Hidden Treasures of North Florida
Old Town
Shipwreck
Background: The City of Hawkinsville is a
surprisingly intact survivor of late 19th-century coastal steamboat
technology. Originally built at Abbeville, Georgia, in 1886 for the
Hawkinsville (Georgia) Deepwater Boat Lines, she was sold in June
1900 to the Gulf Transportation Company of Tampa for use on the
Suwannee River. The City of Hawkinsville was 141 feet long, with
two decks, a single smoke stack, a square stern, and a molded
bow.
Steamboats on the Suwannee She was a post-hurricane
newcomer, brought into the river to assist a booming lumber
industry. She was the largest and the last steamboat to be
stationed on the Suwannee River, serving a route that included
Branford, Clay's Landing, Old Town, and Cedar Key. Local accounts
contend that The City of Hawkinsville also was instrumental in the
construction of the rail bridge at Old Town. In doing so, she
quickened her own demise, since the moving of people and goods by
rail eventually rendered steamboats obsolete. Although accounts of
her last days vary, official registry records indicate that she was
in service until May 19, 1922, when her last captain, Mr. Currie,
abandoned the vessel and the occupation that could no longer
support him. Thus, the steamboating era of the Suwannee River came
to an end.
The
Hawkinsville Today Today, the City of Hawkinsville looks
like a story-book ghost ship, lying in shallow water on the west
bank of the Suwannee River, south of the old railroad trestle that
is now part of the Nature Coast Trail State Park, near Old Town.
The hull of the sunken steamer is virtually intact with her bow
pointing upriver. From the stempost, one can swim along the entire
deck of the vessel to her stern paddlewheel, exploring numerous
deck fittings and steam machinery along the way. Inside darkened
hatches, mudfish and catfish make their homes. The City of
Hawkinsville is marked by a series of buoys on her starboard side,
and by mooring buoys approximately 50 feet downstream from her
stern. Visitors are asked to tie up to the mooring buoys to prevent
anchor damage to the site, and to display a "diver down" flag.
Boats are not allowed over the structure of the Hawkinsville
shoreward of the marker buoys.
How to
Find the City of Hawkinsville The City of Hawkinsville
is located in shallow water on the western bank of the Suwannee
River, about 100 yards south of the railroad trestle (now a part of
the Nature Coast Trail State Park) at Old Town. Access to the site
is by boat only.
This cache was placed by a member of the
Northeast Florida
Geocachers Association
