Near Taylor Creek Road, 3 miles south of East Colonial Drive (Florida Route 50), on the left when traveling south.
On June 19, 1943 a routine training flight took the lives of seven WWII airmen who crashed here in what is now Tosohatchee Wildlife Management Area.
Their flight departed from Sanford Naval Air Station, once filled with metal hangars containing . . . — — Map (db m212134) HM
Near North Fort Christmas Road, 0.1 miles north of Christmas Cemetery Road, on the left when traveling north.
The cracker name for a group of trees is head. Bees filled the hollows of the live oak trees with honey. The area where the ranch house was located was noted for its numerous honey trees, resulting in the house being named, The Beehead Ranch House. . . . — — Map (db m208468) HM
Near North Fort Christmas Road, 0.1 miles north of Christmas Cemetery Road, on the left when traveling north.
The blockhouses served as lookouts, headquarters of General Thomas S Jesup, and protection of the troops in the event of an Indian attack. Two blockhouses were constructed on opposite corners of the stockade twenty (20) feet square with four (4) . . . — — Map (db m208578) WM
Near North Fort Christmas Road, 0.1 miles north of Christmas Cemetery Rd, on the left when traveling north.
The blockhouses served as lookouts, headquarters of General Thomas S. Jesup and protection of the troops in the event of an Indian attack. Two blockhouses were constructed on opposite corners of the stockade, twenty feet square with four feet . . . — — Map (db m208610) HM
Near North Fort Christmas Road (County Road 420) 1.8 miles north of East Colonial Road (State Road 50), on the left when traveling north.
Ephriam Legrand Brown built this house in 1900. Mr. Brown was born in Americus, Georgia in 1859 and came to Florida at the age of sixteen. He worked as a surveyor. In 1882 he married Julia Roberts of the Roberts Plantation on Lake Mills. He . . . — — Map (db m108107) HM
Near North Fort Christmas Road, 0.1 miles north of Christmas Cemetery Road, on the left when traveling north.
Every farmer had a patch of sugarcane that provided syrup and brown sugar. The patch was cultivated in low areas, getting sweet in late October. It was cut and hauled by wagon to the mill where it was stripped and topped.
To grind sugarcane, a . . . — — Map (db m208446) HM
Near North Fort Christmas Road, 0.1 miles north of Christmas Cemetery Road, on the left when traveling north.
To grind cane, a mule was hitched to the long shaft that turned the rollers as the mule walked around. The cane was fed through the rollers and the juice from the pressed stalks was collected in a barrel. Virtually every farmer had a patch of . . . — — Map (db m208447) HM
Near North Fort Christmas Road, 0.1 miles north of Christmas Cemetery Road, on the left when traveling north.
As European immigrants and settlers came to America, many came with chickens in tow. Some were raised on farms and in towns sharing living space with the farmer in their house or outbuildings, free to roam the fields foraging for food and even . . . — — Map (db m208483) HM
Near North Fort Christmas Road, 0.1 miles Christmas Cemetery Road, on the left.
The post office was an important meeting place for
the community of Christmas. This is the eighth structure to house the post office. The first post offices were in people's homes and then as part of a general store. This is the first building that . . . — — Map (db m208598) HM
Near North Fort Christmas Road, 0.1 miles north of Christmas Cemetery Road, on the left when traveling north.
Cotton was grown by American Indians in the early 1500's, documented from sightings by the Coronado expedition 1540-1542. The Spaniards raised a cotton crop in Florida in 1556.
Pioneers had to make all the thread they required for their . . . — — Map (db m208586) HM
Near North Fort Christmas Road, 0.1 miles north of Christmas Cemetery Rd, on the left when traveling north.
This 19 foot canoe was found in the area of Tampa Bay in 1980. It was believed to have been a seafaring canoe of 50 to 100 years in age at that time. It is unlikely of Seminole or Miccosukee construction, but may be from the islands, Central America . . . — — Map (db m208530) HM
Near North Fort Christmas Road, 0.1 miles Christmas Cemetery Road, on the left when traveling north.
Almost every family in the late 1800s and early 1900s had a garden. It was their main source of food. The climate of Florida allowed them to have a spring and fall garden. Food was grown year round with plants being replaced when their productive . . . — — Map (db m208540) HM
Near North Fort Christmas Road, 0.1 miles north of Christmas Cemetery Road, on the left when traveling north.
Sugarcane is a crop that can be grown throughout Florida. In most areas of the state it is grown only as a hobby crop for syrup production or as a source of "chewing cane".
In south Florida, along the shores of Lake Okeechobee, sugarcane is . . . — — Map (db m208448) HM
Near North Fort Christmas Road (State Road 420) 1.8 miles north of East Colonial Drive (State Road 50).
As white settlers moved into Florida in the 1820's and 1830's, there were growing demands that the Seminole Indians be removed to a reservation west of the Mississippi. Efforts to convince the Seminoles to move failed, and in 1835 the conflict known . . . — — Map (db m54086) HM
Near North Fort Christmas Road, 0.1 miles north of Christmas Cemetery Road, on the left when traveling north.
This pavilion was built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), during the depression era of the 1930s. It has been renovated and preserved at the request of the local Christmas community for its service and for the memorable times it . . . — — Map (db m208077) HM
Near North Fort Christmas Road, 0.1 miles north of Christmas Cemetery Road, on the left when traveling north.
The Union School was established in 1906. Originally a large, one-room school, it was named “Union" School because it united several small, family operated schools in the Fort Christmas area into a central location.
In the 1920s the school was . . . — — Map (db m208399) HM
Near North Fort Christmas Road, 0.1 miles north of Christmas Cemetery Road, on the left when traveling north.
Dixie Partin (1893-1977) was the youngest son of Hugh Gilmore Partin, Jr and Margaret Hull. He married Emma Gill (1900-1987) and had three daughters, Louise, Marcile and Naomi. He purchased land near his father's homestead (Sun Flower Trail) where . . . — — Map (db m208451) HM
Near North Fort Christmas Road, 0.1 miles north of Christmas Cemetery Road, on the left when traveling north.
The powder magazine was used for storing ammunition and was below ground level for safety. Should the powder explode the energy from the blast would be sent mostly upward into the air, not outward destroying the Fort and causing injury to the . . . — — Map (db m208603) HM
George Washington Simmons and Ann McDougald Simmons were married at Silver Springs in 1856. They soon moved to the Orlando area where they lived near Curry’s Ford for a number of years. Then in 1873 they settled at Taylor Creek near Fort Christmas . . . — — Map (db m108044) HM
Near North Fort Christmas Road, 0.1 miles north of Christmas Cemetery Road, on the left when traveling north.
Thomas Jefferson Woods, born in 1896, was the son of Francis Jackson Woods and Emma Matilda Savage. In 1927 he and his wife, Katie, were living in a palmetto-thatched lean-to, struggling to complete the house in time for the birth of their first . . . — — Map (db m208479) HM
Near North Fort Christmas Road, 0.1 miles north of Christmas Cemetery Rd, on the left when traveling north.
The storehouse was used for storing army rations and supplies. Food staples consisted of salt pork, dried beef, corn, beans, rice and coffee, plus such condiments as salt, brown sugar, vinegar and molasses. Equipment and supplies for an army, such . . . — — Map (db m208607) WM
Near North Fort Christmas Road (County Route 420) 0.1 miles north of Christmas Cemetery Road, on the left when traveling north.
During the Second Seminole War General Eustis, U.S. Army, under the command of General Thomas S. Jesup, moved a column south from Fort Mellon (Sanford, Florida) on the 17th of December 1837. The column consisted of the 3rd Regiment of Artillery, 4 . . . — — Map (db m208532) HM
On North Fort Christmas Road, 0.1 miles north of Christmas Cemetery Road.
This is an example of a tree that has been prepared for turpentining. You will notice trees with this type of distinctive scaring all around the park. To prepare a tree for turpentining part of the bark on the tree trunk was first removed. Next, a . . . — — Map (db m214832) HM
Near North Fort Christmas Road, 0.1 miles north of Christmas Cemetery Road, on the left when traveling north.
The Union School was established in 1906. Originally a large, one-room school, it was named “Union" School because it united several small, family operated schools in the Fort Christmas area into a central location.
In the 1920s the school was . . . — — Map (db m208396) HM
Near North Fort Christmas Road, 0.1 miles north of Christmas Cemetery Road, on the left when traveling north.
Built by Jim Wheeler in the early 1900s, this small house began as a barn. It was converted to a home shortly after its completion. Early rural homes did not have glass windows. Board shutters were opened to allow entry of light and air circulation. . . . — — Map (db m208452) HM
Near North Fort Christmas Road, 0.1 miles north of Christmas Cemetery Road, on the left when traveling north.
Thomas Jefferson Woods, born in 1896, was the son of Francis Jackson Woods and Emma Matilda Savage. In 1927 he and his wife, Katie, were living in a palmetto-thatched lean-to, struggling to complete the house in time for the birth of their first . . . — — Map (db m208469) HM
Near North Fort Christmas Road (County Road 420) 1.8 miles north of East Colonial Drive (State Road 50), on the left when traveling north.
John Burl (Bud) Yates III, born in 1875, and Polly Canada, born in 1874, lived on the John Burl Yates’ homestead, located on Taylor Creek when they first were married. They converted an old shed into living quarters and prepared meals on a 'cook . . . — — Map (db m108093) HM
