Tallahassee: East of Eden

Noah's Ark (from a painting by Edward Hicks)

Those who think that Florida is as close to the

Garden of Eden as they’ll ever get might just be right. 

Fun in the sun aside, Baptist minister Elvy E.

Callaway believed that the original Garden of Eden was forty-something miles west of the

Florida state capital, Tallahassee, near Bristol

in Liberty County.  (Haven’t heard of Bristol?

Perhaps that’s because only about 900 people

live there, according to the 2005 U. S. Census Bureau statistics.)

Travel writer Rory MacLean describes modern-day Bristol as “a small dusty town of dirt roads, shabby bungalows and yawning caravans.”   However, when MacLean journeyed there in search of the elusive Adam’s apple, he got more than he ever bargained for.  According to one of the City Hall locals (interestingly named Willy Prophet) - not only is Bristol nearby the original Garden of Eden, but it is also nearby the original Noah’s Ark.

How so?  According to Prophet, “…if you check the tides and currents of the oceans that was probably

at that time, you’ll find that they’d carry a vessel without a rudder straight from Bristol to Mt. Ararat.”  Not only that, Wikipedia reports that Torreya taxifolia (commonly known as “gopher wood” – which is also

what the wood of Noah’s Ark has been called) is a rare and endangered species that can be found in the Bristol region.

Callaway had also pointed out that the Apalachicola River, which flows near Bristol as part of its 112-mile

trip from the Florida/Georgia border south through the Panhandle, “is fed by four primary tributaries or ‘heads,’ exactly like the river described in the Book of Genesis.”  Exploresouthernhistory.com also explains that in the area identified by Callaway as the Garden of Eden, “there are rare plants and animals, some of which are found nowhere else in the world.”

Resources

http://www.travelintelligence.com/travel-writing/the-garden-of-eden-florida     

http://www.exploresouthernhistory.com/apalachicolabluffs2.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol,_Florida

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torreya_taxifolia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apalachicola_River

Copyright May 16, 2012 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved