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1. Odena / Depot CreekU.S. Highway 98
Although today little remains at Odena/Depot Creek, it has a rich and intriguing history. Here on the only high ground on Depot Creek was the terminus of the St. Joseph and Lake Wimico Railroad, the first steam-operated railroad in Florida. This 9-mile-long line was part of the city of St. Joseph’s plan to lure the cotton trade away from Apalachicola. The railroad was to transport cotton arriving by barge from the Apalachicola River through Lake Wimico and Depot Creek to St. Joseph. Passengers arriving by steamboat also traveled on the line to the then flourishing city. The railroad maintained extensive wharf facilities and warehouses at the Depot. Despite all the efforts of its promoters, the line was short-lived (1836-1839) as barges kept running aground in Lake Wimico. In 1909, the Apalachicola Northern Railroad named the site Odena and built a side track station to pick up turpentine. Odena was the third of five side tracks from the newly established Port St. Joe to Apalachicola. In the 1930s, C.H. Johnson, originally the manager for the W.J. Belin turpentine company, built a compound at Odena complete with a large house, a pen for pet deer, and a turpentine still. Mr. Johnson prepared a 2-trail mule and wagon road, originally an Indian trail to Thirteen Mile on the Gulf Highway.
Listen to Apalachicola native George Core recall visiting the Johnsons at Odena in the 1930s:
During Prohibition in the 1920s and 1930s, honey rum was big business along the creeks in Gulf and Franklin counties. George Core recalls the story of a Mrs. Nightingale, a large German woman, and a Mr. “Beneque,” “a little fellow.” They had a house in Apalachicola, two houses and an apiary in the Lake Wimico/Depot Creek area.
Listen as Mr. Core recalls the rivalry between “bankers” in Apalachicola, Port St. Joe, and Wewahitchka, with elements of intrigue and even murder:
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