How Highlands Hammock became one of Florida's oldest — and its very first state — parks.
As we roll into the trees, a bit of history worth carrying with you: this park is a founding stone of the whole Florida park system. The hammock opened to the public back in nineteen thirty-one, and when Florida created its official state park system a few years later, in the nineteen thirties, Highlands Hammock was named the very first state park in it. First. Everything you love about a Florida state park — the boardwalks, the ranger programs, the protected wild — a lot of it started right here, as an experiment nobody was sure would work.
And it was saved by ordinary citizens before any government stepped in — which was almost unheard of back then. Boone will tell you about the woman at the heart of it. For now, just know you're driving through a place that helped teach a whole state how to save its wild lands.
Photo: Brandon Moore (Raskuly) · CC BY 4.0
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