Many species of hardwood trees, the sandhill, hydric hammock and swamp plant communities, including rare plants.[1]
History
The park includes 56 archaeological sites, representing various eras from the Paleo-Indian period (10,000 to 12,000 years ago) up to the 20th century. The site of the Spanish-era Mission San Francisco de Potano, on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, is in the park. ("San Felasco" derives from the Seminole pronunciation of "San Francisco".[2]) Spain began granting land to individuals in Florida after 1790, including a grant of 6,000 acres (24 km2) to S. D. Fernandez and another grant to a Sanchez in the present-day park. Four of the archaeological sites in the park are possibly associated with those land grants, and/or with the settlement of Spring Grove, which existed in the 1830s and 1840s. The Battle of San Felasco Hammock, part of the Second Seminole War, was fought in the hammock in 1836, but the site of the battle has not been identified. Sites in the park from the 20th century include remains of moonshine stills, a dairy farm, tung oil operations, and a commune.[3]
^ ab[1] "Florida State Parks — SAN FELASCO HAMMOCK STATE PRESERVEh", Retrieved December 6, 2011
^Milanich, Jerald T. (2006). Laboring in the Fields of the Lord: Spanish Missions and Southeastern Indians. Gainesville, Florida, US: University Press of Florida. p. 118. ISBN0-8130-2966-X.
