New Smyrna was founded as a city in 1768 by Turnbull which you can read about here. Click Here: Turnbull Colony and Ruins rather then have me type out the entire history its all there.  But what I am focusing on in this investigation is New Smyrna's downtown or mainland side or Canal Street where there is a little park called Christmas Park.

Near downtown was a fort called Mosquito, Fort Hernandez and Fort New Smyrna. They still are here today the ruins that is. Along with the old stone wharf which is famous in the area. But the civil war was very active on the mainland side and men did die. When downtown was built up it was burned by the Seminole Indians lets face it people died in those fires. 

Not to far away is a place called Massacre Bluff where a French schooner sank between New Smyrna and Cape Canaveral. The survivors started to Hike to St. Augustine where they reached almost the inlet so they camped for the night. The Indians seen the campfire at night and killed the entire party. 

The park which we focused on is very small located right downtown. It is the home of the Santa Claus house and has a small stage. Of course the house is gone but we did see the stage. It was funny or ironic that here it is Easter morning and we were in Christmas Park.

Our first investigation we did not get a chance to investigate further into Canal Street so we may have to return. There is many old shops and its very eerie downtown with the dark shops all around you. Not far away is the old wharf, a fort, and many old mansions. There is alot of history here the Timucuans roamed these lands, Indian mounds, civil war history, and Seminole attacks. New Smyrna is the second oldest city in the state of Florida perhaps even one of the oldest settlements in  the country besides St. Augustine. Turnbull's house was located very close to Canal Street where he ran a plantation.

The street named after the Turnbull Canal was covered in 1925 it ran under what is now the northern sidewalk with a bridge just east of the Chamber Of Commerce downtown. The canal was an obsession of Turnbull's as he was impressed with Egyptian irrigation. The land was called Turnbull's Hammock where the river nearby was called the Hillsborough where the irrigation would be supplied from.

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Rick-AngelOfThyNight

Well What do you know dreams do come true the Easter Bunny Delivers just a few hours later after the investigation!