Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park - Cross Creek, Florida

Some of the best known and most loved books about life in Florida in the early 20th century were written in this picturesque frame home in the small community of Cross Creek, Florida.

It was the home of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, a Northern-born writer who came to Florida permanently after visiting the state with her husband in 1928. The couple bought a 72-acre farm in Cross Creek, which is located on the east side of Orange Lake between Gainesville and Ocala. Her husband didn't care for life in the hot scrub and pine woods, but Marjorie remained to become one of the best-known writers in American history.


The books she wrote and based on the landscape and her neighbors in and around Cross Creek included "Cross Creek" and "South Moon Under." Her 1938 book, "The Yearling," was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1939 and was used as the basis for a popular movie of the same name.

The farm at Cross Creek has been beautifully preserved and looks much as it did when Rawlings lived and wrote there. Visitors can walk through the rusty iron gate and into the orchard described in her writings, tour the house where she lived and entertained an array of famous visitors including poet Robert Frost, novelist Margaret Mitchell and actor Gregory Peck.

Tours of the house are now given Thursday through Sunday, but the grounds can be explored daily. To learn more, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/rawlings.

St. Augustine, Florida - Part Nine

Continuing our look at the historic city of St. Augustine, Florida, this is Castle Warden. One of the most popular attractions in the old city, it is the home of the nation's first Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum.

The unusual Moorish Revival castle was built in 1887 as a winter home by William G. Warden, a business partner of John D. Rockefeller and Henry Flagler. Prominent in business and community affairs in St. Augustine, Warden's castle became a hub of winter activity in the city and remained in the hands of his family until the 1930s.

It was remodeled in 1941 and converted into a grand hotel that hosted many prominent visitors. Famed novelist Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and her husband, owner of the hotel, kept a penthouse apartment on the top floor. She is famed for contributions to Florida literature that included The Yearling, Cross Creek and South Moon Under. (Read comments to see more about this).

Another prominent visitor to the hotel was the famed newspaper writer Robert S. Ripley, noted for his popular Believe It or Not! items that featured unusual facts and ran in newspapers around the world. Ripley tried to buy the castle, but was turned down.

After his death in 1949, however, his estate managed to obtain title to the landmark and the nation's first Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum opened here in 1950, giving the castle an usual role in American pop culture.

To read more about St. Augustine and Castle Warden, please visit http://www.exploresouthernhistory.com/ and look for the St. Augustine heading.