Historians
Do you love to hear the stories and absorb the culture of the places you travel? This region has inspired many authors to capture its myth and magic.
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
The quote below from Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings captures the deep connection many people feel for this wild and untamed area of Florida. She discovered a spiritual bond with nature itself here and has been one of the area’s great storytellers, with the location of her most famous novel, The Yearling, set along the scenic byway.
“If there can be such a thing as instinctual memory, the consciousness of land and water must lie deeper in the core of us than any knowledge of our fellow beings…We cannot live without the earth or apart from it, and something is shriveled in man’s heart when he turns away from it and concerns himself only with the affairs of men.”
– Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, from her novel Cross Creek.
Dana Ste. Claire
As a boy, Dana Ste. Claire marveled at the resourcefulness, pride, and wisdom of family friend Herbert Kinsey, from whom he learned to prepare swamp cabbage and cooter (turtle.) He grew up in what is now the byway region, loving the place and people so deeply that he wrote a book, Cracker: Cracker Culture in Florida History, about the complex and often misunderstood history of that group.
Dana Ste. Claire is also a heritage tourism professional with an emphasis on authenticity, entertainment education, and immersive environments.
He spearheaded a performing art troupe of fellow authors, musicians, and performers who developed the “Great Southern Cracker Road Show.” This troupe performed at the Barberville Pioneer Settlement in 2012 at the festival event marking the completion of the initial master plan for the byway.
Rick Tonyan
Rick Tonyan spent years researching local Florida “cow hunter” involvement in the Civil War for his novel Guns of the Palmetto Plains. Rick considers himself a “Florida Cracker” and has cracked a whip since he was a boy.
This “cracking” of the whip is one thing that made the Florida cow hunters unique – they kept the cattle together with the sound of the whip to avoid the entanglements lassoes would bring in the Florida foliage.
Vacationers
Adventurers
Naturalists
