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South Colony Lakes Trail, Colorado

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Questions for discussion about the saltworks and history of Pasco County

Q: Did a newspaper ad by a Pasco County businessman prompt the Battle of Olustee and the “Brooksville Raid”?

F: On January 16, 1864, Local businessmen Hope and Leslie ran a newspaper ad in the Gainesville newspaper offering 800 cattle for sale, and the sale of their saltworks.

Q: Did the Union Military Intelligence Officers read this ad, and set out to capture these cattle and destroy the Saltworks?

F: In February, 1864 Union troops marched west from Jacksonville, “looking to disrupt Confederate supply lines and seek out contraband”. On February 20, they met resistance and did battle at Ocean Pond, known as the Battle of Olustee. The Federal troops retreated to Jacksonville after being routed by Confederate forces.  

Q: Where the cattle of Hope and Leslie sold and headed north by this time to feed Confederate troops, Southern cities, or maybe the prison and garrison at Andersonville Ga.?

F: In July 1864 Union Troops landed north of Anclote Key and marched towards Brooksville. The troops never entered the town, but raided and burned both the Hope and Leslie Plantations. The officer in charge did not list any cattle found, nor any saltworks destroyed.

Q: Did the troops land at the mouth of the ‘Cotte River and march within a mile of the saltworks at Salt Spring, hidden in the coastal wetland of what is now Werner-Boyce Salt Springs State Park?

Q: Where the troops still looking for Hope and Leslie’s cows?

F: Archeologists have recently located the earthworks of the Confederate Artillery Battery that once protected Bayport and its shallow water port.

“The Saltworks Near Hopeville” by William Holcomb discusses facts and oral history that prompts these questions from a local view.

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Submitted by Louise Lauritzen and Pantelis Pipergias Analytis: 

This tragata (a cabin-on-stilts used to use during olive harvest — for tools, afternoon naps, etc.) stands in Kefalonia, Greece, an island in the Ionian Sea. It was designed by Hiboux architects of Athens in collaboration with Studio Genua architects of Berlin (many of them can be seen in action). Until the 1960s, when more permanent concrete structures became more popular, tragatas where very commonly encountered on the island (my great-grandpa also had one). They were often built on cypress stilts, while reeds and fern were used for the hut itself. In the modern version we cut and weaved reed that we found in a nearby creek. We used impregnated wood for the main body of the construction. 

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Princess Ulele still protects Tampa Bay..... Irma go away!

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Artifacts or...

Oral history is weighted according to its pedigree, and the number of re-tellings before it is recorded. It is similar to verbal testimony in court proceedings. Direct written history outside an official record is also considered subject to personal observational bias, and is weighted based on the intelligence and type of formal education of the writer in a journal or postmarked letter. Official government reports, tax records, census, and land deeds are considered the least subject to bias.

Although journals, diaries, and post marked letters often have the best pedigree, and although they are, in themselves, artifacts, there is still the original writers bias and education to consider. Newspaper articles and paid advertisements in published, dated. newspapers may also be considered artifacts, but are subject to exaggeration and observational or profit driven bias.

However, all of the above can provide clues on where to begin to look for recoverable, in context, artifacts.

First image, a paid ad from a Gainesville Paper "Cotton States" on March 19, 1864, reads...

Second image, An advertisement which appeared in the "Cotton States" newspaper on April 16, 1864, reads:

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Saltworks boiling kettle artifact, Cedar Key Museum State Park.

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Crystal River Scow

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