Time, Trees, the River,
and Wild North Florida

The lumber industry story and the Refuge conservation and restoration story are intertwined. The  lumber industry of Florida played a huge role in changing the land.  The industry used the forest resources to build the thriving communities of earlier times. The area that is now the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge has been logged over at least seven times.

The Vista Camp symbolizes that lumbering history. It also exemplifies the impact of the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge. The land that makes up the Refuge is coming full circle . . . from pristine wilderness, through the time of resource extraction, to the re-wilding that is now underway.

Through its mission to assure wildlife can thrive, the Refuge is contributing to the economies and quality of life of today's local communities. Importantly, it is also a crucial component and contributor to the preservation and conservation of the entire Big Bend region of Florida.

A Portal in Time

The character of the river and surrounding lands trace back hundreds of thousands of years. Their resilient ecosystems ebbed and flowed as successive ice ages altered the climate and geography of the peninsula. These swamps, savannas, and coastal formations surround Vista. With warm winters and a fantastic abundance of flora and fauna, Florida probably seemed a near paradise for its first human inhabitants.

History

Almost nothing is left of the former village of Vista, part of which stood at current bat house and paved parking area, or of the cedar sawmill that occupied the site of the Vista Camp. The current Vista property is  a cluster of modest buildings that once served as the surveyor lodging and later as an executive lumbering camp for the Cummer Cypress Company, a unit of a far-flung, family-owned conglomerate.

Redcedar and Baldcypress Trees of the Riverine Forest

In the early twentieth century the Lower Suwannee region had vast acreages of riverine forest and pine savanna. These resources were exploited in separate waves. The first lumbering in the Lower Suwannee region focused on the local redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) trees. Abundant in coastal areas, the aromatic and easily worked cedar wood was in demand for making pencils. In 1900, Thomas Yearty built a cedar sawmill at Vista. The site was purchased by the Cummer companies in 1902 as part of a huge land acquisition focused on harvesting baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) trees. The Yearty sawmill continued operation until about 1915 by which time lumbering of cypresses by the Cummers was well underway and they had established a new sawmill at Sumner, Florida.

History of the Vista Camp by Jonathan G. Lammers of James J. Miller PHD LLC which is included in the Historic Structure Assessment Report by Bender & Associates Architects, April 2020 states the following: The late 1930's saw relentless pressure for cypress lumber so Florida’s stands of virgin cypress were rapidly dwindling. In November 1938, Arthur G. Cummer, then chairman of the conservation committee of the Southern Cypress Manufacturer’s Association, appeared before representatives of the Congressional Joint Committee to Investigate Forestry Lands and stated the following.

"In our operations we observe conservation. We are compelled to observe it because we do not cut any timber under 150 years. All our timber manufactured is old, over-mature timber, and the reproduction is very, very slow on cypress; in fact, we are compelled to observe the conservation system because we have no demand for our smaller timber at all … the product grows so slowly that it is going to be a very long time before the second crop is available. You gentleman can see that the growth is so very small that I doubt if cypress will every come back on the market after the present stand is cut."

Baldcypress. Photo from National Wildlife Federation.

Redcedar. Photo from Texas A&M Forestry.

Mature Redcedar in Cedar Key near the cemetery.

Longleaf Pines of the Pine Savanna

During the lead up to World War I, most of the upland pines were cut. On the Cummer properties, as elsewhere on the Florida peninsula and throughout the southeastern coastal plain, the uplands were covered by pine savannas. They were mostly dominated by centuries old and slow-to-regenerate longleaf pine (Pinus palustris). Longleaf pines are difficult to propagate and highly dependent on fire. Once cut over, longleaf pine savannas were either invaded by deciduous trees or converted to commercial pine plantations, where faster growing species were planted in closely spaced rows and harvested in as little as 20 years.

Longleaf pine along the Refuge's Tram Ridge Trail

Hardwoods and Turpentine

Having cut all the marketable cypress trees and longleaf pines in less than two decades, the Cummer Cypress Company sold off the land in 1924. They repurchased it in 1936 to begin the next stage, harvesting hardwood trees left standing when the cypresses were removed. These hardwoods, particularly the blackgum tree (Nyssa sylvatica) commonly called a tupelo or black tupelo, were in demand for another thriving Cummer business, manufacturing boxes used for shipping Florida citrus.

The Cummer companies also developed a turpentine camp where sap from remaining pines was harvested and distilled into chemical products.

Trunk of a mature Blackgum tree. Photo from Wikipedia.

Executive Hunting and Fishing Camp

Lumbering in the area continued into the early nineteen fifties. Following local depletion of marketable lumber, the Vista site served as a recreation facility for company employees, guests, and customers. Records passed down by word of mouth among family members indicate that Vista was used to provide hunting and fishing opportunities for privileged men. Its amenities were off limits to women.

Houseboat used for fishing at the Vista Camp.

Boat house from historic Vista Camp

From Commercial to Conservation Lands

In the 1970s, the Cummer Cypress Company donated 970 cut-over riverfront acres, excluding the Vista site, to the Nature Conservancy and encouraged nearby landowners to follow suit. Those acres became the founding lands of the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge. Edward Roe, then the sole owner of the Cummer Company, kept the 14-acre Vista property which was passed down to his heirs, Sandra Smith and Linda Roe Alexander In 2011, the daughters turned down a lucrative offer to instead donate Vista to the US Fish and Wildlife Service with the hope that it this time-capsule of Florida heritage would be preserved. The sisters retained a life tenancy until 2022 when they turned over the keys to Refuge Manager Andrew Gude and Vista became available for Refuge use. The donors’ vision is that the structures and setting of Vista can help build community appreciation of the regional lumbering history and the Refuge’s conservation and restoration missions.

Vista is a touchstone of that once thriving timbering industry in Florida. Its buildings and grounds speak to the commercial and social importance of the industry and have much to tell visitors about who lived and worked in this part of Florida in recent centuries.

The Future of Wild North Florida

Vista is both a portal to and a nexus of the important living landscapes of the Refuge and the region. A wild river, swamps, pine savanna, and coastal formations, including salt marshes and an estuary that are among the most productive and diverse ecosystems anywhere on Earth, are within a short walk or drive from Vista.

The wild Suwannee River dominates and is a defining feature of the site.

The trailhead of Tram Ridge Trail is near the entrance to Vista. The former Suwannee River boardwalks, which were destroyed by Hurricane Idalia in 2023, also started at the trailhead and led visitors through remnants of the great cypress-tupelo swamps, one of region’s iconic features. The swamps remain, but not the boardwalks.

The Suwannee River

Our poor old River Trail boardwalk

Swampy area near Vista

Estuaries and salt marshes can be visited by a trip down the river or a nine-mile drive on the Nature Drive, a refuge road a mile south of Vista.

Working in partnership, Friends and the Refuge intend to provide at Vista a publicly accessible site that will be a visitor destination. The planned trails and interpretive panels will explore the role of the regional forestry industry and of the Refuge in restoring the region’s natural landscapes for the benefit of wildlife populations and people.