Tracing Florida Journeys: Explorers, Travelers, and Landscapes Then and Now

by Leslie Kemp Poole

Discover Florida’s unique places across time through writings from history   How has Florida’s land changed across five centuries? What has stayed the same, and what remains only in memory? In Tracing Florida Journeys , Leslie Poole delves into the stories of well-known explorers and travelers who came to the peninsula and wrote about their experiences, looking at their words and the paths they took from the perspective of today. In these pages, John Muir and Harriet Beecher Stowe write about their visits to Florida, reflecting their expectations of a place that was touted to be “paradise.” John James Audubon finds riches of bird life in the Keys. Zora Neale Hurston travels to turpentine camps and sawmills documenting the stories and music of workers and residents. Jonathan Dickinson and Stephen Crane recount shipwrecks along a sparsely populated coastline. Using journals and articles by these and other authors that date back to the early European exploration of the region, Poole retraces their steps. The land they write about is often hard to imagine in today’s Florida, a top destination for tourists filled with almost 22 million residents. These stories show the evolving history of the state and the richness of its natural resources. Poole’s comparisons also point to the people who have been displaced and the ecosystems that have been dramatically altered by exploration and development. Highlighting the Florida that was and the Florida that exists now, Poole brings together historical research, interviews with experts, and her personal experiences to tell a revealing story of the state’s natural history.   Funding for this publication was provided through a grant from Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent those of Florida Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities. 

Genres: Nonfiction

266 pages, Paperback

Published March 5, 2024

About the author

Leslie Kemp Poole is Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at Rollins College. She is the author of Saving Florida: Women's Fight for the Environment in the Twentieth Century.

Reviews

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Tracing Florida Journeys” by Leslie Kemp Poole is an astonishing book. In this short book, you are taken into a historical journey through the origins of Florida through the eyes of those who helped discover and shape the Florida we see today. Poole, an environmental studies professor from Rollins College, did a brilliant job in writing and constructing this transformative book. The book is divided by chronological chapters that focus on a famous historical figure that observed, explored and experienced an era of Florida history, starting from the famed conquistador Hernando de Soto from the 1500’s who was the first European to set foot in what is now Tampa Bay all the way to the world-renowned novelist Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’s experiences living in the country hamlet of Cross Creek.

Many of the chapters were stories I was already familiar with such as the Jonathan Dickinson shipwreck off of Jupiter in 1696 and the adventures of John James Audobon in 1832 which took him from St. Augustine all the way down to Key West. With that said, many of the chapters in the book revealed details I wasn’t familiar with. I won’t list those details here because I want you to read the book and be surprised. I will list the people whose lives and experiences in this book made an impact on me and most importantly, on Florida:

1. William Bartram
2. John Muir
3. Harriet Beecher Stowe
4. John E. Ingraham
5. Stephen Crane
6. Zora Neale Hurston

This book was exemplary and a keeper for my Florida bookshelf. Leslie Kemp Poole, bravo! You have a hit on your hands 🙌🏻

[Scalacpa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I met Leslie Kemp Poole at a Central Florida Sierra Club meeting. Her enthusiasm and love for the wild Florida reminded me of myself. I checked out her book immediately from the Winter Park library and spent many nights on her adventures through the eyes of past explorers of Florida: Hernando De Soto, Jonathan Dickinson, William Bartram, John James Audubon, John Muir, Zora Neale Hurston & Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.
I kept a Florida map nearby to follow each one's journey. I am now going to head towards Wakulla Springs in North Florida for camping in cooler weather.
I enjoyed this book and look forward to some of my own adventures in the wilds of Florida.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some are very interesting