FLORIDA FRONTIER: Florida Cowboys
0294, Apalachicola Cracker Cattle Round-up
Apalachicola National Forest provides a glimpse of pioneer life, when "Cracker" cattle ran wild among longleaf pines, palmetto and wiregrass. Explorer William Bartram travelled to Florida in the 1800s, describing vistas where he could see for miles beneath the canopy of pines. Descendents of original cracker cattle survive today, managed here by Jake Summers from the saddle of his cracker horse. On land leased from the Department of Forestry, his cattle grow and reproduce without supplemental feed in a landscape where modern livestock would poorly survive.
