page_title: St. Johns River
section_title: Territorial Florida and statehood
hierarchical_section_title: St. Johns River / Human history / Territorial Florida and statehood
context_page_description: The St. Johns River is the longest river in the U.S. state of Florida and its most significant one for commercial and recreational use. At 310 miles long, it flows north and winds through or borders twelve counties. The drop in elevation from headwaters to mouth is less than 30 feet; like most Florida waterways, the St. Johns has a very low flow rate 0.3 mph and is often described as "lazy".
  Numerous lakes are formed by the river or flow into it, but as a river its widest point is nearly 3 miles across. The narrowest point is in the headwaters, an unnavigable marsh in Indian River County. The St. Johns drainage basin of 8,840 square miles includes some of Florida's major wetlands. It is separated into three major basins and two associated watersheds for Lake George and the Ocklawaha River, all managed by the St. Johns River Water Management District.
  Although Florida was the location of the first permanent European settlement in what would become the United States, much of Florida remained an undeveloped frontier into the 20th century. With the growth of population, the St.
context_section_description: The first years following Florida's annexation to the United States in 1821 were marked with violent conflicts between white settlers and Seminoles, whose bands often included runaway African slaves. The clashes between American and Seminole forces during the establishment of the Florida territory are reflected in the towns and landmarks along the St. Johns named for those who were directly involved. Even before Florida was under U.S. jurisdiction, Major General Andrew Jackson was responsible for removing the Alachua Seminoles west of the Suwannee River, either killing them or forcing them farther south towards Lake County, in 1818. Jackson's efforts became the First Seminole War, and were rewarded by the naming of a cattle crossing across a wide portion of the St. Johns near the Georgia border—previously named Cowford—to Jacksonville. The result of Jackson's offensive was the transfer of Florida to the U.S. Following the Seminole Wars, a gradual increase in commerce and population occurred on the St. Johns, made possible by steamship travel. Steamboats heralded a heyday for the river, and before the advent of local railroads, they were the only way to reach interior portions of the state. They also afforded the citizens of Jacksonville a pastime to watch competing races. By the 1860s, weekly trips between Jacksonville, Charleston, and Savannah were made to transport tourists, lumber, cotton, and citrus. The soil along the St. Johns was considered especially successful for producing sweeter oranges.
  Florida's involvement in the U.S. Civil War was limited compared to other Confederate states because it had a fraction of the populations of states that had been developed. Florida provided materials to the Confederacy by way of steamboats on the St. Johns, although the river and the Atlantic coasts were blockaded by the U.S. Navy. One action in Florida's role in the Civil War was the sinking of the USS Columbine, a Union paddle steamer used for patrolling the St. Johns to keep materials from reaching the Confederate Army. In 1864, near Palatka, Confederate forces under the command of Capt. John Jackson Dickison captured, burned, and sank the USS Columbine, making her perhaps the only ship commandeered by the Confederacy. The same year and farther downriver, Confederates again sank a Union boat, the Maple Leaf, which struck a floating keg filled with explosives and settled into the muck near Julington Creek, south of Jacksonville. Part of the shipwreck was recovered in 1994, when it was discovered that many Civil War-era artifacts, including daguerreotypes and wooden matches, had been preserved in the river muck.
  Although the Spanish had colonized Florida for two centuries, the state remained the last part of the east coast of the United States to be developed and explored. Following the Civil War, the State of Florida was too far in debt to build roads and rail lines to further its progress. Florida Governor William Bloxham in 1881 appealed directly to a Pennsylvania-based industrialist named Hamilton Disston, initially to build canals to improve steamboat passage through the Caloosahatchee River, and later to drain lands in the central part of the state for agriculture. Disston was furthermore persuaded to purchase 4,000,000 acres (16,000 km²) of land in central Florida for $1 million, which at the time was reported to be the largest purchase of land in human history. Disston was ultimately unsuccessful in his drainage attempts, but his investment sparked the tourist industry and made possible the efforts of railroad magnates Henry Flagler and Henry Plant to construct rail lines down the east coast of Florida, including a rail link between Sanford and Tampa. Disston was responsible for creating the towns of Kissimmee, St. Cloud, and several others on the west coast of Florida.
  A New York Times story reporting on Disston's progress in 1883 stated that before Disston's purchase and the subsequent development, the only places worth seeing in Florida were Jacksonville and St. Augustine, with perhaps an overnight trip on the St.
caption: Stereoscopic view of Harriet Beecher Stowe's house in Mandarin
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