Blackwater River State Forest

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Blackwater River State Forest

Location	Santa Rosa and Okaloosa counties, Florida, United States
Nearest city	Milton
Coordinates	30°43′58.44″N 86°52′29.1″W / 30.7329000°N 86.874750°W / 30.7329000; -86.874750
Area	206,900 acres (83,700 ha)
Other information	Hiking, biking, horseback riding, hunting, fishing, camping, boating

Blackwater River State Forest is a state forest in the western panhandle of Florida, United States. It is administered by the Florida Forest Service, part of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Blackwater River State Forest is completely contained within Santa Rosa and Okaloosa Counties. The forest is managed from a common headquarters in Munson, Florida. There are local ranger offices in Molino (Escambia County), Milton, (Santa Rosa County), and Baker (Okaloosa County).^[1]

Name

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The forest shares its name with the Blackwater River, which rises in southern Alabama and flows south dividing Okaloosa and Santa Rosa before emptying into the Blackwater Bay.

History

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Otahite was one of the settlements that preceded the forest. It is now a ghost town but its post office was relocated and is part of a museum.^[2] State legislator John Wilkinson Jr. was documented as being from Otahite.^[3] Otahite means damp place.^[4] It was described in a newspaper 1934 publication as a hamlet near the western boundary of Okaloosa County.^[5]

Federal Forest and Department of Defense land was originally donated to the state of Florida in the 1950s to manage for timber and recreation. These tracts of land comprised close to 50,000 acres of primarily Longleaf, Slash, and Loblolly pine plantations with scattered scrub resulting from years of mismanagement. Over time multiple acquisitions have been made to extend the size of the forests. Most of the additions have been from purchasing private timber company land while others have come from smaller private land owners.

Recreation

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The forest offers many recreational opportunities. Multiple camping areas, both developed and primitive are located throughout the forest. Krul Campground has two camp grounds and a day use area. Bear Lake Campground has a campground with water and power and a second campground with only water for tent campers. There is also a pavilion available for use at Bear Lake. To the North is Hurricane Lake with a campground on the north and south shores. The south campground does not have electricity at its campsites. All lakes, excluding Krul lake, are open for fishing and are managed and stocked by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

References

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^ Services, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer. "Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services" (PDF). www.fdacs.gov.
^ "Park".
^ Munroe, C. K. (1886). "The Florida Annual, Impartial and Unsectional, 1886".
^ "History | Florida State Parks". www.floridastateparks.org.
^ Louisiana State University Studies. Louisiana State University Press. 1934.

External links

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Blackwater River State Forest – Florida Forest Service

Protected areas of Florida

Federal level

National parks	Biscayne Dry Tortugas Everglades
National memorials	De Soto Fort Caroline
National monuments	Castillo de San Marcos Fort Matanzas
National seashores	Canaveral Gulf Islands
National forests	Apalachicola Choctawhatchee Ocala Osceola
National wildlife refuges	Archie Carr Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee Caloosahatchee Cedar Keys Chassahowitzka Crocodile Lake Crystal River Egmont Key Florida Panther Great White Heron Hobe Sound Island Bay J.N. 'Ding' Darling Key West Lake Wales Ridge Lake Woodruff Lower Suwannee Matlacha Pass Merritt Island National Key Deer Okefenokee Passage Key Pelican Island Pine Island Pinellas St. Johns St. Marks St. Vincent Ten Thousand Islands
Other national protected areas	Big Cypress National Preserve Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve
National Marine Sanctuaries	Florida Keys Key Largo (1975–1990) Looe Key (1981–1990)
National Estuarine Research Reserves	Apalachicola NERR Guana Tolomato Matanzas NERR Rookery Bay NERR
National Wild and Scenic Rivers	Loxahatchee River Wekiva River

State level

Parks	Amelia Island Anastasia Avalon Bahia Honda Bald Point Big Lagoon Big Shoals Big Talbot Island Bill Baggs Cape Florida Bulow Creek Caladesi Island Camp Helen Cayo Costa Collier–Seminole Colt Creek Curry Hammock Delnor-Wiggins Pass Devil's Millhopper Don Pedro Island Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson Eden Gardens Egmont Key Falling Waters Faver-Dykes Florida Caverns Fort Clinch Fort Cooper Fort George Island Fort Pierce Inlet Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou Gasparilla Island George Crady Bridge Fishing Pier Grayton Beach Henderson Beach Highlands Hammock Honeymoon Island Hontoon Island Hugh Taylor Birch John D. MacArthur Beach John Pennekamp Coral Reef Jonathan Dickinson Little Talbot Island Long Key Lovers Key Mike Roess Gold Head Branch North Peninsula O'Leno Oscar Scherer Perdido Key Price's Scrub Sebastian Inlet Skyway Fishing Pier St. Andrews St. George Island St. Marks River St. Joseph Peninsula Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center Stump Pass Beach Tomoka Torreya Windley Key Fossil Reef
Botanical garden parks	Alfred B. Maclay Gardens Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Lignumvitae Key Ravine Gardens Washington Oaks
Lakes, rivers and springs parks	Deer Lake Lake Griffin Lake June in Winter Scrub Lake Kissimmee Lake Louisa Lake Manatee Lake Talquin Alafia River Blackwater River Dunns Creek Econfina River Hillsborough River Little Manatee River Myakka River Ochlockonee River Oleta River Suwannee River Three Rivers Blue Spring De Leon Springs Edward Ball Wakulla Springs Fanning Springs Homosassa Springs Wildlife Ichetucknee Springs Lafayette Blue Springs Madison Blue Spring Manatee Springs Ponce de Leon Springs Rainbow Springs Silver Springs Troy Spring Weeki Wachee Springs Wekiwa Springs Werner-Boyce Salt Springs Wes Skiles Peacock Springs
Recreation areas	Dead Lakes Gamble Rogers Memorial
Museums, historic sites, and archaeological sites	Addison Blockhouse Cedar Key Museum Constitution Convention Museum Forest Capital Museum John Gorrie Museum Ybor City Museum The Barnacle Bulow Plantation Ruins Dade Battlefield DeSoto Site Dudley Farm Fort Foster Fort Mose Fort Zachary Taylor Gamble Plantation Indian Key Koreshan Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Homestead Natural Bridge Battlefield Olustee Battlefield Orman House Paynes Creek San Marcos de Apalache Yellow Bluff Fort Yulee Sugar Mill Ruins Crystal River Lake Jackson Mounds Letchworth-Love Mounds Madira Bickel Mound Mound Key San Pedro Underwater
Preserves and reserves	Allen David Broussard Catfish Creek Anclote Key Cedar Key Scrub Charlotte Harbor Crystal River Disney Wilderness Estero Bay Green Cay Wetlands Fakahatchee Strand Hal Scott Kissimmee Prairie Lower Wekiva River Paynes Prairie Pumpkin Hill Creek River Rise Rock Springs Run San Felasco Hammock Savannas Seabranch St. Lucie Inlet St. Sebastian River Tarkiln Bayou Topsail Hill Tosohatchee Waccasassa Bay Yellow River Marsh
State trails	Blackwater Heritage Florida Keys Overseas Heritage Gainesville-Hawthorne General James A. Van Fleet Jacksonville-Baldwin Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway Nature Coast Palatka-Lake Butler Palatka-to-St. Augustine Tallahassee-St. Marks Historic Railroad Withlacoochee
State forests	Belmore Big Shoals Blackwater River Carl Duval Moore Cary Charles H. Bronson Cottage Hill Deep Creek Etoniah Creek Four Creeks Goethe Holopaw Indian Lake Jennings John M. Bethea Lake George Lake Talquin Lake Wales Ridge Little Big Econ Matanzas Myakka Okaloacoochee Slough Picayune Strand Pine Log Point Washington Ralph E. Simmons Memorial Ross Prairie Seminole Tate's Hell Tiger Bay Twin Rivers Wakulla Watson Island Welaka Withlacoochee

Local level

Preserves and reserves	Boyd Hill Gumbo Limbo Moccasin Lake

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Authority control databases
International	VIAF
National	United States Israel

Name

History

Recreation

See also

References

External links