Bagdad in Santa Rosa County, Florida — The American South (South Atlantic)
Bagdad Lumber Mill / Shipbuilding at Bagdad
Photographed By Mark Hilton, November 17, 2016
1. Bagdad Lumber Mill Marker
Inscription.
Bagdad Lumber Mill, also, Shipbuilding at Bagdad. .
Bagdad Lumber Mill. In 1829, Joseph Forsyth saw economic potential in the vast pine forest of North Florida. Old growth yellow pine was one of the world's most prized building materials and the deepwater juncture of Pond Creek and the Blackwater River was an open door to the world market. By the early 1830s, Forsyth and his partner Ezekiel Simpson produced 250,000 feet of lumber yearly at Arcadia Mill on Pond Creek. The lumber was moved by flatboat down to the Blackwater River, loaded on larger vessels and shipped to buyers. In 1835 the Florida territorial legislature granted a charter to the Arcadia partners for Florida's third railroad, The Pond Creek and Blackwater River Canal Company. The railway used mule-drawn carts on iron-covered wood rails to transport lumber from Arcadia to the Bagdad Mill here. A steam-powered sawmill installed at Bagdad in the early 1840s expanded production. Eventually Bagdad's shipping market reached beyond the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean to North and South Atlantic ports and to Western European, Mediterranean, and Scandinavian countries. When the mill closed in 1939, trade journals recalled the Bagdad Mill as home to one of the most successful lumber organizations in the Western Hemisphere.
A Florida Heritage Site.
Shipbuilding at Bagdad. The deepwater channel and abundant forests along the Blackwater River made this area ideal for building wooden ships. During the Revolutionary War, Welsh brothers Jonas and Evan Jones repaired British warships in the vicinity. A shipyard was established near Bagdad by Captain John Gardner in 1833. William Ollinger and Martin Bruce built a repair facility and marine railway at Bagdad's Shipyard Point in 1858, which operated for 60 years. In 1861 Confederate President Jefferson Davis awarded a contract to Ollinger and Bruce for construction of a 110-foot gunboat for the coast and river defense of Florida. On March 11, 1862 facing Union invasion and racing to demolish anything of use to the federal troops, Confederate forces set fire to industrial facilities in Santa Rosa County, destroying the shipyard, the completed gunboat and lumber mills at Bagdad. The shipwrights saved their pine-built 500-ton floating dry dock by sinking it in the river. After the war, the dry dock was lifted, used for decades, and then resubmerged. Later it was raised again and found to be in remarkably good condition whereupon it was towed to Pensacola and used continuously and successfully for many years.
A Florida Heritage Site.
Bagdad Lumber Mill
In 1829, Joseph Forsyth saw economic potential in the vast pine forest of North Florida. Old growth yellow pine was one of the world's most prized building materials and the deepwater juncture of Pond Creek and the Blackwater River was an open door to the world market. By the early 1830s, Forsyth and his partner Ezekiel Simpson produced 250,000 feet of lumber yearly at Arcadia Mill on Pond Creek. The lumber was moved by flatboat down to the Blackwater River, loaded on larger vessels and shipped to buyers. In 1835 the Florida territorial legislature granted a charter to the Arcadia partners for Florida's third railroad, The Pond Creek and Blackwater River Canal Company. The railway used mule-drawn carts on iron-covered wood rails to transport lumber from Arcadia to the Bagdad Mill here. A steam-powered sawmill installed at Bagdad in the early 1840s expanded production. Eventually Bagdad's shipping market reached beyond the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean to North and South Atlantic
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ports and to Western European, Mediterranean, and Scandinavian countries. When the mill closed in 1939, trade journals recalled the Bagdad Mill as home to one of the most successful lumber organizations in the Western Hemisphere.
A Florida Heritage Site
Shipbuilding at Bagdad
The deepwater channel and abundant forests along the Blackwater River
made this area ideal for building wooden ships. During the Revolutionary
War, Welsh brothers Jonas and Evan Jones repaired British warships in the vicinity. A shipyard was established near Bagdad by Captain John
Gardner in 1833. William Ollinger and Martin Bruce built a repair facility and marine railway at Bagdad's Shipyard Point in 1858, which operated for 60 years. In 1861 Confederate President Jefferson Davis awarded a contract to Ollinger & Bruce for construction of a 110-foot gunboat for the coast and river defense of Florida. On March 11, 1862 facing Union invasion and racing to demolish anything of use to the federal troops,
Confederate forces
Photographed By Mark Hilton, November 17, 2016
2. Shipbuilding at Bagdad Marker
set fire to industrial facilities in Santa Rosa County, destroying the shipyard, the completed gunboat and lumber mills at Bagdad. The shipwrights saved their pine-built 500-ton floating dry dock by sinking it in the river. After the war, the dry dock was lifted, used for decades, and then resubmerged. Later it was raised again and found to be in remarkably good condition whereupon it was towed to Pensacola and used continuously and successfully for many years.
A Florida Heritage Site
Erected 2015 by Bagdad Waterfronts Florida Partnership, Blackwater Pyrates, Florida Public Archeology Network and the Florida Department of State. (Marker Number F-882.)
Location. 30° 36.319′ N, 87° 1.882′ W. Marker is in Bagdad, Florida, in Santa Rosa County. Marker can be reached
Photographed By Mark Hilton, November 17, 2016
3. Bagdad Lumber Mill Site in background.
Another marker, located in same park, about the Mill.
from Main Street, 0.1 miles east of Forsyth Street. Located within the Bagdad Mill Site Park. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 6953 Main Street, Bagdad FL 32530, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regarding Bagdad Lumber Mill / Shipbuilding at Bagdad. Where did Bagdad get its name?
Bagdad conjures images of the ancient Persian city between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, but today the spelling is different (Bagdad vs. Baghdad). Legend holds that two different men
Photographed By Mark Hilton, November 17, 2016
4. Blackwater River area of former shipbuilding.
named the village. The first story credits Joseph Forsyth. The second, makes a nod to Benjamin Overman, a millwright from North Carolina who joined the Forsyth and Simpson Company. Regardless of who first proposed the idea, there is no dispute that the village was named after the famous city in the Mesopotamian Valley that is now part of Iraq. The founders of the village of Bagdad hoped that this new town, at the confluence of the Blackwater River and Pond Creek, would enjoy the same advantages of its ancient sister city.
Photographed By Mark Hilton, November 17, 2016
5. A different nearby "Shipbuilding in Bagdad" Marker located in same park.
Photographed By Mark Hilton, November 17, 2016
6. Stone at foot of marker from sponsor Blackwater Pyrates.
Credits. This page was last revised on December 8, 2016. It was originally submitted on November 17, 2016, by Mark Hilton of Montgomery, Alabama. This page has been viewed 678 times since then and 40 times this year. Photos:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. submitted on November 17, 2016, by Mark Hilton of Montgomery, Alabama.
