Silver River Museum

Today after lunch we drove over to the Silver River Museum that is here in the State Park. The museum is only open to the public on weekends. During the week the museum is open for 4th & 7th grade students to visit and there are classrooms next to the museum for the students.

The admission to the museum is $2 for adults and we weren't quite sure what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised and impressed with the displays we saw in the museum.

We were first greeted by a 12,000-year-old Columbian Mammoth

From Silver River State Park

and the jaws of Carchardon Megalodon - the giant, prehistoric ancestor of the Great White Shark.

From Silver River State Park

There are displays of prehistoric animals that have been found in Florida, Spanish explorers, Indian tribes who inhabited Florida, the Seminole Indian Wars, the Civil War and up to modern times.

From Silver River State Park

After visiting the museum we walked out to the replica of a Florida Cracker Village. The buildings weren't open, so we couldn't go inside any of them. But we enjoyed walking around and looking at them. One building even had horseshoes used as handles for the shutters.

From Silver River State Park

From Silver River State Park

The original colonial pioneer settlers in Florida were referred to as "crackers" and people whose families have lived in Florida for many generations may refer to themselves as "Florida Crackers". The term may be derived from "to crack a joke" or in colonial times it sometimes meant "boastful" or "entertaining conversation".