BROOKSVILLE — School might still be out for summer, but Marie and William Garippy got a history lesson July 17, courtesy of their grandparents and the Florida Department of Transportation.
Jennifer Wheeler of Brooksville had brought the two to Tom Varn Park to see the Florida Freedom Tour, a pair of trailers traveling the state as a mobile museum highlighting Florida’s history and its role in the nation’s freedom and growth. The stop, part of the celebration of 250 years of American independence, lasted only a few hours before the tour moved on.
“I’m a Florida native,” Wheeler said. “So are they,” she added, referring to Marie, 12, and William, 9.
“It’s very nice,” William said. “I love it.” The information about the fish was his favorite part, he said.
“I think it’s very wonderful,” Marie said. “I love history. It’s one of my favorite subjects in school. I think my favorite era was the Civil War era.”
The children knew all the weapons from that period, Wheeler said.
“I grew up in St. Ann, where we had the Seminole Indians come for the roundup every year, and there was a lot of history there,” she said. “I hated to see that disappear.”
History of change
Artifacts, posters and photos traced the state’s evolution from a swampland inhabited by Native Americans to its occupation by the Spanish, then the British, and finally its place in the United States.
From the Civil War through the Spanish-American War, the boom-and-bust years, both world wars and beyond, Florida has left its mark on American history.
The exhibits also recognize the state as the launchpad for America’s space program — including a newspaper front page announcing the first manned moon landing on July 20, 1969 — along with its business history in agriculture, tourism and water recreation.
Old armaments were displayed under glass, among them a shipboard swivel gun and a British flintlock pistol and powder horn from the Revolution.
And the invention that made Florida tolerable — air conditioning — drew people into the trailers to escape the July sun.
Celebration of America and Florida
Standing outside under a tent, John McShaffrey, an employee in FDOT’s outreach section, called the tour a celebration of America and Florida.
“We’ve got rolling exhibits here. It’s the Florida Freedom Tour,” he said. “People can come in, take a look at the displays. We’ve got a history of Florida in the trailers.”
The tour coincides with the nation’s 250th anniversary, he said. Visitors also could pick up swag, including stickers and postcards.
Just inside the entrance, Evan Dillon offered some historical perspective. During the Civil War, he said, Florida supplied the Confederacy with beef and salt, as well as 15,000 troops, while sending 2,000 more to the Union Army.
“So we fought on both sides,” he said. “Another fun fact is that Tallahassee never fell.”
June Young of Lake Lindsey has lived in Florida about 32 years, she said. Robert Huett, 74, has been in the state 72 years, brought here as a child by his parents. He has lived on the same property since 1963 and has seen plenty of change, working as a diesel mechanic “for 40-something years” for a land-clearing company.
Young remembers when Sunshine Grove Road at State Road 50 looked far different and curved off into another road.
“There was one gas station between Brooksville and Weeki Wachee,” she said.
“It’s sad because it used to be orange groves, cattle farms, and now you almost never see an orange grove and you hardly ever see cattle,” she said.
Jeff Marlowe said he liked the exhibits, too. Wheeler, for her part, wished she could stay longer.
“This is a beautiful exhibit,” she said. “I wish I had more time to go through it slowly. Sad it’s only going to be here for a few hours.”