Paynes Creek Historic State Park

(Redirected from Paynes Creek Historical State Park) State park in Florida, United States

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Paynes Creek Historic State Park

Site of park in U.S. state of FloridaShow map of FloridaPaynes Creek Historic State Park (the United States)Show map of the United States
Location	Hardee County, Florida, USA
Nearest city	Bowling Green, Florida
Coordinates	27°37′33″N 81°48′14″W / 27.62583°N 81.80389°W / 27.62583; -81.80389
Governing body	Florida Department of Environmental Protection

Payne's Creek Massacre--Fort Chokonikla Site
U.S. National Register of Historic Places

Nearest city	Bowling Green, Florida
Area	400 acres (161.9 ha)
Built	1849
NRHP reference No.	78000944
Added to NRHP	November 21, 1978

Paynes Creek Historic State Park is a Florida State Park located on Lake Branch Road one-half mile southeast of Bowling Green, Florida. On November 21, 1978, it was added to the United States National Register of Historic Places, under the title of Payne's Creek Massacre-Fort Chokonikla Site (also known as "site of Chokonikla blockhouse and bridge" or "Military cemetery").

History

Attack after the Second Seminole War

Following the First Seminole War the Treaty of Moultrie Creek and the Treaty of Payne's Landing (see also Treaty of Fort Gibson) created reservations for the Seminoles in central and southern Florida . When the Second Seminole War ended, the Armed Occupation Act of 1842 was enacted by the federal government that let settlers apply for a 160-acre (0.6 km) to homestead in Florida.

Ignoring the terms of the treaties with the Seminoles, settlers moved southward, encroaching on the reservation. The remaining Seminole, Mikasuki and Creek leaders in central and south Florida such as Billy Bowlegs (Holata Micco), Abiaka (Sam Jones) and Chipco were leery of their new neighbors.

Their ability to trade was limited by the government through the treaties, so as to prevent them from obtaining weapons to cause further conflict. To compensate, white-run trading stores were permitted on the reservation's outskirts to the north and west, letting the Indians obtain supplies and luxuries unavailable within the reservation.

Many of the trading posts were built by Kennedy and Darling, two army sutlers from Fort Brooke who had started their own trading company. Their first trading post on Charlotte Harbor north of the Caloosahatchee river was damaged in the September 1848 Hurricane, eventually abandoned (spring 1849); which subsequently burned down and that area is now known as Burnt Store.

Another such store was constructed in the spring of 1849 along the Charlo-popka-hatchee-chee (Little Trout-Eating Creek in Seminole), west of Peas Creek (later known as the Peace River), near present-day Bowling Green. The proprietors were Capt. George Payne and Dempsey Whidden.

On July 17, 1849, Payne and Whidden were killed and wounded William McCullough and Nancy (Whidden) McCullough by five renegade Seminoles, following which the store and everything in it was burned. Another deadly attack occurred just days earlier on July 12, 1849, at the Indian River settlement, near Fort Pierce.

Fort Chokonikla

The attack on the trading post in present-day Hardee county caused many of the settlers to flee to the nearest block houses, then ask for military forces to be sent so they could return to their homes in safety.

This led to the establishment of Fort Chokonikla near the site of the former trading post only three months later, on October 26. The fort's name is believed to derive from the Seminole "Chocka-nickler" meaning "burnt store". It was also variously spelled at the time as "Chokkonickla" or "Chokhonikla".

Following the fort's completion, the nearby creek (Haste Lotka) became known as Payne's Creek, which it is still called to this day.

However, due to its location near a swamp, a breeding site for mosquitos, many of those stationed at the fort contracted and died of malaria. This became such a problem that the fort's doctor recommended the fort's closure. The army quickly agreed, and the fort was vacated on July 18, 1850, after less than nine months of occupancy, and a year and a day after Payne and Whidden's deaths.

Recreational activities

Activities include canoeing, kayaking, fishing, geocaching, and bird and butterfly watching. Amenities include a number of historic sites, three picnic pavilions, and a museum at the visitor center that recreates pioneer life.

Hours

Florida state parks are open between 8 am and sundown every day of the year (including holidays).

References

"National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.

External links

Media related to Paynes Creek Historic State Park at Wikimedia Commons

Paynes Creek Historic State Park at Florida State Parks
Paynes Creek State Historic Site at Absolutely Florida
Hardee County listings at National Register of Historic Places
Hardee County listings at Florida's Office of Cultural and Historical Programs
Fort Chokonikla at Ghost Towns and History of the American West
Fort Chokonikla at Cracker Barrel – Genealogy & History By Spessard Stone
Allen C. Altvater webpage
- The Massacre at Payne’s Creek
- Chokonikla

Protected areas of Florida

Federal level

National parks	Biscayne Dry Tortugas Everglades
National memorials	De Soto Fort Caroline
National monuments	Castillo de San Marcos Fort Matanzas
National seashores	Canaveral Gulf Islands
National forests	Apalachicola Choctawhatchee Ocala Osceola
National wildlife refuges	Archie Carr Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee Caloosahatchee Cedar Keys Chassahowitzka Crocodile Lake Crystal River Egmont Key Florida Panther Great White Heron Hobe Sound Island Bay J.N. 'Ding' Darling Key West Lake Wales Ridge Lake Woodruff Lower Suwannee Matlacha Pass Merritt Island National Key Deer Okefenokee Passage Key Pelican Island Pine Island Pinellas St. Johns St. Marks St. Vincent Ten Thousand Islands
Other national protected areas	Big Cypress National Preserve Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve
National Marine Sanctuaries	Florida Keys Key Largo (1975–1990) Looe Key (1981–1990)
National Estuarine Research Reserves	Apalachicola NERR Guana Tolomato Matanzas NERR Rookery Bay NERR
National Wild and Scenic Rivers	Loxahatchee River Wekiva River

State level

Parks	Amelia Island Anastasia Avalon Bahia Honda Bald Point Big Lagoon Big Shoals Big Talbot Island Bill Baggs Cape Florida Bulow Creek Caladesi Island Camp Helen Cayo Costa Collier–Seminole Colt Creek Curry Hammock Delnor-Wiggins Pass Devil's Millhopper Don Pedro Island Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson Eden Gardens Egmont Key Falling Waters Faver-Dykes Florida Caverns Fort Clinch Fort Cooper Fort George Island Fort Pierce Inlet Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou Gasparilla Island George Crady Bridge Fishing Pier Grayton Beach Henderson Beach Highlands Hammock Honeymoon Island Hontoon Island Hugh Taylor Birch John D. MacArthur Beach John Pennekamp Coral Reef Jonathan Dickinson Little Talbot Island Long Key Lovers Key Mike Roess Gold Head Branch North Peninsula O'Leno Oscar Scherer Perdido Key Price's Scrub Sebastian Inlet Skyway Fishing Pier St. Andrews St. George Island St. Marks River St. Joseph Peninsula Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center Stump Pass Beach Tomoka Torreya Windley Key Fossil Reef
Botanical garden parks	Alfred B. Maclay Gardens Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Lignumvitae Key Ravine Gardens Washington Oaks
Lakes, rivers and springs parks	Deer Lake Lake Griffin Lake June in Winter Scrub Lake Kissimmee Lake Louisa Lake Manatee Lake Talquin Alafia River Blackwater River Dunns Creek Econfina River Hillsborough River Little Manatee River Myakka River Ochlockonee River Oleta River Suwannee River Three Rivers Blue Spring De Leon Springs Edward Ball Wakulla Springs Fanning Springs Homosassa Springs Wildlife Ichetucknee Springs Lafayette Blue Springs Madison Blue Spring Manatee Springs Ponce de Leon Springs Rainbow Springs Silver Springs Troy Spring Weeki Wachee Springs Wekiwa Springs Werner-Boyce Salt Springs Wes Skiles Peacock Springs
Recreation areas	Dead Lakes Gamble Rogers Memorial
Museums, historic sites, and archaeological sites	Addison Blockhouse Cedar Key Museum Constitution Convention Museum Forest Capital Museum John Gorrie Museum Ybor City Museum The Barnacle Bulow Plantation Ruins Dade Battlefield DeSoto Site Dudley Farm Fort Foster Fort Mose Fort Zachary Taylor Gamble Plantation Indian Key Koreshan Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Homestead Natural Bridge Battlefield Olustee Battlefield Orman House Paynes Creek San Marcos de Apalache Yellow Bluff Fort Yulee Sugar Mill Ruins Crystal River Lake Jackson Mounds Letchworth-Love Mounds Madira Bickel Mound Mound Key San Pedro Underwater
Preserves and reserves	Allen David Broussard Catfish Creek Anclote Key Cedar Key Scrub Charlotte Harbor Crystal River Disney Wilderness Estero Bay Green Cay Wetlands Fakahatchee Strand Hal Scott Kissimmee Prairie Lower Wekiva River Paynes Prairie Pumpkin Hill Creek River Rise Rock Springs Run San Felasco Hammock Savannas Seabranch St. Lucie Inlet St. Sebastian River Tarkiln Bayou Topsail Hill Tosohatchee Waccasassa Bay Yellow River Marsh
State trails	Blackwater Heritage Florida Keys Overseas Heritage Gainesville-Hawthorne General James A. Van Fleet Jacksonville-Baldwin Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway Nature Coast Palatka-Lake Butler Palatka-to-St. Augustine Tallahassee-St. Marks Historic Railroad Withlacoochee
State forests	Belmore Big Shoals Blackwater River Carl Duval Moore Cary Charles H. Bronson Cottage Hill Deep Creek Etoniah Creek Four Creeks Goethe Holopaw Indian Lake Jennings John M. Bethea Lake George Lake Talquin Lake Wales Ridge Little Big Econ Matanzas Myakka Okaloacoochee Slough Picayune Strand Pine Log Point Washington Ralph E. Simmons Memorial Ross Prairie Seminole Tate's Hell Tiger Bay Twin Rivers Wakulla Watson Island Welaka Withlacoochee

Local level

Preserves and reserves	Boyd Hill Gumbo Limbo Moccasin Lake

v t e U.S. National Register of Historic Places in Florida
Lists by county	Alachua Baker Bay Bradford Brevard Broward Calhoun Charlotte Citrus Clay Collier Columbia DeSoto Dixie Duval Escambia Flagler Franklin Gadsden Gilchrist Glades Gulf Hamilton Hardee Hendry Hernando Highlands Hillsborough Holmes Indian River Jackson Jefferson Lake Lee Leon Levy Liberty Madison Manatee Marion Martin Miami-Dade Monroe Nassau Okaloosa Okeechobee Orange Osceola Palm Beach Pasco Pinellas Polk Putnam Santa Rosa Sarasota Seminole St. Johns St. Lucie Sumter Suwannee Taylor Union Volusia Wakulla Walton Washington
Lists by city	Miami Tampa
Other lists	Black Public Schools Bridges Multiple Property Submissions National Historic Landmarks Woman's clubhouses
Keeper of the Register History of the National Register of Historic Places Property types Historic district Contributing property

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