Next we began the actual “road” portion of the road trip as Atlanta receded into the distance behind us. We spaced our drives into four segments of 5-6 hours each to make them manageable. I figured that would cover a decent distance without consuming the entire day. The first leg covered Atlanta to Macon to Albany to Tallahassee to Apalachicola more-or-less.
Of course that is not the most efficient route between Atlanta and Apalachicola. I had some counties to count along the way and this let me add fourteen new counties through minor deviations and a couple of short jogs. I considered this a decent tradeoff that only added about 45 minutes to the drive. Plus I got to see the surprising missile in Cordele as we drove across Georgia.
Locals called our destination on the Florida Gulf Coast the “Forgotten Coast.” It’s entirely appropriate. Imagine any stretch of waterfront Florida and the Apalachicola region defies the stereotype. Few people live here, traffic isn’t a problem, condos don’t block the view, and tourists largely venture elsewhere. I’ve mentioned Apalachicola only one time in the entirety of writing Twelve Mile Circle: it is the last place in the United States where a few remaining watermen gather oysters by hand using tongs. Even that may no longer exist now. Forgotten Coast, indeed.
The area has three primary settlements — Apalachicola, Eastpoint and St. George Island, and I’ll talk about each. As a reminder, this was supposed to be a trip about visiting family and yet I have absolutely no family connection to this place. I never set foot on the Forgotten Coast until now. But I had an ulterior motive and that involved the biodiversity of the Apalachicola National Forest. More on that later.
Apalachicola
Apalachicola is the “big” town down there and it has fewer than 2,500 residents (map). Nonetheless it has all of the modern necessities and serves as a gateway for the rest of the region. It has a quaint walkable downtown along its waterfront that I found rather enjoyable despite the heat. Commercial seafood underpins the local economy although sports fishing increasingly attracts tourists to the area. Nevertheless it remains a blue-collar working town.
By the way I had the hardest time writing Apalachicola because it’s spelled so similarly to Appalachia. That led me to wonder if they have related etymologies. I still don’t know but it’s possible. They were both filtered through the lens of the Spanish colonial era at around the same time. Apalachicola referred originally to a Native settlement along the lower Chattahoochee River. Similarly, Appalachia referred originally to a Native settlement near present day Tallahassee.
So it appears that some geographic proximity existed between their respective namesakes. Nobody would consider Florida part of Appalachia today although that’s where the Spanish first placed it on their maps. I had no idea until just now.
Apalachicola is know for it’s oysters so it made sense to call the local brewery Oyster City Brewing. One more for the list!
Eastpoint
Eastpoint sits east of Apalachicola on a point, on the other side of Apalachicola Bay (map). It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out how they named it. However it doesn’t feel like a formally defined town in the same way as Apalachicola with its distinguishable downtown and such. No, Eastpoint was more like a string of buildings straddling either side of Route 98 for awhile. It also felt less prosperous, like maybe people found affordable housing out here but worked in Apalachicola or St. George Island.
I’m not saying that in a derogatory manner. We stayed at an Airbnb home in Eastpoint and I liked it just fine. Well, maybe partially because we were within walking distance of Eastpoint Beer. I liked the brewery so much that I went back a second time the next evening. It was a joy to sit by the dock and watch the sunset. The rest of the family wasn’t quite as enamored of our location — they felt it was too quiet and isolated . But of course I teleworked one of the days while they had to go find something to do. Ultimately they drove an hour and a half to Tallahassee just to see a movie (Oppenheimer).
St. George Island
One afternoon I drove across the 4-mile Bryant Patton bridge from Eastpoint to St. George Island (map) and found where the rich people lived! It looked entirely different than anything in Apalachicola or Eastpoint. Naturally these were vacation homes. However, the only thing that kept coming back to my mind was their vulnerability during the next hurricane. We all know it’s going to happen and yet all of these million+ dollar homes were lined up within feet of the Gulf like bowling pins ready to be knocked down. Then I suppose they will build them all over again until rising sea levels eventually make it impossible.
But until that day let’s enjoy the lighthouse! Yes, I completed another lighthouse visit and added it to my list. A lighthouse rose along this stretch of beach in 1852 but it collapsed in 2005. Hurricanes and shifting sands finally undermined it. So they built a new one in 2008 and that’s what visitors see today (map). It’s built in a style that makes it look old but it’s not. In fact it’s practically brand new but that didn’t stop me from climbing to the top.
Articles in the Southern Heat Series
See Also: The Complete Photo Album on Flickr
Leave a Reply