Arcadia Mill Archaeological Site (HistoryQuest 01) Virtual Cache

Figure 2: Nature Trail on the Arcadia Settlement
Figure 3: The Boardwalk

Arcadia Mill Overview

The former Arcadia settlement was set among the pine forests of what is now Santa Rosa County, Florida. The 43 acre property is a historical and archaeological site with a diverse history that stretches back approximately 200 years.

Arcadia is the site of the first and largest antebellum industrial complex in Florida. The multifaceted operation included a sawmill, a lumber mill with planing and lathing machines, the Arcadia Pail Factory, a shingle mill, textile mill, an experimental silk operation, and one of the first railroads chartered in territorial Florida. Arcadia also included a thriving industrial village of mixed ethnicity included enslaved African Americans, Anglo-American laborers, and high –status Anglo-American managers. The site’s historical significance extends beyond its antebellum roots including a few small Civil War skirmishes, the Arcadia Farm period during the late 19th to early 20th century, and the historic preservation movement that protected the site during the 1960s.

Arcadia originated as a Spanish land grant given to Juan de la Rua in 1817. Over the next eleven years, he partially cleared the property and quarried some of the valuable sandstone that naturally occurs on site. Research suggests that Rua did not develop the land or build any mill facilities. After becoming involved in Pensacola politics and the brick industry, Rua sold the land grant to Joseph Forsyth in 1828 for $400.00.

Upon purchasing the land grant, Forsyth, a Pensacola merchant and shipper, began his industrial endeavor by quarrying the sandstone to build the Pensacola Wharf. By 1829, a sawmill was under construction along Pond Creek. In 1830, Forsyth sold the northeast quarter of the land grant to Timothy Twitchell for $121.00. Twitchell developed his portion of the parcel to include a sawmill, shingle mill, the Arcadia Pail Factory, and an experimental silk cocoonery.

Also in 1830, Forsyth partnered with Andrew and Ezekiel Simpson, brothers with significant mill experience from their father’s sawmill Woodbine. The Simpson brothers provided mill knowledge and capital to the Arcadia operation. The firm of Forsyth and Simpson began to build an extensive mill complex including a 1,400 ft. dam, a system of millraces, and a 60-acre mill pond. In thick yellow pine forests, lumbermen were busy harvesting pine, juniper, and cypress for the mills. The loggers, armed with axes and crosscut saws, felled giant trees that stretched upwards of 70 ft. to the first limb. Once down, the trees were trimmed, placed on oxcarts and transported to the log flume to be moved down to the Arcadia mill pond.

The lumber business at Arcadia flourished, yet Forsyth and Simpson looked for new ways to expand the operation and address transportation issues. Arcadia was located three miles from Blackwater River, the main shipping channel. During the first few years, products were hauled by barge or wagon, which proved to be slow and inefficient. In 1835, both the Pond Creek and Blackwater River Canal Company and the Escambia Manufacturing Company were formed. The manufacturing company was the first attempt to establish a textile mill at Arcadia. In 1838, canal construction ceased and a small railroad was built instead. The Arcadia Railroad Company produced one of first railroads in territorial Florida. Around this time, Ezekiel Simpson built an impressive Louisiana-style home at Arcadia that is subject of ongoing archaeological and historical research.

The solution to Arcadia’s transportation woes came with the successful adaption of the steam engine to lumber milling. In 1840, Forsyth and Simpson relocated their lumber mills to the Blackwater River, establishing the town of Bagdad. With the exception of Twitchell’s operation, Arcadia was dormant for nearly five years until Forsyth and Simpson revived the plan for a textile mill. In 1845, the Escambia Manufacturing Company was renamed the Arcadia Manufacturing Company. By September, a two story brick textile mill was constructed which ran 960 spindles and 24 looms. The mill was initially operated by 40 young female, African American slaves that were purchased in Virginia.

By 1848, textile production reached 6,000 yards of cloth weekly while consuming 1,000 pounds of cotton daily. By 1849, the enslaved workforce at Arcadia had increased to approximately 100 laborers who were manufacturing 7,800 yards of cloth per week. The Arcadia textile mill operated until 1855 when the mill burned just a few months after the death of Joseph Forsyth. The remaining stockholders chose not to rebuild the mill and placed the land up for sale in 1856. The sale attracted no buyers and the land eventually passed into the Simpson family.

During the Civil War, Arcadia was the site of several small skirmishes and the Simpson house was used as a Confederate outpost. Following Reconstruction in the 1880s, Charles Elliott was contracted to recover second growth timber in the Pond Creek Valley. Elliott cleaned out the 16-mile log flume at Arcadia and extended it eastward to Bagdad. The work of Charles Elliott was the last attempt of industrial expansion at Arcadia Mill. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Simpson homestead operated as Arcadia Farm. Ezekiel’s son, Charles H., ran a successful farm operation that included modern waterworks, breeding birds, and livestock.

The industrial complex was relatively dormant until a local historian, Warren Weekes, generated awareness of protecting the site from residential development. In the 1980s, the Santa Rosa Historical Society acquired 34 acres of the original land grant and in 1987, the site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2004, the Santa Rosa Historical Society donated the property to the University of West Florida (UWF) to function as a public, historical site. Archaeological research has been ongoing since 1988, with the most recent work focusing on the diverse community of enslaved African American laborers and Anglo-American managers. Today, the University of West Florida owns 43 acres that are managed by the UWF Historic Trust.

Virtual Reward - 2017/2018 This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between August 24, 2017 and August 24, 2018. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards on the Geocaching Blog.