Friday, November 7, 2014

Big and Little Talbot Islands

Little Talbot Island can be found 17 miles northeast of Jacksonville, on the A1A. It's 2,500 acres of state park property, with Big Talbot Island and Long Island nearby. Despite the nomenclature, Little Talbot Island is actually larger than Big Talbot Island due to erosion and nature's shifting whims of sand deposition.

Despite its rustic swamp-beach island appearance, amenities include a full–facility campground, beachside picnic pavilions, bath houses, boat ramps, nature trails, a playground for children, and a rental facility for bicycles, canoes, and other gear.

Big Talbot and Little Talbot are two of only a handful of barrier islands that still remain undeveloped in Florida. The Native American Timucua tribe were, so ethnologists say, the first humans to inhabit these islands. When the French arrived here in 1562, these islands were claimed as colonial territory. However, England and Spain claimed the islands as well, and in 1735, General James Oglethorpe named the Talbot Islands in honor of Charles Talbot, Lord High Chancellor of England. (I'm still trying to find out what the Timucua called them, and suggest we think about renaming them back to that.)

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