This hike took place on the site of Florida’s first and largest water-powered industrial complex – think an early 1800s version of an industrial park that included 2 saw mills, a bucket factory, a gristmill, a shingle mill, a cotton textile mill, and a railroad. The area’s virgin forests, which included Longleaf Pine, Bald Cypress, Live Oak, and Atlantic Cedar trees, along with an ample supply of water, made it an ideal location. An 1855 fire and the death of its owner in the same year lead to its demise. It was only operational for 38 years (1817 -1855) but played a critical role in the development of Northwest Florida’s early economy. At that time nearby Pensacola was Florida’s largest city. After the closure of the mill the area largely was abandoned and nature reclaimed the somewhat tortured landscape. Remnants of the mill were discovered in 1964 and the property was protected in 1987. It is now under the management of the University of West Florida in Pensacola.

The trailhead begins at a combination outdoor museum and picnic area.

The trail quickly takes you to a boardwalk that elevates you through the forested wetlands surrounding Pond Creek.

Bordering the creek, wetland tree species are noted – Bald Cypress, Atlantic Cedar, Water Oak, and Tupelo.

There were pockets of standing water everywhere. These make for biologically rich habitats full of amphibians.

Nearby was this log flume – a channel 4 foot wide and 6 feet deep. Originally lined with lumber, these flumes allowed for the movement of logs from the forests of Northwest Florida to the many sawmills located in the region. This one was called Elliott’s Flume and carried logs to Bagdad, Florida, sixteen miles away. Even after the closure of Arcadia Mill, its remaining 16 acre mill pond was a valuable source of water for these flumes. With its dam being destroyed during the Civil War, the mill pond is no longer present.

Eventually the boardwalk delivers you to somewhat higher terrain where Southern Magnolia, Longleaf Pine, Live Oak, and Southern Red Oak are predominant. Here there were several loop trails. The route was depicted on this signage.

On the higher ground the trails of packed sand and pine needles wove through woodlands of various ages.

Signage would also point out some of the remains of the old mill site. Across the middle of this photo you can see the stone foundation of what was the largest of the mills.

It was a windy day at the time of our visit and the wildlife had seemed to hunker down. People on the other hand were utilizing the preserve, especially young folks.

Odds and Ends:

Many of the interesting things that we saw on this outing were on the forest floor. I frequently goad the photographer about her preoccupation with fungi. Here, she, and Caroline, had a wealth of specimens.

We particularly liked the texture of this Reindeer Lichen. There are 5 main species of Reindeer Lichen in North America but some authorities say that there may be as many as 12. Lichens are a symbiosis between a fungus, which provides the structural support, and an algae, which provides the nutrition through photosynthesis. They thrive on the forest floor of the Florida Panhandle because the relatively open canopy of the mixed forest allows for adequate sunlight to hit the ground for photosynthesis.

Another lichen seen that day was this Christmas Wreath Lichen. We saw it on the trunks of several trees. It is very slow growing, generally only enlarging by one to two millimeters per year. That would suggest that some of the specimens that we saw were easily 40 years old or more. Like many lichens, Christmas Wreath Lichens are somewhat poorly studied and lichenologists don’t really know how they reproduce. It is thought that perhaps the red bumps in the center of the lichen are reproductive bodies. It gets its name from its coloration as frequently the area of gray in these specimens is some shade of green.

The floor also featured these prostrate plants that looked like large pipe cleaners. They were feather soft.

They are Staghorn Clubmoss, better appreciated on this isolated specimen. Clubmosses reproduce via spores, like ferns and mosses, indicative of more primitive plants. Spores are single cell reproductive units, whereas seeds are multicellular and have stored food for the developing plant.

On the photo below you can see the sporangia of a different form of moss. The sporangia are the spore containing structure of the plant. In this case they are held high above the plant to allow for wind dispersal of the spore.

A final moss worthy of comment is Swamp Sphagnum Moss. Its nickname is “Confederate Penicillin”, as it was used, when dried, by the South as a wound dressing in the Civil War.

In the understory we also enjoyed seeing these two members of the Holly family in close approximation: Yaupon Holly (red berries) and Inkberry Holly (black berries).

No Footpaths essay would be complete without some feature on trees. One of the pretty trees of the forest understory in the Panhandle are Titi trees (pronounced “teetee”). At first glance they look similar to Sweet Bay Magnolia in branching and leaf, but they have this unique flower and fruiting structure on them most of the year.

And lastly, one of the more challenging tree identifications tasks is differentiating between our native Bald Cypress and the China native Dawn Redwood. Dawn Redwood is frequently used in landscaping and parks. They both are deciduous, have a smooth grey bark, and feather-like branchlets. The way I differentiate them is by the branch pattern. The small branches arise alternate along the stem in Bald Cypress, while they arise opposite on the Dawn Redwood. How do I remember that? The American tree, Bald Cypress is alternate (A=A). The Chinese tree (from the Orient), Dawn Redwood, is opposite (O=O). You can see the alternate branching of a young Bald Cypress in this photo.

In summary, this hike was an entertaining finale for our time in the public greenspaces of the Florida Panhandle. It was fun trying to visualize the locations of the buildings of the mill operation on the reclaimed landscape. Clearly nature is winning that battle. The two different habitats, creekside wetland and upland dry forest, allowed us to study some of the ecology of Northwest Florida, and we found several species that were new to us. The preserve appears to be a valued public asset for the community as there were quite a few hikers sharing the trails with us.

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Photo credits to Peggy Juengling Burns and Caroline Burns Grizzle.

Overview

Location – 5709 Mill Pond Lane, Milton, Florida. It is 12 miles from Pensacola and 44 miles from Fort Walton Beach.

Parking – gravel lot for about 8 cars.

Facilities – toilets at the visitor center.

Trail Conditions – boardwalk and compacted sand. Terrain is easy but the many surface roots could be trip hazards.

Benches – several noted.

Kids – should do fine. There is a lot to see, especially in the wetland, to keep their interest. When we visited there were some areas of disrepair on the boardwalk so I would keep them close.

Dogs – welcomed on a leash.

Suggested Paired Hikes – none.

Links:

https://historicpensacola.org/explore-arcadia-mill/