January 2018 Program - The Spring Creek Community

Post date: Jan 01, 2018 9:6:51 PM

The Spring Creek Community

Our panel for the January program on Spring Creek will include some of the grandchildren of the early residents of Spring Creek.  This is a unique community in Wakulla County, it has survived on its ability to weather serious storms and floods and rebuild. It has provided a source of food to many Wakulla families. There have been many fine boat builders calling Spring Creek home.

Spring Creek has been a tourist destination since the late 1800s, when farmers from Georgia came down during the winter to procure seafood and fowl for the summer.  Whole families would make the trip and set up camps along the bay to fish and hunt.  They shared their bounty within the families and then with their fellow campers, it was a rite of passage for many children.  The seafood was plentiful and so were the geese, ducks and other species of fowl, which made it easy to share the harvest. 

Local Wakulla county folks also benefited from the winter harvest as a way to supplement their income.  They caught mullet, salted some and the fresh fish were packed in ice and wrapped in croaker sacks.  They travelled as far away as Thomasville, Moultrie and Bainbridge in wagons and camped along the way to sell fish.

Spring Creek was combined with Shell Point and Crawfordville for many years on the census records and did not have its own precinct.  The Wakulla County Historical Society has a copy of the 1928 Voter Registration book in its archives.   The first recorded census for Spring Creek was 1930.

According to an article written by Ann Estes, Correspondent Wakulla News, and published by the Wakulla County Chamber of Commerce in the pamphlet “Welcome to Wakulla County”:

"The year 1903 marked the first settler in Shady Sea, now a popular coastal fishing village known as Spring Creek, a Mr. Paul, who owned a considerable amount of valuable real estate.  Mr. Paul is said to have drowned in Paul's Hole and was buried in the Spring Creek community.

Tom Greiner built the first oyster house in 1904 and sold oysters for 25 cents a bushel.

Forney Gaston Stevens built the first frame residence in 1905.”

Nothing holds a place together like its sense of family connections. Many of the residents of Spring Creek are direct descendents of the original landowners. Their love for Spring Creek goes deep and they are proud to share their memories, family stories and experiences with us. 

Come be with us on January 9th at 7pm at the Wakulla Public Library and enjoy the tales of Spring Creek.

--Helen Strickland