>>This program is brough to you in part by the Paul B. Hunter and Constance D. Hunter Charitable Foundation a proud partner of WUCF and the Central Florid community.

>>On this edition of Florida Road Trip, we're headed to Florida' northern gateway, Nassau County, where histor flows from the rails of Callahan to the shrimp docks of Fernandina Beach.

>>When the British took over Florida in 1763, they wanted to connect the new colony of Florid to the rest of their colonies.

They built a road called King's Road.

>>Then sail across centuries to Amelia Island.

Legacy was written, and grand Victorian homes still stand.

>>This island has kind of changed hands eight times.

You have a lot of different people from a lot of different places who bring their cultures and their ideas here.

>>Plus, step onto the sands of American Beach, built on the vision of Florida's first black millionaire.

>>He called it American Beach Resort for recreation and relaxation without humiliation.

>>From colonial crossroads to coastal culture to a seaside sanctuary born of resilience.

It's all waiting here in Nassau County.

Buckle up, Florida Road Trip is back on the road and ready to explore.

♪♪ Hi there and welcome to Florida Road Trip.

I'm Scott Fais.

We're in Nassau County, the northernmost point in Florida's east coast, and a place where the past is never far away.

From old railroads to shrimp boats to centuries worth of change.

This is a place where history runs deep.

We begin on the west side of the county, where these lands were shape by rail, turpentine and timber.

It's here in Callahan, where the new Florida frontier took root.

>>When the British took over Florida in 1763, they wanted to connect the new colony of Florid to the rest of their colonies, Georgia and South Carolina.

In order to do that, they built a road called King's Road, connected Saint Augustin up to Charleston and Savannah.

It passed through here and went inland because the tributaries near the coast are really larg and it's hard to build bridges.

>>Even some well known names once journeyed down these historic paths.

>>East Florida was a new territory.

So they wanted to explore Florida.

Daniel Boone came down in 1765.

He didn't write much about it, but he did come down.

He visited Saint Augustine, wasn't really impressed.

So he traveled out into West Florida and was really interested.

Maybe he would have moved there if it wasn't for his wife, Rebecca, who said no.

Ironically we've heard of William Bartram, him and his dad came in this area the same year his dad was a botanist for the Royal British Government.

They came down to Florida.

>>In the 1850s, another trailblazer helped reshape the area.

Senator David Yulee, who laid the track by bringing rail to the region, inspiring the birth of a new town.

>>He lived in Fernandina, and his idea was to connect the Atlantic Ocean with the Gulf of Mexico by a railroad, because it was too treacherous for ships to go around the Straits of Florida in Key West.

In 1855, they started in Fernandina, they hired a man called Danie Callahan to build the railroad.

It took them a year to cross over from Amelia Island over to the mainland Nassau, and by the summer of 1856, they reached this point here, which is the King's Road.

>>Across the county on Amelia Island, the stories go back even further.

This area is famousl known as the Isle Eight Flags.

>>This island has kind of changed hands eight times, at leas over the course of its history.

So first you have the French.

They show up and they settle here.

Eventuall the Spanish come and take over.

They're here for a little while.

The British get a hold of it for a little while.

The Spanish take it back.

Eventually it becomes part of the United States, and then it becomes part of the Confederacy for a little bit.

And then it's back to the United States.

What that means is you have a lot of different peopl from a lot of different places who bring their cultures and their ideas here.

>>Over time, the islan became a battleground of empires and crossroads of commerce.

Even its name, Amelia, was part of the effort to impress the British crown.

>>So that actually comes fro the Georgia governor Oglethorpe.

At the time, Georgia was still a British colony, and he was getting a little twitchy because the Spanish were so close to him.

His idea was if he named the island after the British king's favorite daughter, Amelia, it would make it more attractive to say, hey, we should have this thing.

>>While the island's name reflects the effort to gain favor with the British crown, Fernandina Beach plays homage to Spanish King Ferdinand.

[GUNFIRE] The strategic location of Amelia Island made it valuable for military defense.

On its northern tip, Fort Clinch, a brick fortress that watched over the coastline since before the Civil War.

Construction on the fort began in 1847, but before it reached completion, the fort was occupied with troops.

>>Later, Fort Clinch became one of Florida's first state parks in 1935, but in World War II, Fort Clinch again played a role of protection, with just one last job to do.

Serving as a joint center fo surveillance and communications.

>>Essentially, you went from missions to plantations over the course of time, especially with the Civil War and everything else.

The industry kind of had to pivot.

And so in the late 1800s, in the early 1900s, that's when they call it the golden age of Fernandina.

That's when you see those big Victorian houses.

And that' kind of the first tourism boom.

>>Many of thos who shaped the island's seafood legacy were Greek and Sicilian immigrants, who turned Fernandina Beach into a shrimping powerhouse.

>>And they start staking their livelihood on the shrimping industry.

And so they start putting motors on boats.

And then they do a lot of interesting things with nets, like the big trawls to drag along the bottom to get them.

And that kind of holds this place up for a period of time, becaus there's a big lull in business for a few decades until touris really starts to pick up again.

>>History and lore on full display at the Amelia Island Museum of History.

Housed inside a former county jail, it's packed with everything from shrimping artifacts to centuries old mission relics, with one fan favorite bubbling up: the soda fountain.

>>It's such a fun thing, and kids love it, too.

We have a lot of thing that were donated from families who have been here forever, so you get to kind of parse through and it's kind of fun, little more personal look at the history of the island that I think is really enjoyable.

>>Back in Callahan, history lives on through a tiny yet mighty train depot.

Originally built in 1881 and lovingly restored by the community.

>>We're actually on the David Yulee Railroad bed, 1856.

They renovated it, an then they opened it up in 1988.

It was a library at one time and a meeting room, and it's just evolved into the historical society's museum.

>>There's a lot of history in the old depot with two items that sing their own tune.

>>Drum heads were on the back of passenger trains and it's a specially made one.

Shriners of Morocco Temple, it's a Gator logo.

I think it was on the special train from Jacksonville to Gainesville when they went to Gator games or Gator Bowl games.

And also we have what we call a Chickering piano.

It's called a square piano.

[PIANO PLAYS] That rea ivory key that unfortunately... They stop makin Chickering pianos in the 1890s.

>>From timber to trains, from indigenous roots to immigrant grit.

Nassau County is more than just a place on the map.

It's a living timeline of Florida history.

♪♪ The American Revolutionary War arose from growing tensions between the British and the colonists of the original 13 Colonies.

And although Florida wasn't part of the original 13, what happened here in Nassau County directly impacted the war.

The Florida Territory was the property of Spain until 1763, when the Britis acquired possession of the land.

>>When the British took over Florida from the Spanish in 1763, they divided the old Spanish province of Florida into two colonies.

There was East Florida, wit the capital in Saint Augustine, and West Florid with the capital in Pensacola.

>>With the American colonies to the north rebelling against Great Britain, Florida was crucial to the British war effort.

>>We invaded Canada because Washington didn't want the British at its northern border.

So why would he be okay with the British being on the southern border?

>>So he thinks it's a priority for the United States to have the Floridas for American security, not for its economy, not for the people who live there.

It's just a bunch of sand and some pine trees.

We don't really want it, but we have to have it.

>>It wasn't like Washington was bored.

He was personally overseeing the siege of Boston.

He had an army invading Canada at the same time, and now he's calling for a third front, as far away from everything else as you can possibly get.

That's how significant they felt what was going on down here.

>>The swampy terrain along the Georgia-Florida line made entering East Florid from Georgia a major obstacle.

Continental troops found themselve navigating the swamps, rivers, and the Atlantic Ocean along King's Road.

>>Any land invasion from the north has to cross a lot of rivers and creeks.

One of the major engineering public works projects that the British ha was to create a road connecting Georgia across the Saint Marys River down to New Smyrna, and a little bit beyond New Smyrna.

This invasion force was using that road.

>>Florida's swampy, Callahan's low, and it's only 22ft above sea level.

Very swampy.

You had to, you know, weave aroun estuaries and swamps and stuff.

Whoever controlled that road controlled the entry into Florida at the time.

>>This path put Nassau Count as a prime location for conflict during the American Revolution, as its population was largely made up of immigrants and those with strong ties to the British Crown.

Immigrants include those from England and Scotland, along with loyalists from the rebellious colonies to the north.

Residents like the East Florida Rangers and many Native Americans.

Nassau County becam a vital region for the British, all in an effort to protect Saint Augustine.

The city to the south became a important target for the continental forces, as Saint Augustine served as a British hub for stockpiling goods, troops, and weaponry.

>>Washington authorizes five separate invasions of East Florida at various points.

The goal is Saint Augustine.

Trying to take Saint Augustin and the Floridas off the board, get them out of British hands was something that was strategically important.

>>It would have been a devastating blow if the Patriots could have captured Saint Augustine, they would have captured and ra the British off the continent.

>>In May of 1776, the first attempt cam as Georgia militia and colonial forces had taken control of a large section of land in East Florida between the Saint Marys River and the Saint Johns River.

But their position and control was soon weakened by swamp fever, poor morale, and the prying eyes of spies.

>>The only reason they got the American army out of that wedge between Saint Marys and Saint Johns is they sent spies into the camp and spread the rumor that there were 2,000 Cherokee warriors raiding the Georgia back country.

And you guys need to get home.

And they took off.

So that was the first attempt.

>>The second attempt came about a year later, in May of 1777, at the Battle of Thomas Creek, near Callahan.

>>This time, the Americans got as far as Thomas Creek.

The East Florida Rangers and British Army came up out of Saint Augustine.

Major Mark Prevost, the General's brother, had done an end around with his army, and they settled in at Thomas Creek and Thomas Brown and and the militia coming out of Saint Augustine drove them right into the British cannons waiting at Thomas Creek.

And it was an annihilation.

>>Only six months later, the Continental Army tried a third attempt that would lead to the Battle of Alligator Creek Bridge.

The skirmish started at Fort Tonin, a British fort built in Nassau County about 25 miles up the Saint Mary's River from Saint Augustine.

>>There was a battle at Fort Tonin, but it was actually a ruse and the idea was the Americans were going to attack there.

So they burnt the British, burne the fort, took off in this race to get away, but always just within sight.

You know, they weren't really trying to get away.

They got as far as Alligator Creek Bridge in Callahan, and they peeled off and the Americans came righ into Mark Prevost cannons again.

It was just a repeat of Thomas Creek just in the other direction.

>>Although George Washington sought further attempts to invade East Florida, all of those went unexecuted.

The conflicts here in Nassa County protected Saint Augustine as a hub for the British operation, leaving East Florida under British control for the rest of the war.

♪♪ >>Welcome to American Beach.

This strip of shore on Amelia Island is rooted in history and the spirit of the Gullah Geechee people, whose roots stretc all the way from the Carolinas here to Florida's northeast coast.

The Gullah Geechee ar descendants of enslaved Africans brought to the southeastern coast of the United States.

>>Gullah Geeche people are people who are native to the eastern Atlantic coast from North Carolina through Florida.

>>Because these coastal communities sat on barrier islands with limited acces to the mainland, their culture, languages, and tradition remained intact for generations.

>>Gulla is a very animated language, so within a short amount of words you would sometimes be able to tell a whole paragraph, like if you said [SPEAKING GULLAH] Now that means that the man ran very fast and in the direction that the person would be pointing.

"Yistiddy" was not like yesterday, it was like past.

In the past.

So the question might have been, where did the man go?

And that would be answer.

[SPEAKING GULLAH] So you would have explained an entire paragraph as to what happened, how fast he ran as you answered the question.

>>That same cultural identity is tied to the land that holds the history of enslavement, emancipation, and the communities built on Amelia Island.

>>Amelia Island was the Harrison plantation.

After the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln in 1863, way before the emancipation was ratified, 1863-4 he sent his Secretary of Defense or the Secretary of War, Edward Stanton, and Sherma General Sherman, to Fernandina to say, I need you guys to spend time in the South to understand what would happen to the enslaved people once they are free.

So they did just that.

They went from Charleston down to Jacksonville initially and came back to Fernandina.

Sherman made the special order 15 that said land of the Confederates would be taken.

There will be 400,000 acres from Charleston to Jacksonville that they would take, and then carve it into 40 acres per plantation.

Why?

>>That 40 acres would be given to the enslaved people to start their new life.

So this Harrison plantation deeded that 40 acres right next to where American Beach is right now and it was called Franklintown.

>>But segregation meant even the ocean wasn't always open to everyone.

>>There is a law in 1924, in Jacksonville that said no white person and no Negro person can bathe on the ocean within 500ft from each other.

>>Enter A.L.

Lewis, Florida's first black millionaire, president of the Afro-American Life Insurance Company and the visionary behind American Beach.

>>And in 1935, 33 acres of what we now call American Beach was purchased.

And the vision that A.L.

Lewis had to have black folk come to a place called the American Beach Resort.

And this is the quote of A.L.

Lewis "For recreation and relaxation without humiliation."

>>But in 1964, Hurricane Dora devastated the area.

That same year, the Civil Rights Act opened access to all beaches.

The combination meant American Beach's heyday faded until one determined woman stepped in: The Beach Lady.

>>After her opera career she began to write to all kinds of newspapers and magazine and on the news about American Beach and saying, you got to understand what American Beach is and da-da-da-da-da.

And people would write about it.

But until that designation, it became something cemented in and registered in the archives of the government.

>>American Beach stands a more than just a vacation spot.

It's a living link to the Gullah Geechee Corridor and illustrates what can happen when a community preserves its history.

>>Here in Nassau County, my neighbors are still in the same county, on the same barrier island where they had been enslaved since the 1700s and they continue to own land.

[SINGING] >>Forth to carry me home... >>And one tradition that continues to connect the past to the present is music.

Groups like the Duval County Ring Shouters share songs and rhythms rooted in African traditions and shaped by the Gullah Geechee people.

[SINGING] >>Carry Me Home.

>>From the rhythms of th language to the spiritual song.

Their culture reflects the same resilience that built American Beach.

Those stories of the past continu to inspire future generations.

[SINGING] Carry Me Home.

♪♪ >>Welcome to Saint Marys, Georgia.

A quiet coastal community jus across the river from Florida.

It's here, across state lines, that the Saint Marys Submarine Museum dives deep into the history and might of the U.S.

Navy and their underwater operations found along Florida's coastline.

At the turn of the 20th century, the US Navy entered a new era, one that would take some of its fleet beneath the waves.

The first step came with the purchase of a vesse designed to operate underwater.

>>We started in 1900 when the Navy bought its first submarine, the USS Holland, from John Holland, one of our early submarine inventors in April of 1900.

Along with Simon Lake and some others, were the early pioneers of the submarine force.

>>Thos early subs were small and slow.

Before World War II, nine were lost, but as the technology slowly advanced, so did their role in combat.

>>During the second half of the war, we took out over 60% of the shipping in the Pacific, but we paid a very heavy price for that.

We lost 52 submarines and over 3,500 men.

>>After the war, submarines transitioned from diesel to nuclear power.

In 1958, the USS Nautilus became the first su to cross under the North Pole.

>>That was a really a gam changer for Arctic operations, the first time that had ever been attempted.

>>Today, the submarine force is spread across seven home ports i the United States and overseas, each with its own role in protecting the nation.

>>In the submarine force we have right now, currently, we have seven base that are submarine home ports.

We have Groton, Connecticut, which is strictly submarine based fast attacks.

A squadron in Norfolk the main East Coast Navy base.

But we have a submarine squadron there.

We have Kings Bay here.

On the west coast we have a submarine base at Ballast Point outside of San Diego.

There, the Bangor, Washington base, which is our sister base to here.

They have ten Trident submarine spacer as well as the three Seawolf class, the Connecticut the Seawolf, the Jimmy Carter.

And we have fast attack submarines in Pearl Harbor.

And we have five submarines homeported in Guam.

>>Inside th Saint Mary's Submarine Museum, visitors can trace that history through rare artifacts, intricate models, and personal stories.

>>We have a periscope that goes through our room here and up through the attic, and you can see across the river to Fernandina Beach.

It's one of our most popula attractions here in the museum.

That happens to be a great example of the partnershi that we have with the Navy base that's o loan to us belongs to the Navy.

>>Among the museum's most unique possessions is its collection of World War II war patrol reports.

>>Our boats did over 1,600 war patrols.

This is from the USS Bumper their first war patrol in 1945.

We have between 95, 98% of all the war patrols that were done in our files here.

It's an amazing collection.

>>Think of it as a diary of what transpired on the boat that day.

The war Patrol reports from World War II document the battles they had, the ships they sunk, personnel that they lost.

So those are our unique snapshot on history of that particular boat.

Some of the boats that, you know did 13 patrol some did one, it just depended.

The battle flags are a representation of what happened during that patrol.

You'll have a rising sun flag indicating warships that were sunk.

You'll have a regular Japanese flag indicating merchant ships that were sunk.

They all convey the same message, just all in their own unique way.

The other thing that's on the battle flags is parachutes with stars or broken propeller or hash marks next to it, representin Allied pilots that were rescued.

The most famous U.S.

pilo rescued by an American submarine during World War Two is President Bush.

>>From U.S.

presidents to decades of documents.

The museum tells the story of local, national and international stories of submarine history.

And proving time can heal wounds, more than 200 year after the American Revolution, the British are again welcome and active in this part of Florida.

A lot of people don't know that the British come here, and the four missile boats, the vanguard, the vigilant, victorious, vengeance and those submarines carry our missiles on their boats.

So they come here to Kings Bay to load and offload missiles.

It was a win win for both countries.

It got them out there with us making patrol against the Soviet Union faster.

And that has stayed in place till today.

>>At the Saint Marys Submarine Museum, history just isn't behind glass.

It's alive in the stories, artifacts and community that supports it.

In a place where submarines still deploy from just across the river, the connection runs deep.

♪♪ Well, that's going to wrap up our journey through the history of Nassau County, from the battlefields of the American Revolution to the tribal beats of the Gullah Geechee.

History is alive and well on Florida's northeast coast.

Thanks for joining us.

I'm Scott Fais.

I look forward to seeing you again down the road for the next edition of Florida Road Trip.

Until then, safe travels everyone.

♪♪ >>This program is brought to yo in part by the Paul B. Hunter and Constance D. Hunter Charitable Foundation a proud partner of WUCF and th Central Florida community.