few would be willing to gulp down its tea-colored water.  Scientists now must study ways to clean the spring and to prevent further damage to the environment.  Castlenau had to worry about hostilities between native tribesmen and American settlers.  Today, the greatest threat to Wakulla comes from ignorance of science, denial of the dangers of over-development, and lack of concern for Florida's precious natural resources.





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To learn more about Wakulla Springs and The Friends of Wakulla Springs, a group of people who work to preserve Wakulla Springs, see their website at: http://wakullasprings.org/






For more about the early scientific expeditions to Wakulla Springs, see my book Watery Eden: A History of Wakulla Springs (Tallahassee: Sentry Press, 2002).  I am happy to announce that an updated, revised, and renamed book on Wakulla Springs is currently in development with Sentry Press and the Friends of Wakulla Springs, and will be available later this year.