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.

Trees

Almost nothing is left of the former village of Vista and its sawmill that occupied the site of the present headquarters of the Lower Suwannee and Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuges. The current Vista property has a cluster of modest buildings that once served as the regional operations center 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 established a new sawmill at nearby Sumner, Florida.

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

Later, most of the uplands 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. In 2011, Sandra Smith and Linda Alexander, heirs to the Vista site, gave it to the US Fish and Wildlife Service to be added to the Refuge. They retained 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 now be part of building community appreciation of 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 joint trailhead of the Suwannee River and Tram Ridge Trails is right at the entrance to Vista. The Suwannee River boardwalks, which were destroyed by Hurricane Idalia in 2023, formerly led visitors through remnants of the great cypress-tupelo swamps, one of region’s iconic features. The swamps remain, but not the boardwalks. Rebuilding and connecting to the Vista riverfront is a dream for the future.

The Suwannee River

Our poor old River Trail boardwalk

Swampy area near Vista

The Tram Ridge Trail leads through a variety of habitats, the most important of which is a beautiful section of pine savanna undergoing active restoration.

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 starting within a mile 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 the American people.