The Carr Family Cabin
SEPTEMBER 2011 UPDATE: Thanks to a great diversity of skills and generous support, the once-dilapidated Carr family cabin has been restored! Visitors who attend the Umatilla Heritage Day on Saturday, Oct. 8 will have the opportunity to learn more about the restoration and to visit the cabin via regular shuttles and guided interpretation. For more information about this all-day event, contact the Umatilla Historical Society at 352.669.3317 or visit their website, umatillachamber.org.
CARR VIRTUAL TOUR: Members of Equinox Documentaries' Board of Directors and Advisory Council are working with a diverse committee that includes former students of Dr. Carr, educators and community leaders to develop an interactive website that will feature a "virtual tour" of the cabin, the loop trail, and nearby Lake Nicotoon. The website and virtual tour will include curriculum and will play a pivotal role in spreading the news of the cabin, its original use, and the role of the entire Carr family in science and conservation. Check back soon for more updates.
The Carr Family Cabin —
Celebrating a Forgotten Place
in the Florida Scrub
The Carr Family Cabin: Celebrating a Forgotten Place in the Florida Scrub is a short film celebrating the "Cracker" style cabin in the Ocala National Forest used extensively by renowned Florida naturalist Archie Carr and his family. It was produced by Equinox Documentaries, in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service (Ocala National Forest), Umatilla Historical Society and Friends of the Carr Cabin.
The film vividly describes the creation and use of a Cracker-style cabin retreat built in the late 1930’s after Pastor Archibald Carr and his wife moved to Umatilla, Florida. Constructed on the shores of Lake Nicotoon in the Ocala National Forest, the little cabin afforded three generations of Carrs a lasting relationship with an authentic Florida that tourists seldom see.
For Archie Carr, Jr. a young grad student in zoology, the subtropical landscape was a natural treasure trove where a scientist could fashion ideas from the unstudied terrain. Archie went on to become a world expert in sea turtles, helping the rest of us understand the concept of “conservation biology” revealed by the wide ecological range of the reptiles.
Archie’s wife, Marjorie Harris Carr, saw the devastation the Cross Florida Barge canal was doing to the Ocklawaha River nearby, and organized opposition to it — thereby galvanizing the state’s environmental movement. Archie’s younger brother Tom became a respected radio astronomer in his own right, and each of Archie Carr, Jr.’s five children went on to become accomplished scientists or conservationists.
The tract was recently donated to the U.S. Forest Service by Dr. Tom Carr. The public, including school children, would be introduced to a living classroom where the iconic cabin and landscape allows a rare glimpse into the ethic of Florida’s “first family” of conservationists.