Wewahitchka's America's 250th Festival is no longer on October 10. The Northwest Regional Library System says the festival was postponed because of weather and will now be held Saturday, November 14, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Central. The location is the same: Charles Whitehead Public Library at 314 N. Second St. The festival celebrates the country's 250th birthday. It will be held a short walk up the same street from the spot where Gulf County first had a courthouse, and where the county was run for forty years.
That gives the new date a bit more meaning. The library sits on the street where Gulf County's own story began, and the extra five weeks are time to go see it.
Two Dates Now Run on Different Clocks
The postponement pulled apart two events that were planned to happen together. The library's community scavenger hunt started on schedule. The NWRLS listing gives its window as October 2 at 9 a.m. through October 10 at 11 a.m. CDT. You pick up clues at the Wewahitchka library, visit historical sites around town, and return your form to the library. The first 50 people to finish get a commemorative 250th coin. The festival listing on visitgulf.com limits coins to one per family.
The prize drawing moved with the festival. NWRLS says the scavenger hunt winner will be announced on November 14, and you have to be there to win. A separate Gulf County tourism page for the hunt still lists the drawing for October 10 at noon. The library's notice is the newer one. Call the library at (850) 639-2419 if you want to confirm before you count on a date.
As of today, October 8, the clue window has about two days left. The festival is five weeks away.
The Corner That Ran a County
The clues themselves aren't posted online. NWRLS only says they lead to "important historical sites in Wewahitchka." Nobody outside the library knows the stops, so the places below are documented landmarks, not a confirmed list of hunt stops.
The best-known landmark is on the same street as the library. The Gulf County Old Courthouse marker stands at North 2nd Street and Court Avenue, near 222 North 2nd Street, according to the Historical Marker Database. Its inscription covers the town's forty years as county seat in a few sentences:
"The South Portion of Calhoun County was cut out in 1925 to form Gulf County. Wewahitchka was chosen as the county seat. The first county business was transacted in a local business house until this court house was built in 1927, and served until the county seat moved to Port St. Joe in 1965."
The marker also lists Gulf County's first commissioners: J.J. McDaniel, chairman, plus H.E. Wish, S.F. VanHorn, A.D. Lawson, G.A. Patton and W.L. Mowbray. E.C. Lewis was the first county judge. The Gulf County Golden Anniversary Commission and the St. Joseph Historical Society put up the marker in 1975, ten years after the county seat moved south to the coast.
The Wewahitchka Centennial marker stands at the same corner and covers the years before the county. It says Fort Place, also called Richard's Fort, came before the town. The name Wewahitchka means "water eyes." Rev. John W. Richards named the settlement in 1875, after a log church and school had been built to serve about 25 families. The marker lists how people made a living here early on: citrus, apiaries, livestock, timber, fishing, hunting, and steamboat traffic on the Apalachicola River. It also says the town's first newspaper, the Calhoun Times, started in 1883.
So one corner of Second Street holds the town's 1875 founding and its forty years as county seat. A short walk up the street, the library is getting ready for November 14.
The Fall Calendar Along Second Street
Second Street hosts more than one event this fall. Here is what's scheduled on or near it, with the dates now listed.
| Date | Event | Where | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Through Oct. 10, 11 a.m. | America 250 scavenger hunt clue window | Charles Whitehead Public Library, 314 N. Second St. | Clues at the library; first 50 finishers get a coin |
| Oct. 31, 10 a.m. | Halloween at the Library | Charles Whitehead Public Library | Free; costumes, trick-or-treating, games, prizes |
| Oct. 31, 5 p.m. | Trick or Treat on 2nd Street | Second Street | Free; street closed to traffic |
| Nov. 14, 9 a.m.–1 p.m. CT | America's 250th Festival | Library and library lawn | Exhibits, car show, vendors, scavenger hunt prize drawing |
Halloween falls in the middle of the gap. Halloween at the Library on October 31 starts at 10 a.m. Trick or Treat on 2nd Street starts at 5 p.m. that evening, with the street closed to cars. The trick-or-treat route runs down the street where the courthouse marker stands.
What November 14 Puts on the Library Lawn
The Friends of the Wewahitchka Library and the Wewahitchka Historical Society are presenting the festival. The event is free. Here is the schedule as posted:
- 9 a.m. Doors open with local historical artifacts and exhibits, a community slideshow, a community quilt, book displays, and children's activities indoors and out.
- 11 a.m. Local author and historian Dale Cox talks about the history of the Chipola River.
- Noon Voting closes for the car, truck and dune buggy show on the library lawn.
- 12:30 p.m. Car show trophies are awarded.
- 1 p.m. The festival ends. Food and craft vendors are there all morning.
One thing to check before you bring a vehicle: a standalone listing for the Friends of the Wewahitchka Library Car, Truck & Dune Buggy Show still shows October 10. The main festival page includes the car show in the November 14 program.
Cox's talk ties the festival to the town's location. The event listing for his presentation describes the Chipola as both a barrier and a travel route for Native Americans, Spanish missionaries, British soldiers and American frontiersmen.
Where the River Story Continues Off Second Street
Several landmarks from Cox's subject are a short drive from the library.
The Dead Lakes. A State Archives of Florida photo record on Florida Memory explains the name. The Apalachicola River naturally blocked the lower Chipola, the water rose in the swamp, and the trees died. The standing dead trees gave the Dead Lakes their name, and later dams kept the water high. The photograph, "Cypress at Dead Lakes swamp near Wewahitchka," dates to about 1969.
Fort Place and the St. Joseph & Iola Railroad. In Honeyville, a marker at Florida Route 71 and Roberts Cemetery Road, near 4523 FL-71, marks Fort Place. The fort was built in the early 1830s as a two-acre refuge. The marker says no remains are visible. It also describes the St. Joseph & Iola, completed in 1839, as Florida's third steam railroad and the longest in Territorial Florida. The marker went up in 1963. A second marker for the same railroad, once in Wewahitchka, is listed by HMDB as confirmed missing. The Honeyville marker is the one you can still visit.
Lake Alice Park. At 111 Lake Alice Park Drive, the park hosts the Tupelo Honey Festival each May. It has water access, trails, a pavilion, and the Preacher Glass Boat Ramp.
The honey trade. The centennial marker counts apiaries among the town's earliest livelihoods, and the records show the trade continuing. Florida Memory has a May 1960 photograph of the Whitfield Apiaries tupelo honey loading dock in Wewahitchka. L.L. Lanier & Son's traces its tupelo harvest in the Apalachicola River swamps back five generations to Benjamin T. Lanier. The family's account counts the spring 1998 crop as its 100th. The sources reviewed don't list public visiting hours, so check before you stop by.
Who Keeps the Second Street Story
The Wewahitchka Historical Society, co-presenter of the festival, was organized in June 2021. Its Florida State Genealogical Society listing says the group meets at 6 p.m. on the third Thursday at Corner Cafe on Main Street. Its projects include the Iola Cemetery and preserving the old courthouse, local cemeteries and artifacts. That listing dates to 2023, so confirm the meeting details before you go. The society's photo gallery shows trips to the old Iola railroad bed and cemetery, plus the installation of an Iola Cemetery sign. It also shows a visit to the remains of a grist and sawmill at Stonemill Creek. That site is on private property and isn't open to the public without permission.
The society's work keeps coming back to the courthouse block, the subject of the 1975 marker. On November 14, the society brings its exhibits up the street to the library lawn.
Wewahitchka's history is a big part of what makes owning here different from owning anywhere else in Gulf County. If you live in town and want to know what your home is worth today, The Joe Real Estate can put together a local valuation. Get Your Free Home Valuation and see where your home stands.
