Our Last Florida State Park for This Trip

On Wednesday we drove about 30 miles east to the Stephen Foster State Park that you see here.  It is just north of Lake City, and not far from the Georgia border.  Like our last park, it is on the Suwannee River and seems to be an excellent modern culture center with a campground included.  It is near the tiny town of White Springs, Florida.

 

Here is one of the two main attractions.  It is the Stephen Foster Museum that was built in 1950 to honor the song writer and his music.  For the record, we were surprised to find out that Stephen Foster was born, raised, and spent most of his 37 years in the Pittsburgh, PA area.  He only spent one month in the southern U.S. but that was what much of his famous music was about.

 

Inside the museum was this desk upon which he wrote many of his over 200 songs.  Two of his songs were later adopted as official state songs:  "Old Folks at Home" for Florida, and "My Old Kentucky Home" for Kentucky.  He sold all the rights for "Old Folks at Home" for $15 and never got credit for the song until after his death in 1864.

 

The museum had many interesting displays including beautiful large dioramas with moving figures that looked as real as if looking out a window.

 

This old piano had real Mother-of-Pearl keys.

 

This very old piano has a von Janko Keyboard with six rows of keys.

 

More about the second major park attraction tomorrow.......