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Fort Caroline Monument or National Memorial area is surrounded with oak trees with abundance of Spanish Moss that grows hanging from tree branches in full sun or partial shade. Spanish Moss grows well in Florida or places where the climate is warm enough and has a relatively high average humidity. The plant has aerial roots and its flowers are tiny and inconspicuous. It propagates both by seed and vegetatively by fragments that blow on the wind and stick to the tree limbs, or are carried by by birds as nesting material. Spanish Moss is an "epiphyte"-lives upon other plants which absorbs nutrients and water from the air and rainfall, colloquially known as "air plant". It can grow so quickly on tree limbs that it gives a somewhat "gothic" appearance to the landscape, and while it rarely kills the trees, it lowerstheir growth rate by reducing thr amount of sunlight to a tree's own leaves. It also increases wind resistance, which can prove fatal to the host tree in a hurricane.

by Nick Munoz Chan January 26, 2010

The Land of Trembling Earth

Welcome to the mysterious Okefenokee Swamp – The “Bubbling Water” or “The Trembling Earth” as the native Indians - most likely the Seminoles called it. The swamp has long been the source of myth, lore and legend. It is a vast 700 square mile wilderness of grasslands, wetlands, lakes and peat bog islands anchored by towering cypress trees growing from still, dark water. It straddles the Georgia-Florida border but mostly in the state of Georgia side. Okefenokee’s diverse natural environments and teeming wildlife have dominated the infrequent efforts of humans to tame it.

The swamp is considered to be one of the “Seven Wonders” of Georgia” and North America’s largest peat-based, one of the largest in the world.

My hunting buddies hunted around and near the swamp in the early eighties using paddling boats and canoes but the Game Wardens were quick to turned us away or face stiff penalties including confiscation of everything we owned in the swamp vicinity including all vehicles – boats and trucks and rifles. According to one Game warden, technically-he can confiscate our clothes too if we possessed a wild animal from the swamp.

Indian artifacts date back some 4,000 years. The first European settlement occurred in 1626 when the Spanish built a mission at the headwaters of St Marys River. In the 1880s, homesteading families moved in to create isolated lifestyles that became Okefenokee folklore.

Entrepreneurs in the 1880s possessed more imagination than logic – attempting to drain the entire swamp into the St Marys River. In 1909, a massive logging operation cut 425 million boardfeet of lumber over the next 18 years.

It has long been well protected by the National Wildlife Refuge and the Okefenokee Wilderness, prohibited to cut a tree, can’t even pull out a weed. St Marys River originates from the swamp and drains about 10% of the swamp’s southeastern corner and eventually flows less than 30 miles into the Atlantic Ocean. The longer Suwannee River originates from the swamp too and drains about 90% of the swamp’s watershed southwest into the Gulf of Mexico.

For many years, great women champions such as Steffi Graf, L Davenport, M Pierce, M Seles, Arantxa  Sanchez, the Williams and few others came to the island (about same size as Manhattan, NY) yearly to play and won their championships. But the young lady who really graced the courts was Anna Kournikova although she didn’t win any major, she was the darling of photographers & journalist-men and women alike,,,lucky Enrique! 

ANNA KOURNIKOVA 

MPS Group, a fortune 1000 global staffing firm of Jacksonville, Florida, became the official tournament title sponsor. The annual event was moved closer to Jax – 10 miles east toward the Atlantic Ocean in Ponte Vedra Beach, right next door to the TPC Sawgrass (golf).The first champion (2009) at the new location was Caroline Wozniacki when she defeated Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada.   

CAROLINE WOZNIACKI

There are many Filipinos employed at the TPC-Tournament Players Championship- at the galley, hotel, clubhouse, Dinning, bldg & ground maintenance, the offices and wherever a worker is needed. The pinoys learned each player/celebrity’s habit or character-who is generous and who is big tipper. They call the Tegri as the “Ilocano” while his tatay is more generous.

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There’s not much to see in the city for entertainment. There are however few interesting institutions in the city and its suburb.

The settlement that became Jacksonville was founded in 1791 as Cowford, so named because of its location at a narrow point in the river where cattle once crossed. In 1822, a year after the US acquired the colony from Spain, the city was renamed for Andrew Jackson, the first military governor of Florida Territory and who would become the seventh US president (1829-1837). Oddly, the former US Forces General Jackson never set foot in Jacksonville although he led the first battle against the Seminole Indians in Florida.

Jax is the USA’s largest city in land area, most populous city proper in the state and 12^th in the   U.S. The 310 miles long Saint Johns River cuts through the city, necessitating seven bridges to get in and out of the metropolis (a.k.a. River City) not to mention dozens of smaller bridges crossing the creeks and tributaries.

The river is one of small number of rivers in the US to run north. Mayport Naval Base is located near the river’s mouth toward the Atlantic Ocean. A bonus for vehicles to cross the St Johns River is the Mayport Ferry whose dock is only a fraction of a nautical mile from the base.

In the latter part of the last century, people from up north were lured to Florida for sunshine in the winter. Jacksonville was popular and growing fast due to the railroad transportation that connects the upper states and ended in the River City. A huge train station was erected to serve the growing tourist industry. It was the choice of vacationers - those who don’t want to ride the buggies further south.

Mr Henry Morrison Flagler (1830-1913) was an American tycoon with 8^th grade education from upstate New York. Orphaned at early age, he left home at 14 to work in his cousin’s store in Ohio where he learned about running a business. He grew up to become brilliant business man eventually partnering with great business men. Flagler became acquainted with John D. Rockefeller who was also working as commission agent for a grain company. Together, (with other men) they formed the Standard Oil Corporation, turned it as the largest oil refinery and made lots of money. They moved its headquarters to New York with their families.

In 1876 on the advice of his physician, Flagler traveled to Jacksonville for the winter with his first wife who was quite ill. Two years later, she died in 1881. The tycoon remarried and traveled south to St Augustine. He found the city charming, but the hotel facilities and transportation systems inadequate. He recognized Florida’s potential to attract out-of-state visitors.

Although he remained on the Board of Directors of Standard Oil, he gave up his day-to-day involvement in the corporation to pursue his interest in Florida. He returned to the country’s oldest city in 1885 and began construction on the 540-room Ponce de Leon Hotel. Realizing the need for a sound transportation system to support his hotel ventures, Flagler purchased short line railroads in what would later become known as the Florida East Coast Railway.              

PONCE DE LEON

ROYAL POINCIANA

BREAKERS HOTEL, PALM BEACH

There was no stopping for the hard-working brilliant achiever. He kept on developing cities and hotels moving southward erecting the 1,100-room Royal Poinciana Hotel in Palm Beach and continued to Miami and eventually to the Keys along with his railroad ventures. In 1912, proud Henry Flagler, rode the first train into Key West, marking the completion of the Florida East Coast (FEC) Railway’s connection of the entire east coast of Florida. Flagler’s construction of hotels at points along the railroad and his development of the agricultural industry established tourism and agriculture as Florida’s major industries. The great American accomplished these feats-amazingly-after he retired from his first career. His resources and imagination made him a legendary in Florida years after he founded vast empire up north.

THE OLD JACKSONVILLE TERMINAL

Alas, the continuing railroad to the south left Jacksonville practically abandoned. Vacationers rode the trains southward bypassing Jax. The well built Jacksonville terminal was the railroad gateway to Florida - built in the early 1900s- and replaced the first station built in 1883, was hardly used. Jacksonville became almost a ghost town. The station was last used in the mid-century, standing idly for many years until 1986 when it was converted into a huge modern Convention Center with 265 thousand square spaces. In 1982, a public-private partnership was started, led by former CSX chairman Prime F. Osborn III naming the Convention Center in his honor.

During the infancy of the railroad in the USA, Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) was constructed in 1828 creating America’s first common carrier railroad. B&O played a vital role in the growth & development of the Atlantic region, and paved the way for other regional railroads to follow. It was a departure from smaller rails that were intended to carry ore, coal nuggets and other minerals from inside the mines over hundred years earlier. 

Few years later, during the “Expansion Era” – 1830-1861, there were over dozens of railroad enterprises granted charter. Smaller companies were taken over by the larger ones. B&O continued expansion throughout the East Coast and into the mid-states, absorbing others and competitors and laying thousand miles of railroads for over a century.

After the WWII, as revenue declined & truck traffic increased, B&O and many other railroads were declaring bankruptcy & merger. In 1972, the “Chessie System” was born. In 1980, under the holding company name CSX (Chessie, Seaboard and many more) was formed, however, two years later, CSX merged all the RR formally into CSX with more than 27,000 miles and relocated its Headquarters in Jacksonville shortly thereafter. It is the leading transportation company providing rail, intermodal and rail-to-truck transload services. The present CEO is Michael Ward since 2003 when John W Snow was confirmed as Treasury Secretary.

CSX EVP & CFO is Oscar Munoz. Mr. Munoz (not from San Carlos, Pangasinan), holding degrees from USC and Pepperdine. He is often honored by the National Hispanics Business Associations. Prior to CSX, he held senior management positions at Pepsico, Coca Cola, and US West, Qwest and AT&T.  Oscar has garnered attention as a community and business leader, speaking at leadership conferences and earning award recognition of his leadership.