Home on Mission San Luis Grounds and Artifacts

Whenever I travel and do the "tourist" thing, I try to make a photo of every sign at the place so I can remember what I saw. Apparently, I missed this sign. I remember seeing it and now I don't remember what this building was and when it was built.

Not knowing the significance of this home on the grounds of Mission San Luis which was obviously built during a later period makes me curious now. That is the reason I tell my photography students to take pictures of any signs when visiting for the first time. This is the consequence of not following my own advice. If any of you have visited the Mission and know what this house signifies, please let me know in the comments. I certainly would appreciate it. The mission was used until 1967 so this home could be that one of the leaders or maybe it was the home of a prominent citizen.

The second photo was on a table in the Council House. (If any of you didn't see that photo, just look back a couple of days to find it and to learn more about Mission San Luis in Tallahassee.) These look like they could be either eating or cooking utensils. Your guess is as good as mine. I wish the volunteer was able to spend more time with me so I'd know what these were used for.

The final clay pot was used as a smudge pot and was on the same table as the others. There were smudge pots on all the tables and near all the "beds" along the outer walls of the Council House. The smudge pots were for burning corn cobs to keep the mosquitos away.

The Apalachee Indians wasted nothing. There was no such thing as trash in those early days. They were the original "green people". We could learn a lot from them.

Mission San Luis

This is the entrance to the Mission San Luis in Tallahassee. It is the last look at the 21st century until you leave this magnificent place.

Mission San Luis was built in 1656. It burned down in 1987 and this community has been recreated by the City of Tallahassee. Everything here is rebuilt with artifacts found around the place and from archeological digs.

In all, there are 60 acres to explore and that includes a nature trail of sort (it's not actually a trail; it's more like a walk in the woods) where you'll find many species of birds, fox, and all types of wildlife.
Pictured here is the Apalachee Indian council house, built by Apalachees. At over 120 feet in diameter, the council house is among the largest Indian structures ever built in the Southeast. It wasn’t uncommon for the council house to hold 1,500 or more people in the 1690s.

There is not enough space to give you all a tour, but I'll be posting more from this community in later posts.

Seaboard Air Line Caboose

The Seaboard Air Line Caboose is on display in the Big Bend area of the Tallahassee Museum. This car ran from 1924 to 1963. Inside the caboose, one can see the sink, icebox, water, a stove, closets and bunks which were used by the crew.

There were 10 cabooses in all with each caboose having their own slogan, which was keyed to the last number. According to this plan, this one should be, "Look Around Getting Down".

The Seaboard Air Line Railroad was in operation from 1900 to 1967, when it merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. It then became the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad. In the '50's, the route mileage was a little more than 4,000 miles.

According to Wikipedia, Air line, in the days before air travel became a reality, was a common term for the shortest distance between two points: a straight line drawn through the air (or on a map), ignoring natural obstacles. Hence, a number of 19th century railroads used "air line" in their titles to suggest that their routes were shorter than those of competing roads.

Plant Hall, UT Interior

Plant Hall at the University of Tampa is one of the most beautiful places in the area.

It was originally the Tampa Hotel, built in the late 19th century during the Gilded Age by Henry B Plant, a railroad magnate for over $3,000,000. The hotel had more than 500 rooms and was 5 stories high. It was frequented by the late President Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders, Babe Ruth, Sarah, Bernhart, President Ulysses S Grant, the Prince of Wales, the Queen of England and a host of other celebrities of the day. This hotel was luxurious and a resort in itself. The rooms had their own baths, expensive furnishings, electricity and even telephones. It would be a 5* rated hotel today.

For a short time, Plant Hall was also the Hillsborough High School, then eventually became the University of Tampa's main administration building. It is an historic symbol of the city of Tampa.

This view is on the main floor where it has facing entrances on the East and West side.

This shot was made during the Wednesday night's Meetup with Jim Sykes.

Readying the Big Guns

Sunday my photo group had another meetup to attend the reenactment of the Battle of Ballast Point at Ft Desoto in Tierra Verde, FL.

While I shot the entire series in color, I was thinking that they didn't have color film during the Civil War, so it would probably be best to reproduce the series in sepia tone. I am posting both the color version and the sepia version for comparison.

That's the beauty of shooting in RAW mode and using Lightroom for post-processing. I have the ability to change things on the fly while keeping the original untouched.

Here is the color version; which do you prefer?

The Battle of Ballast Point was not one of the "popular" battles to study, so here is a little background information on the battle.

"The Battle of Ballast Point took place in Tampa, Florida on October 18, 1863. A Union raiding party, landed at the current intersection of Gandy Boulevard and Bayshore Boulevard, under the protracted diversionary bombardment of the city of Tampa and Fort Brooke by two ships, one the Tahoma" and the other, to be named. The Union divisions marched up the Hillsborough River to what is now Lowry Park and burned two notorious blockade running ships, the Scottish Chieftain, and the Kate Dale, owned by the future mayor of Tampa, James McKay. Escaping capture by mere minutes, with members of his crew in tow, James McKay sped to the city of Tampa and warned all of the landing party and the fate of his ships.

After burning the ships, the Confederate forces were alerted to the raiding party's location, and commenced pursuit. A confederate cavalry unit (Oklawaha Rangers) caught up with the Union raiders, finally and a full engagement ensued. The union soldiers came under direct fire as they boarded their dinghies, in a tactical retreat.

Lives were lost. Prisoners captured on both sides."

- from Wikepedia

"Seminole Indian"

Yesterday yet another Meetup took me to Ft Foster in Thonotosassa, FL for a reenactment of a skirmish between the Seminole Indians and the Army, of which was mostly volunteers during that time.

This man was dressed as a Seminole Indian and I really liked his profile.

If anything could go wrong yesterday for getting to the reenactment, it did. I had to work in the morning, and the skirmish started at 1:00 pm, but for some reason, there were a lot of new babies born for me to photograph. Usually, I can leave by 10:30 or 11:00 on Saturdays, but that wasn't about to happen. Finally, I left at 12:50 pm and with a 1 hour drive, I thought at least I'd get there for the second half of the skirmish. As luck would have it, there was something going on in Ybor City and the traffic was backed up from downtown Tampa all the way to Ybor.

I finally got through that, and arrived in Thonotosassa at 2:30 with only a 1/2 hour to shoot the reenactment. As I was entering Ft Foster, I was told by a volunteer that I had to wait at the end of the road for the ambulance and the Fire Department vehicles to pass. After waiting for about 10 minutes, I decided to park the car there and walk in, not knowing how long the walk would take. I got there just after the skirmish ended. It was a long walk with my equipment on my back.

I settled for taking a few photos of the reenactors and the encampment site and left about 45 minutes later. I was lucky to get the photos I got.