Koreshan Day 2

Friday I volunteered for the second time at Koreshan State Historic Site. The first time I went, I only got to see the campgrounds, but this time my volunteering took place in the actual historic settlement. We were instructed to first take the tour of the site, walk through all of the hundred year old buildings and get a bit of background education. The history behind this park is very interesting. The last four living people of the settlement donated over 300 acres of this land to the state of Florida. The Koreshans settled on the Estero River, which was full of fish and crabs and quite pretty with all of the vegetation surrounding it. There are nature trails too, which is where we learned about all of the invasive species (we of course had to pick up air potato seeds during our walk through of the trail--they can grow up to 8 inches per day and are very invasive). There are enormous bamboo forests, and although bamboo is not native to Florida, it was my favorite part of the trails. The gardens were very enchanting; everything is in bloom from spring. I also saw many native animal species like the gopher tortoise and a few types of snakes (mainly the Southern Black Racer)...not to mention very many mosquitos! Even though I have completed my ten hours of service learning, I have a feeling I will return to Koreshan again to camp for a weekend or kayak on the Estero river.

air potato (dioscorea bulbifera)