Norman Harwood a very wealthy man from Minneapolis moved here around 1870 and bought the Damietta and Rozetta plantations as well as other land totaling 40,000 acres. Despite the fact the plantations were all burned and in ruins Norman Harwood was interested in the land to raise oranges and cattle so he placed everything in the name of his wife. 

Harwood raked up alot of debts when he was in Minnesota and he left for Florida not paying any of them. He built a small Coquina home with a tile roof and eventually the debts became to much even while he residing in Florida. He could not pay his debts it led to depression so he took poison and died so that his wife Susan could collect the $45,000 life insurance policy. He was buried in a Coquina rock grave just 25 feet from the house and later the remains were exhumed and moved to an Atlanta cemetery. The empty grave then was used for a moonshine cellar and even a home for a pet alligator. They say that the Harwood house was also used in the earlier 1900s as a land sales office.

A tree that is rumored to be the oldest in the south and large called the Fairchild Oak some say its 400 years old just as I read its 500, 800 and 2,000 years old. The age of the tree are estimates but nobody is sure as Steve said he estimated the circumference to be 30 feet around. None the less it has stood through hurricanes, the civil war, the Spanish American War, The Seminole Wars and was there when the Timucuan and Seminole Tribes fished and hunted off the land. It stood all the way from native Americans living off the land to plantations thriving to them burning down and vegetation reclaiming the area.  Some say that this tree is haunted perhaps because Harwood committed suicide near it. 

A coquina boulder with a bronze plaque was dedicated in 1956 while the Damietta plantation was owned by the Portland Cement Company.  The tree bears the names of James Ormond the former owner and David Fairchild who was a botanist that admired and often visited the tree. From his research and studies he theorized that the tree was a natural cross between a live and laurel oak which would make it quite a rarity.

The tree stands over 68 feet high and its spread is over 300 feet with limbs that are growing on the ground. Many small ruins left over from the Damietta plantations surround the tree we did not find them since there are many are hidden under brush and vegetation. However the main trail which runs out to Bulowville starts at the Fairchild Oak.

The oak tree sits in what today is a park acquired in 1981 which contains 3,230 acres of hardwood swamp, salt marsh, upland forest and tidal creeks. There is is even an area with pine woods.  The area back in ancient times was one of the only oak forest in the state of Florida. Perhaps the tree is a reminder that at one time many oaks ran alone the old Dixie highway shading the weary travelers. 

From my experience here there is ALOT of energy surrounding the tree and the house. You might want to call it more of a magickal feeling or mystical such as your energy repelling the energy of the tree. Even in the dark of night you can make out the massive tree. But perhaps what is more eerie is the coquina house which sits near a trail. You can only imagine what it was like at one time to live in the middle of the woods away from society in such a house. It perhaps was to much for even Harwood. But the Fairchild Oak has many tales perhaps because it sat there silently watching history and time pass by.

© By

Rick-AngelOfThyNight

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