Travel Want to experience the Cracker lifestyle? On weekends, the park holds an 1876Cow Campwhere cowman “Grazer” explains his Cracker life working for the local Cattle Baron Jake Summerlin. Try your hand at cracking the whip or sample some cow camp vittles. It’s a fascinating experience. Here are some other Old Florida Cracker places that we discovered. Find the Pioneer Park in Zolfo Springs, a place with old period buildings which you can visit and even an early steam locomotive. For Cracker lifestyle however, visit the park’sCracker Trail Museum. It houses a collection of 4,000 items from Florida’s Pioneer days. If planning a visit, we suggest that you phone the museum for current open times (see Resources, below). The annual 120-mile Cracker Trail Drive re-enactment ridden between Bradenton and Fort Pierce passes by Zolfo Spring’s Pioneer Park on State Route 64. The next trail ride is scheduled for the week following February 16, 2019. Housed inside the original railway station, the Lake Wales Museum’s collection includes a wonderful pioneer saddle, branding irons and many other tools from the Cracker lifestyle. Highly recommended. A modern feast of Cracker life greets the eye at theLake Placid Cracker Mural. This magnificent 175 x 30 feet mural of cow hunter and cowmen stretches along the south side of the Save-a-Lot (formerly Winn-Dixie) food store building. So OK Crackers, let’s saddle up, get them drags ready to hit the drive trail. ¡Hasta la vista! Information Resources “A Land Remembered,” by Patrick D. Smith. Pineapple Press, Sarasota. Lake Kissimmee State Park: 14248 CampMack Rd., Lake Wales (about 10 km north of SR60. Go north on Mammoth Grove Rd., 11 km east of Lake Wales) Phone: 863-969-1112. Cracker Trail Museum: inside the Pioneer Park at 2822 Museum Drive, Zolfo Springs (corner of US 17 and SR64). Phone: 863-735-0119 for hours. Cracker Trail Re-enactment: visit the website at facebook.com/floridacrackertrail. Lake Wales Museum: 325 South Scenic Hwy., LakeWales – Phone: 863-676-1759. Drive north from Rt60 on South 4th St. At the intersection with Polk (traffic lights), turn hard left onto Scenic Hwy. - the Museum is on your right. Lake Placid CrackerMural: NE corner of US27 &CR 621E, Lake Placid. Drive into the shopping plaza (TD Bank, Dollar Tree) and head down to the Save a Lot (formerlyWinn-Dixie) food store. CSANews | WINTER 2018 | 25
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