News-Leader Story
Yulee Railroad Days
Traces of
Yulee's long-ago railway remain
KEVIN TURNER,
News-Leader
This coquina concrete culvert under an
original Florida Railroad berm was laid in the mid-1850s as
the road was being constructed from Fernandina to Cedar
Key.
KEVIN TURNER/FOR THE NEWS-LEADER
The state of Florida recently "discovered"
a forgotten segment of David Yulee's railroad but some in
Nassau County have known about it all along.On March 1, 1861,
Fernandina staged a gala celebration as the Florida Railroad,
the first to extend across the peninsula, was dedicated. The
gleaming new engine Marion became the first regularly
scheduled locomotive to run the 165-mile route all the way
from Fernandina to Cedar Key on the Gulf Coast.When another
crowd gathered at the same site in downtown Fernandina 100
years later, segments of that railroad, bypassed by more
modern lines, had been torn out or were abandoned. The rails
between modern Yulee and Callahan were removed from 30 to 50
years ago and never replaced.However, many of those original
"berms," on which Yulee's original track were laid, remain
today. In segments, the original coquina concrete culverts can
be seen where the tracks bridged the swamp. In those quiet
places, one can almost imagine the wide tracks and a hulking
locomotive puffing geysers of steam as it worked its way along
the route.Other areas of the berm, however, got in the way of
progress. Yulee town historian Mary Lou Tucker said she was
shocked recently to find that Department of Transportation
work to widen A1A from two to four lanes between I-95 and
Boggy Creek had destroyed segments of David Yulee's
150-year-old rail berm."When the DOT does a job, there has to
be a study to see if any historic sites are in the way,"
Tucker said. "They kept saying the site would be outside of
the railbed. They destroyed that bed in two areas with
sediment piles."Tucker, who is spearheading a project to
establish the John Muir Park, said former county senior
planner Mark Major told her to call the state Division of
Historic Resources. "They really jumped on it," Tucker
said.Due to a faulty survey, FDOT crews inadvertently had
destroyed segments of David Yulee's Florida Railroad berm as
they dug flood retention ponds for an $11.5-million project to
widen A1A. Crews with Barco-Duval Engineering, Inc., of
Jacksonville began May 5 2003 to widen the two-lane road
between Yulee and Callahan."She informed me that it appeared
that DOT was constructing holding ponds as part of that
project and work on those was impacting the berm," said Laura
Kammerer, historic preservationist supervisor for the Division
of Historic Resources.The group contacted FDOT to find out how
the situation happened and found that David Yulee's rail was
an unknown and unrecorded historic resource."It turned out
that they had performed a survey by a cultural resource
consultant out of Jacksonville, but that report was never
submitted to the Division of Historic Resources for our
review. But then we found that the survey didn't identify the
berm in the first place."Because the railroad wasn't noted in
any state databases, the only person who could have caught it
would have to have been in Nassau County."It probably wouldn't
have been picked up by our staff either. No one would have
caught it, because it's not recorded. It was just missed."FDOT
has since hired another consultant to record the berms for the
first time, Kammerer said. "We have that report," Kammerer
said. "They identified the berm within the project and noted
that it is a significant resource."Thanks to Tucker's call,
however, only a very small chunk of the berm, near Hero's
Creek, will be disturbed by the FDOT project. That disruption
is necessary for a culvert, although Kammerer's division
advocated against it, she said.Otherwise, the project's work
has been directed away from the berm, and two of the retention
ponds yet to be built have been moved."I think they understand
their project has had some level of impact and that they will
do some level of mitigation," Kammerer said.FDOT's mitigation
work might include more historic markers along its route -
there are already two markers at each end of the line. Other
types of mitigation may include documentation or other
work."It wouldn't cost a hundred dollars to reclaim this for
recreation," said former county commissioner John Claxton,
noting an especially well-preserved segment of the berm near
Griffin Road. "It's cool in the summer and nice in the winter.
It's a perfect nature walk.""The David Yulee Railroad has been
nominated for the national registry (of historic places),"
Myles Bland of Bland and Associates told the Nassau County
Historic Advisory Commission last week. "We are attempting to
get that onto the register, although it's a little more
difficult to put a railroad on it."But before historians
consider other uses or designations for the old Florida
Railroad, first things will have to be done first, Kammerer
said."First and foremost we have to get it recorded on the
Florida Master Site file," she said. "It has to be identified
for future developments so this doesn't happen again."The
widening project, which is to add two lanes from the Boggy
Creek Bridge to I-95, is set for completion next
year.
kturner@fbnewsleader.com
Story created Oct 25, 2004 - 09:53:29 PDT.
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