HIGH SPRINGS – Fiddles finesse. Banjos bedazzle. Together they rush the country tune forward like a barrel tumbling in a fast current towards a waterfall. Happy dancers, laughing and smiling, twirl around the floor. Feet stomp on the old wood floor. A caller calls the circles and squares. All this energy seeps through the log walls of the Recreation Hall then out into the twilight along the banks of the Santa Fe River.
For a few hours it is as though the old town of Leno comes alive for a community happening only now the tiny town, long vanished since the early 1900s, is part of a state park. O’Leno State Park has been around since the 1930s The musicians and dancers are visitors for a special event. They don’t live on the grounds but come for a short and exhilarating visit.
A town, perhaps first called Keno after a game of chance then later Leno started here in the 1860s. It was the end of the line for the first telegraph set up in Florida to connect with the outside world. That was a small claim to fame. Leno stayed tiny, becoming a small lumber town with a mill on the Santa Fe River. When a railroad bypassed the town, its days were numbered. By 1900 only an old road and the milldams remained.
The area took on new life as a state park. One of the first state parks acquired in the 1930s, the purchase became a project for the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Authority (WPA). Log cabins were built along with a dining
hall, meeting building and pavilion. Everything they built still stands today, a tribute to their craftsmanship.
Generations of Alachua and nearby county residents have stayed in the cabins or camping areas as part of youth and group outings. Choices include family, primitive, youth and group camping. Over the years, it has become so legendary among youth groups that stays at O’Leno cabins or in the camping areas are embedded as part of the ritual of growing up in North Central Florida.
For both campers and visitors, rangers give Junior Ranger programs on Saturday afternoons and something called Rangers Choice on Saturday evenings. Call (386) 454-1853 to find out times, places and programs.
The most famous landmark built by the CCC sways securely over the Santa Fe River. The suspension bridge they built is wide enough for two people. It is a Florida Historic Civil Engineering Landmark and pretty amazing. Be assured those engineers knew what they were doing. This bridge is built to last and while it sways underfoot as you cross over the river, the passage is a safe one.
Low water levels have dropped the Santa Fe River to a series of almost stagnant pools. That is why no swimming or boating is currently allowed. But you can still try your luck at fishing although the low water makes for poor catches of catfish, bass or bream. Then again, every fisherman or woman knows that fishing is unpredictable. Sometimes the best part is just being outdoors.
A Florida freshwater fishing license is required for anyone between the ages of 16 and 65.
On the day we visited, the water was clear and shallow. You could see small and large gar with their long slim needle-shaped bodies hanging motionless just below the surface. Several turtles lazed on the water’s surface soaking up sun.
Water levels haven’t always been this low. On a suspension pole at the beginning of the bridge is a water gauge showing heights up to54.30 inches.
Walking along the River Trail, follow it to the spot where the Santa Fe River disappears underground. It doesn’t reappear again for more than three miles down the road. You’ll find it as a circular pool at River Rise Preserve State Park adjacent to O’Leno. Between the park and the preserve combined there are 6000 acres of state parks located in both Alachua and Bradford counties.
O’Leno also has a short walk called the Limestone Trail that takes you through a hardwood hammock, past limestone outcroppings and you walk in a pine forest. Miles of paved roads and off-road provide bikers with a good ride.
Whether walking, biking, camping, fishing or just watching the fish, O’Leno State Park has a past that keeps on flowing into the future.
IF YOU GO
What: O’Leno State Park
Where: 410 S.E. Oleno Park Road, High Springs, Fl 32643
Getting there: Located six miles north of High Springs on U.S. 441
Phone: (386) 454-1853
Web site: www.floridastateparks.org
Hours: 8 a.m. to sundown every day of the year
Cost: $4 per vehicle up to eight passengers
What to do: Hike, bike, picnic, camp, cabins, canoe
Upcoming events: Old Time Dance, Recreation Hall, Sunday, May 13 from 4 to 7 p.m., Flying Turtles String Band. Dance tickets $5 adults, $3 children (plus park admission)
Reprinted from The Observer.
Lucy Beebe Tobias is a freelance writer, photographer and artist in Ocala. Her book “50 Great Walks in Florida” from University Press of Florida will be in bookstores February 2008.