Pioneer Village at Shingle Creek

Trying to drive around Kissimmee is a challenge because of Disney World- and this time of the year is not yet even its peak season!  We felt rather smug about avoiding that place and finding other attractions to visit, certainly ones much cheaper.  One such place is Pioneer Village.  This village is a recreation of life of the Seminole, settlers and cowmen from the period of 1880 to 1916.  In 1988 Lt. Col. William Cadsman of Yorkshire bought 8 acres of orange groves in Florida.  His wife was ready to return home to England upon seeing the Seminole Indians- but did stay.  Pictured below is their home, which had an outdoor kitchen, and bunkhouse for their boys.

James Tyson, another Florida cracker farmer, had 21 acres of land; 10 acres on which he raised vegetables.  In 1889 he married a 16 year-old girl and they had 11 children whom they raised in a modest one room home. Seems he could have built a bunkhouse too!

 

The village also has a replica of a Seminole settlement.  The native Indians of Central Florida lived in the Kissimmee River Valley on elevated hammocks or islands.  Their shelters, "chickees", were built from pine logs and palm thatch.  Floors were elevated to prevent flooding in the home.

We saw more early settler's homes as we hiked along Shingle Creek.  The creek is the headwaters to the Everglades, flowing 23 miles beginning in the north near Orlando and ending in Lake Tohopekaliga.  And it is interesting how the creek received its name- it is actually a simple explanation   Pioneers used the cypress trees from the creek to shingle their roofs.

Pictured above is the Steffee cabin, built in 1880, it is along the trail in Shingle Creek Regional Park.  The trail is multi-use and located in one of Florida's busiest urban areas.   As we found in other areas of Florida, the water level is high in the creek and brush has piled up because of Hurricane Irma.